Article October 3, 2016 Issue

‘Go into your race with God’

Emma Hanser

I’ve been on a competitive swim team since the end of fifth grade. But still swimming has always been a growing experience for me—especially once I got to high school and my coach put me in the three hardest events: the 200 individual medley (eight lengths of the pool doing two lengths of each stroke), the 100 fly (four lengths of butterfly), and the 500 free (20 lengths of freestyle). I started out my sophomore year doing the 100 fly, and then he put me in the 500 for several meets.

I was fine with it at first. After a couple of meets, though, it was starting to feel like a burden and I was no longer enjoying it.

One meet in particular stands out. The day before a meet we always find out which races we’ll be swimming. My coach put me in the 500 again, and I was not excited. The next day, I complained a lot to everyone. It felt like so much to handle. I mean it was 20 lengths of the pool at race pace. Who would want to do that? I actually started coming up with ways to get out of it: skipping the start, giving up during the race, or even lying about an injury, which I knew would be wrong.

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