He swims better than me
Why is that?
Why is it, and I don’t think I just speak for myself here, that swimming can sometimes be the red headed stepchild of triathlon?
I’m sure the reasons are legion, mostly because it’s not what gets most people into triathlon in the first place and they have to learn to swim if they ever want to finish. I’ll admit as well, I’m one of them. While I sur eI would have said I could swim pre-triathlon, from my current perspective I would label it as I could barely swim. I could survive, but not “really” swim. Perhaps it’s because of all three it takes time to learn, patience, focus and lots of practice. Everyone likes to ride a bike, and we all learned to run not long after we could walk. It’s natural, while swimming is a foreign matter to our normal state.
Oddly though I feel a sense of fulfillment from a long swim much more than I do from the other two. Certainly I like endorphins it brings on, many of us are addicted to that, but more than that I think it’s the mear act of breaking me out of my comfort zone. It’s part completing the task, part feeling the progress, bust mostly just fact that it doesn’t come easily (at all) to me that keeps me coming back. I like the fact that it difficult, even a short swim can be rough, if it were easy everybody would be doing it. It comes down to this: If I only ran, I’d be a runner. If only rode, I’d be a cyclist. Because I swim too, I’m a triathlete.
