I finished up 100 miles in the pool this week. Halfway to my goal, but slightly behind schedule. I’ll make it up in the fall when the pool opens back up on weekends – or when I eventually go on vacation. It’s gotten much easier to do a mile, but it still takes a chunk of time of my day when I would usually rather be playing video games. But every so often I get just the right combination of rest, food, time, and energy and the laps just slide on by effortlessly.

Last weekend, I got invited to a pool party. The water was really too cold for much swimming and only two of the other adults got in the water – and only for a short time. The kids that were there, however, couldn’t get enough of the water and I was in there with them most of the time. I discovered the key to swimming with a bunch of kids in a relatively small pool.

  1. Go underwater a lot. You are less likely to have a pool toy thrown in the face that way.
  2. When you go underwater, be prepared with twice as much oxygen as you think you’ll actually need. This is handy when you get stepped on or kicked in the head.
  3. If there is a pile up in a corner, stay underwater and wait it out. If you try to escape, you’re likely to kick a kid and suddenly you’re the bad guy.
  4. Somebody is going to cry at some point. Try not to let it be you.

I think everyone had fun and one of the kids decided I was his new best friend. This was because I pulled him around on the pool float for what may well have been 100 years and then later folded him a paper crane. Kids are easy.