14 years ago, when I was a teenager, during one summer I used to go to a local club in Buenos Aires called Pinoccio and swim on the pool. After a swimming session I would sit on a bench and read a book my parents got me for Christmas. I asked for a book about Java, but I got one about HTML and in hindsight, it was good. My parents were making good decisions for me, like when they got me a CZ Spectrum instead of a Commodore 64.
I spent more time sitting on that bench than in the swimming pool. One day though, my grandmother asked me something like “How many lengths are you going to do today? a hundred?”. I think I was doing about twenty a session. That day I did my twenty and kept on going and kept on going and I didn’t stop until I broke into the three figures. It took me ages, but I did it.
A little girl actually asked me “Aren’t you tired?”. Yes! No! I don’t know actually. I still feel the same way. When I run, I reach a point where I collapse, I can’t run anymore. But with swimming it’s not the same. I feel like I can go on and on and on… but since that day, 14 years ago, I never managed to push myself to swim 2.5km in one session. When I started swimming in 2010, I never managed to go beyond 1km.
On March this year I started swimming again. This time I was taking it much more seriously. I’m swimming every day I can (it’s generally about 4 or 5 days a week). After ramping up I reached the comfortable point of 1km a day. But on the weekends… on the weekends I try to do more. For years I felt that I wasn’t as good as I used to be. I wasn’t the guy that could swim 2.5km anymore. I was less.
Last Saturday I broke my year personal best and swam 2.2km. I was destroyed. I wasn’t sure if on Sunday I could even do my daily 1km, but I did it. And I kept on going… wouldn’t it be awesome if I manage to do 2.2km again? Generally Saturday is the day I do the most and on Sunday I go slower because I’m so tired. Doing on Sunday as much as on Saturday would have felt awesome. So I kept on going until I reached 2.2km.
Only a little bit more and I would have a new personal best this year. I did 10 more lengths to reach 2.4km… oh… I’m so close. Don’t stop me now! 10 more lengths and I’m now on 2.6km. I stopped. Did that happened? Did I just broke my own record? That one that was hovering above me remind me I’m not as good as I used to? Did I just break it? I did.
Last year I broke my running record, the one I had since the day I was practicing Taekwon-do. This year I broke my weight record (my lowest adult weight ever). And now I broke my swimming record. Right now, at this very moment, I’m the best I ever were. And I don’t intend on stopping anytime soon.
Update 2012-05-27: I made a new personal best, 3km:
I’m really proud… and tried… I’m going to lay down over there… wake me up… tomorrow…
