Diving Back In

I missed my regular Tuesday morning run for a work meeting, so on my way out to a business event tonight I decided at the last minute to go for a swim afterward and grabbed my gym bag.

My forays into the water the last few months all felt slow and awkward. It's been as if my body forgot how to move in the water, it wasn't my friend anymore. Smooth and strong gave way to clumsy and wrong. I didn't want to be one of those triathletes that regarded the swim as a necessary evil, but that's the path I've been on. And the worse each swim went, the longer I went between them.

Tonight the warm water welcomed me like an old friend, and wrapped itself around me like a lover. I was slow and relaxed and felt the water sliding by; gone was the frantic churning of the last few months. There were moments where it wasn't smooth - like the awkward bump of noses when you kiss a long lost lover again for the first time - but the muscle memory awakened from its hibernation and all the good feelings came rushing back.

The water chastised me with plugged ears and leaking goggles, sending me a message with nagging little troubles. I hadn't been true, I had been away too long. I had to pay for my little love affair with running, a new love that's kept me away from my first, the water.

Granted, my stroke would probably make Terry Laughlin cringe. But for now it's what I've got, and today it was more than enough. Today I found what I've been missing for months; I knew it was gone but I didn't know where to look so I'm glad it found me. Just in time for my next race.