Last Friday while doing sprinting and drills, a fellow yelled at me and asked me if I needed a doctor (I was huffing and puffing naturally), and I said No, just sprinting. He insisted on trying to have a conversation with me about his long distance swimming. I will point out I know this fellow and he is not athletic, he does the bar scene, very unfit.
He told me he swam 10 miles in an hour, and the instant he told me that I broke out in hilarious laughter. He was shocked. I told him it was humanly impossible without an attached motorized device and that our dive boats here don't even go 10 miles an hour.
So, he said we could meet and he would show me, I said how about tomorrow because Saturday is my distance day. He said, Oh, I can't because I got a tatoo and I have to stay out of the water for 2 months!!
Don't people realize we didn't just fall off the turnip truck? Anyone ever brag to you about some swim facts that could not be true? Maybe this is something a person can say to a non-swimming person, but I am in the water training 4 days a week; I am the last person to make such an outrageous statement to!!!
donna
Parents
Former Member
Actually, I had kind of a similar situation where somebody "doubted" what I had already done and then.......
OK. Let's go back in time.
The year is 1977 and I was with Olympic Airways, living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I had organized and sponsored a swim (for fun) meet at one of the hotels there. Their pool was rectangular and had one shallow end and one deep end (and there the similarity with any official pools ends).
I was 34 at the time and had stopped "real" swimming for about 14 years but decided to participate in one race. (We called it the 100m. It was three lengths of the pool. The lifeguard and I had kind of paced it, then measured the length of a pool's-edge tile and multiplied it by the number of tiles and the pool was about 30-some meters.)
Lots of other races, relays, kids, swimming with balloons, drink-a-coke-dive-swim-get-out-dring-another-coke-dive-back-in, etc.....
I won the 100m and gave away the first prize to the 2nd place finisher whose prize went to the third, etc... (The "prizes" were Olympic Airways Flight Bags, Ashtrays, Pens, etc... plus a free dinner from the hotel).
The festivities over and everybody is just sitting by the pool having a nice chat, a young man of about 27-ish (in a Speedo, what else?) approaches me and tells me, "I hear you won the 100m. I was late getting to the hotel. I would have won that race. I'm challenging you."
So I tell him that the race was for fun and that I even gave "my prize" away. He replies by telling me that he's an ex-National level swimmer and an ex-Water Polo player and that he's a faster swimmer than me.
The thing is that I had never laid eyes on him before so I replied, "OK. If you say so. You are a faster swimmer." He comes back with, "Yes, but I am still challenging you to a race." My friends were urging me to accept his challenge and race him because his cockiness was rubbing them (and me) the wrong way. I didn't really feel like racing again. (That was also back when I used to smoke some 60-80 cigarettes a day and that 100m, without any kind of fitness readiness or preparation had left me hollow.)
So, I proposed to swim just two lengths. He accepted and went looking for the lifeguard and the Hotel owner to preside over the "Special Challenge Race" and have it announced over the loudspeakers.
I though to myself that I'd just go in, do my sprint and it wasn't as if the fate of a Nation's Olympic team rested on the result. So, he'll beat me; so what?
"On your marks!" "Get Set!" "Go!" (The hotel owner had seen that somewhere on TV probably.)
The guy stopped halfway through the first length, as I was already turning at the far end. He had at least the grace to say, "You're much too fast for me", before hurrying to the locker rooms.
Why challenge a complete stranger when you have no idea if he's slower or faster than you? It never ceases to amaze me how some people think, but I admit that it felt really good.:thhbbb: when I beat him.
Thats a pretty funny story 3strokes! I guess that guy must have been pretty embaressed after making such a big deal about racing and beating you....I can see why he ran for the locker rooms LOL! BTW my father use to work for Aramco and was station in Dhahran for many years....He met his current wife in Dubai....Small world I guess...LOL!
Newmastersswimmer
BTW Rich I have done at least 200 1 arm pushups every day for the past 5 years o.k. (using my weak arm at that o.k.)....My grandmother can do 50 regular pushups o.k. LOL!
Actually, I had kind of a similar situation where somebody "doubted" what I had already done and then.......
OK. Let's go back in time.
The year is 1977 and I was with Olympic Airways, living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I had organized and sponsored a swim (for fun) meet at one of the hotels there. Their pool was rectangular and had one shallow end and one deep end (and there the similarity with any official pools ends).
I was 34 at the time and had stopped "real" swimming for about 14 years but decided to participate in one race. (We called it the 100m. It was three lengths of the pool. The lifeguard and I had kind of paced it, then measured the length of a pool's-edge tile and multiplied it by the number of tiles and the pool was about 30-some meters.)
Lots of other races, relays, kids, swimming with balloons, drink-a-coke-dive-swim-get-out-dring-another-coke-dive-back-in, etc.....
I won the 100m and gave away the first prize to the 2nd place finisher whose prize went to the third, etc... (The "prizes" were Olympic Airways Flight Bags, Ashtrays, Pens, etc... plus a free dinner from the hotel).
The festivities over and everybody is just sitting by the pool having a nice chat, a young man of about 27-ish (in a Speedo, what else?) approaches me and tells me, "I hear you won the 100m. I was late getting to the hotel. I would have won that race. I'm challenging you."
So I tell him that the race was for fun and that I even gave "my prize" away. He replies by telling me that he's an ex-National level swimmer and an ex-Water Polo player and that he's a faster swimmer than me.
The thing is that I had never laid eyes on him before so I replied, "OK. If you say so. You are a faster swimmer." He comes back with, "Yes, but I am still challenging you to a race." My friends were urging me to accept his challenge and race him because his cockiness was rubbing them (and me) the wrong way. I didn't really feel like racing again. (That was also back when I used to smoke some 60-80 cigarettes a day and that 100m, without any kind of fitness readiness or preparation had left me hollow.)
So, I proposed to swim just two lengths. He accepted and went looking for the lifeguard and the Hotel owner to preside over the "Special Challenge Race" and have it announced over the loudspeakers.
I though to myself that I'd just go in, do my sprint and it wasn't as if the fate of a Nation's Olympic team rested on the result. So, he'll beat me; so what?
"On your marks!" "Get Set!" "Go!" (The hotel owner had seen that somewhere on TV probably.)
The guy stopped halfway through the first length, as I was already turning at the far end. He had at least the grace to say, "You're much too fast for me", before hurrying to the locker rooms.
Why challenge a complete stranger when you have no idea if he's slower or faster than you? It never ceases to amaze me how some people think, but I admit that it felt really good.:thhbbb: when I beat him.
Thats a pretty funny story 3strokes! I guess that guy must have been pretty embaressed after making such a big deal about racing and beating you....I can see why he ran for the locker rooms LOL! BTW my father use to work for Aramco and was station in Dhahran for many years....He met his current wife in Dubai....Small world I guess...LOL!
Newmastersswimmer
BTW Rich I have done at least 200 1 arm pushups every day for the past 5 years o.k. (using my weak arm at that o.k.)....My grandmother can do 50 regular pushups o.k. LOL!
