i'm a born swimmer...

as a child at swimming lessons, i hated water. i couldn't open my eyes under water. my hair got in my face. water got stuck in my ears. i couldn't get enough breath. i swallowed more chlorinated water than a child should.

yesterday was no different. i began adult swimming lessons. i couldn't open my eyes under water. my hair got in my face. water got stuck in my ears. i couldn't get enough breath. i swallowed more chlorinated water than an adult should.

why did i sign up? well, totally out of rebecca character, i decided that i should try something new and do it alone with no friend support. i need to be able to swim this year for triathlon #2 because i didn't really swim so much in triathlon #1. i mostly walked along the bottom of the lake and moved my arms as though i was swimming. in fact, i never put my face in the water. so this year, things need to be different.

there are 4 other ladies in my class. 3 moms who came together and who don't swim. another girl my age who, like me, swims good enough but wants to improve all her strokes. so the instructor sends me and this girl off to swim laps and then works with the other 3 ladies. then she checks on us and tells us something that we need to do differently. then she works with the other 3. in one 45-min class, i'd have to say that i definitely improved. (kara will be happy to know) i can turn my head to the side to breathe instead of forwards. but i swallowed a lot of water. and my eyes were sore. on thursday, i'm definitley taking goggles. but overall, it was a positive experience. just being forced to stay in the pool that long and swim was good for me.

highlight of the night was when the instructor asked me if i wanted to work on my back crawl for awhile. she probably noticed that i looked more like i was drowning in my front crawl than swimming. i turned on my back, she showed me the stroke and i took off. her words? "you're a born swimmer!" haha.

one class down, 7 more to go. :)