Crawling to Victory

Some time back I got an off the cuff free instruction by a teacher at the Y on how to do what I call the crawl and when I do Elizabeth looks at me like I am nuts, or at least I assume so as we are on the phone (for future generations this was when talking on the phone meant you could hear but not see the person). She and everyone else calls it freestyle.

Anyway, it is a stroke I never mastered. I could never get the breathing down. When I go swimming I do backstroke, breast stroke, side stroke, anything but freestyle. OK, no butterfly either.

Since I have so much alone time in the pool, I have started practicing some more and lo and behold, tonight I did 3 laps. OK, only two were consecutive and it was really 1 7/8 but I think all I need now is to build my lungs.

I remember being able to hold my breath an awfully long time in the pools and lakes of PA and upstate NY so I know it can be done. And that was when I had asthma. So I am crawling my way to victory. It only took me 50 years (not counting the years before my first swim lesson). At this rate I should have supporting myself completed well before I am seventy five!!! Yeah!!!

I always start in the 2nd from the left lane because since there are no lane markers I tend to swim diagonally and do not want to hit the side of the pool. Of course when I do the crawl, I can see the line on the bottom.