Short Swimming Story

A friend asked me recently why colleges have such a hard time recruiting kickers & what’s so hard about kicking.

So look. I’ve been swimming competitively off & on for more than 35 years. I’m 46; I started competing when I was 10. This is not new.

We did the Swim Across the Sound earlier this month. 15.5 miles, took us more than 7 hours. And in the middle of Long Island Sound, in front of max 7 people — just my teammates & our boat crew — I was a freaking basket case. Right before my first leg, guys were like, “Are you okay?” 

I *could not* get out of my own head. I was fine once I hit the water, but the 20 minutes or so right before that were not great. For whatever reason, I got totally consumed with self-doubt.

I ended up swimming fine. Much better than expected, really. But man, if I’d had to go through that in front of 40K people, that would have been tough.