Swimmers take your mark

The phrase, "swimmers take your mark" was what an official said before every race I ever swam. I began to hear these words when I was eight and continued to hear them until I turned nineteen. This made swimming and competing a big part of my life during my youth and childhood. Migranes and two hour practices for six days a week was enough to tire me out, so, I decided to stop swimming competively after tenth grade and focus more on school and studying the violin. Even though I left competive swiming behind I never forgot it. Just over a month ago I began to train for the Breezy Point Triathlon and within the first ten minutes of being in the pool a flood of memories came back to me. I found myself back during my swimming years freestyling my way in and out of six different pools during the morning and at night, indoors and outdoors, gliding through water anywhere from 65 to 89 degrees. My memories of being in the pool brought back the sound of "Go! Go!" (people cheering for me on the pool deck) when I went as fast as I could and emptied myself of everything I had. These cheers made me remember the feeling of pain that goes along with being physically drained and not even coming in top 16.During my training for Breezy Point I get to deal with these memories. As I retrace my strokes of the past I must find a way to swim that is not painfully fulfilling. "Swimmers take your mark,” the official said... “Ha” I thought as I turned into lap twenty, this race is different.