I didn't think it was possible, certainly not likely but I did it. I don't mean slipping on the deck and breaking an arm. I mean "while swimming".
Two nights ago, going into my backstroke turn in the middle of my 200IM, I realized too late that the backstroke flags had been taken down. I arched my neck to look upside down toward the wall to guage the distance, BAM, I slammed face first into the wall. I came up with a pretty small gash on my nose and cut on my forehead. It wasn't so much painful as startling and certainly embarrassing. Once the bleeding stopped, I thought I should go see about getting it stitched at our local, friendly ER. While in the waiting room, I realized my face hurt...ALOT, so they did an x-ray and sure enough a broken nose.
I've never broken a bone in my life (knock on wood). I quit running 18 months ago b/c I had become so injury prone in my late 30's/early 40's. It's not so bad though, as broken bones go. I'll be back in the pool in a few days once my stitches are gone. The bone will take 4-6 weeks to heal but that shouldn't keep me out of the pool.
Just curious if I'm unique in this regard.
Parents
Former Member
Lifeguards in SoCal used to have a big meet at the Coliseum pool every summer -- maybe they still do? Carpinteria State Beach (only 7 towers) was a powerhouse for a few summers in the mid sixties and won almost all events except for one, the dummy tow. That event was owned by the LA County guards. The dummy tow had a swimmer with a rope attached race 50 meters then clip onto a weighted 5 gallon metal can, then two burly teammates would pull him and the can back to the start. The pullers would alternate grabbing the rope at the pool edge then spinning and racing toward the chain link fence about 5 yards behind the blocks, where good technique dictated a half twist/crash and bounce off the fence at the exact moment the other puller stated his run. The swimmer dragging rope the whole way covered the first 50 meters in a little under 30 seconds but impressive displays of negative splitation by the top teams put the total time at a little over 50 seconds with the top speed achieved in the last few meters. We had a great sprinter named Jim Bailey (Santa Monica High) and he got down there first and it was neck and neck as our large and quick pullers had spent a lot of time practicing. But they should have practiced more under race conditions. Bailey was on his back doing a reverse butterfly arm action and literally skipping over the water when the race ended abruptly with his head loudly cracking into the wall! There were hundreds of spectators screaming throughout the race but it became instantly silent. Bailey slowly tilted his face skyward and there was a slight communal relief, perhaps he will live? A quick thinking teammate (lifeguards are good in a crunch), promptly cracked a beer and poured it over our fallen comrade's face and the roars of laughter healed him instantly. We were glad he didn't die and proud to have finished a close second to another amazing LA County team. :chug:
Lifeguards in SoCal used to have a big meet at the Coliseum pool every summer -- maybe they still do? Carpinteria State Beach (only 7 towers) was a powerhouse for a few summers in the mid sixties and won almost all events except for one, the dummy tow. That event was owned by the LA County guards. The dummy tow had a swimmer with a rope attached race 50 meters then clip onto a weighted 5 gallon metal can, then two burly teammates would pull him and the can back to the start. The pullers would alternate grabbing the rope at the pool edge then spinning and racing toward the chain link fence about 5 yards behind the blocks, where good technique dictated a half twist/crash and bounce off the fence at the exact moment the other puller stated his run. The swimmer dragging rope the whole way covered the first 50 meters in a little under 30 seconds but impressive displays of negative splitation by the top teams put the total time at a little over 50 seconds with the top speed achieved in the last few meters. We had a great sprinter named Jim Bailey (Santa Monica High) and he got down there first and it was neck and neck as our large and quick pullers had spent a lot of time practicing. But they should have practiced more under race conditions. Bailey was on his back doing a reverse butterfly arm action and literally skipping over the water when the race ended abruptly with his head loudly cracking into the wall! There were hundreds of spectators screaming throughout the race but it became instantly silent. Bailey slowly tilted his face skyward and there was a slight communal relief, perhaps he will live? A quick thinking teammate (lifeguards are good in a crunch), promptly cracked a beer and poured it over our fallen comrade's face and the roars of laughter healed him instantly. We were glad he didn't die and proud to have finished a close second to another amazing LA County team. :chug:
