In batman begins, Alfred tells Bruce Wayne “know your limits master Wayne” to which Bruce Wayne responds “batman has no limits”. Alfred’s response: “but you do”
I use this reference because I’ve always believed that there are no limits to the things I could do but on Tuesday, I learned a valuable lesson.
In May, after finishing up the Malibu Creek trail run, my friend Dave mentioned his next event would be a duathlon the playa del rey, which consisted of a 1000-meter swim and a 5k run. I said I would certainly be interested in doing it because swimming was my first love and I felt like it was a breeze for me. Well, I completely forgot that the event was approaching and Dave reminded me last week that it was coming up on the 18th. In my mind, I was ready. What’s a 1000-meter swim to me anyway? As I recall, I told one of my friends that I could do that in my sleep. What I did not factor in was the 2-year drought I have had from swimming because jumping in the pool at Bally’s in vegas does not count.
On Monday, I decided to refresh my memory of just how long a 1000-meters was and realized this was not a distance to be taken lightly especially considering the swim would be in the ocean. So my plan was to hit the pool everyday this week to so by the time Sunday got here, I’d be finely tuned for the race. I bought a new pair of goggles on Monday and planned to hit the pool Tuesday at 6am. I got up at 5:30 Tuesday, hopped on my bike and rode down to the Culver City pool. I thought I’d be the only one at the pool but to my surprise there were about 8 people who beat me to the punch. I got out to the pool and of course I seem to be the only person out there in regular shorts. Speedos have become the suit of choice now but that did not faze me. Looking unsure and confused, I didn’t know which end to go to or which lane to hop in but I spotted the slow lane sign and hopped in.
There was only one guy swimming in the lane so I waited for him to get down to the other end before I started my lap. I went out strong and felt a little rusty and a little stiff but felt like I had my old stroke back but then something profound happen. I hit the halfway mark and noticed I was already a bit winded. This couldn’t be. As I hit I got down to the other end and hit the wall, I turned to go back and already felt like I had swam 4 laps. It was at this point I knew I was in trouble. I got to the wall where I originally started and stopped. I took my goggles off, looked at my watch, looked around and noticed the lifeguard who was a man of at least 60 years of age was looking in my direction. Now I felt the pressure to perform. I put my goggles back on and took a deep breath and off I went again. No sooner as I hit the middle of the pool, my arms were on fire as if I had lifted weights for six hours. My pace began to slow considerably and I began to realize that my long hiatus from the pool was starting to show big time. I made it to the wall breathing hard, and all dazed and confused. I looked up and the old man at the lifeguard stand was looking straight down at me again. I realized the old man probably thought he was going to have to come in to save me.
I tried to summon the courage and show some grit so I started off on another lap and now I was barely able to even make it to the wall. I was falling at least 2 feet short of the wall on each lap. I had to play it off by looking at my watch as if I was timing my laps. As I glared down at the other end, I saw a torpedo looking black guy preparing to jump into my lane but he seemed to waiting watch me and get a glimpse of skills or shall I say lack there of. I figured I had to show some heart so I began to swim back down. At this point my arms were like noodles. I was gulping water, swimming wildly through the lane but I made it and stopped.
Mr. Torpedo as I call him, greeted me, tightened his goggles and jumped in and was smoothly off in the water. He looked like a tri-athlete, which I thought I was but quickly realized at that moment I was simply a runner and none of that mattered in the water.
I figured I would push for at least two more laps but when I made it down to the other end I just felt deflated. So deflated I decided to swim my next lap with a backstroke all the way down to the other end. When I pushed off the wall, I was smooth and felt like I was gliding but I glanced to glance to the right and saw I was barely half way through the lap. I was so tired that I stopped mid lap and being the middle was about 9 feet deep, I had to keep swimming so I turned around and swam conventionally, which once again prompted the look of concern or maybe it was the look of shame from the old man on the lifeguard stand. Either way, I was done.
My arms were so tired I could barely pull myself up out of the water. I quickly changed and rode back home in disgust. I had to come to grips that if I attempted to swim on Sunday at the duathlon, they could be pulling me in with a jet ski or I would drown trying to complete the swim. My ego still planned to go to the race and swim no matter what but I finally realized that I do have a limit and my experience at the pool Tuesday morning proved that so I made a very difficult decision to pull out of the swim but I would still be able to run in a separate 5k event.
I have to thank the old man on the lifeguard stand at the pool because his glares down at me has given me the fuel I needed to motivate myself to get back to actually training in the pool regularly and setting an attainable goal of doing the Malibu duathlon in September or the Los Angeles Triathlon in October.
I have been humbled but my will remains strong.
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