My best and worst experience

How can it be that something that feels so good doesn’t at the same time? Well I’m gonna tell you…

         To me, the best experience is when you finish something, for me it’s a race, and looking up at the score board right before you get out of the water, seeing your new time, faster than before.  You know you just gave your all and it paid off with a new time for the next meet.  You know you did your best and that your coaches and family and friends are proud of you.  They give you a hug or a high five, telling you “Good job! I’m proud of you,” and you feel on top of the world with joy. 

         During the race you were excited too, knowing that you just paced someone who was seated faster than you by multiple seconds and that you can actually do that, it comes as a surprise to you.  You feel proud of yourself when you take a breath and see all the people cheering, some for you, some for others, and just taking it all in as there are people here who want me to succeed in this, I’m going to make them proud of me and then realizing you do that when you get out is reward enough for anything.  Before the races though, is not really any good experience unless you get a pep talk or something by friends or coaches who realize you’re freaking out, shaking even, and want you to do well.  You calm down just enough to get up on the block for the right race and get a good start.  This is the downside…

        This is also a really bad experience because once you finish this race, it may not be for everything you finish, and you are in pain.  Your legs feel numb and you’re getting your heart rate down by taking deep breaths and going to the warm down pool to, well, warm down.  Your physically and mentally tired, having had to figure out how to pace and if you can keep up with the much faster person in the lane next to you and if you are going to not do well or not make the coaches proud, if your goggles are falling off or filling up with water, if you’ll hit or miss the divider, there are many more… 

        During the race you are in pain as well, because you can’t just breathe every stroke but you can’t hold your breath a whole lap because you need oxygen.  Your lungs hate you and your legs feel like they’re going to fall off, yet somehow at the end of your race you put your all into the finish, giving it all you’ve got.  If you’re race was 30 seconds, less than that, 2 minutes, 6 minutes, however long it may be, you are just as tired for you have just given your all and it had hopefully paid off in some way or another.

        Before the race is a whole different story; some people get excited, some nervous, some sick, some are just impassive thinking it’s just this one thing, nothing too bad.  I myself shake a little and have a pit of nerves, sometimes they aren’t too bad sometimes I wish I never swam, that nothing comes out of feeling like this.  But that is where I’m wrong. 

        I make people proud of me and help my team with points, maybe, and I get to know that I didn’t mess up.  I didn’t fail at something.  I’m actually OK at a sport for once.  I know I am because I just dropped time and I hear my coach say “good race, Wendy” as I am getting our like I heard him say “Let’s go, Wendy” as I stood up on the block.  It’s an overall really good feeling after and before some bad ones to know that they have faith that you can do well.

        So sure the pros outweigh the cons, at least in my opinion, but I would have to say that the best and yet worst experience that I’ve ever had would have to be the time before, during, and after a race.  You go through feelings from sick with fear to elatedness of dropping time, whether it be less than second, less time than you can motion in, or 8 seconds, you know your work paid off.  I’m no Olympian, not going to be, but from this experience you can feel like you just won a gold medal and its close enough in my book.