Article March 14, 2005 Issue

'Go do it'

By Jamie Ranson

I WAS HAVING A TERRIBLE PRACTICE. Coach had rearranged the lanes so that I was swimming several sets with teammates who were much faster than I, and I was falling farther and farther behind. I was pushing myself hard—my arms, legs, and lungs all seemed on fire—but I just couldn't seem to keep up, or even catch a good breath.

While I knew that I could turn to God for help, it seemed that fighting through the pain and frustration was taking so much energy that I couldn't think about anything else.

Then, just when I thought the practice couldn't get any worse, it did. About halfway through the set, one of my teammates pushed off the wall just as I was swimming into it. He was swimming butterfly to my freestyle, and as I took a stroke into the wall, I felt his arm crash down onto my wrist. Immediately, the pain I was feeling already seemed to double, and I just wanted to get out of the pool and cry.