I had a not-great day. It wasn’t hugely bad – I didn’t get fired, arrested, or struck by a meteor (though that would have made a great story if I’d survived it) – but it wasn’t great either. Just the usual stuff that wore me down.
I hit the pool after work and of course it was crowded. One of the recreational swimmers offered to share his lane and I did – but he insisted on doing the backstroke and was “swimming wide”. I scraped my knuckles on the lane divider more than once, but eventually he was done and got out. Leaving the lane to just me.
I kicked it up a notch now that I could stretch out and made some progress towards my goal for the day – 42 laps.
At around lap 34, I saw that the woman in the lane next to me – who I could tell was a phenomenal swimmer – come to a halt mid-lane and clutched her leg.
I stopped too and swam back a bit so that I was even with her.
“You okay?” I asked, and she said she was, but was still struggling with a painful leg cramp. Since the lifeguards were – for some reason – all the way down at the other end of the pool watching over the swim team… I decided I’d watch over her.
I tread water and waited to see if she would recover or get need a rescue. When she fought her way past the leg cramp and resumed her swim, I did as well.
As much as I like being focused on my swim and getting away from literally everyone else, it was important that I stop and – just for a moment – pay attention.