No Pain, No Gain

I inhaled deeply and tried to concentrate on each step I was taking.  I tried to keep my head up and focus on my end destination so I wouldn't loose sight of the goal.  Why was this so difficult today? I've been finding that question present itself in my thoughts every time I embark on such a challenge.  It was just a run, but sometimes a run seems so tough, even if I have been running frequently, and there are days when I find it is flat out discouraging.

Lately, I have been thinking back to when I was growing up and participated in competitive sports.  Most of the time, I think of swimming.  It's odd I would compare gliding through the water to running on concrete but the actions to me seem very alike.  Swimming back and forth across the length of a pool is not all that different than running back and forth along a path - both activities take a necessary level of commitment and self determination paired with the right amount of motivation. 

I swam on a competitive recreational team from the time I was 5 until I was 18.  We were the Dolphins, the Mighty Dolphins in fact, and our coach was tough but he was great.  "No pain, no gain" he would say, as me and my team mates were lined up along the swimming pool wall, staring up at him with half blank expressions. I'll admit, I understood this mantra at quite different levels when I was five than what I understood when I was eighteen. "You have to put in a lot of effort and push yourself to get better results".  Hmmm, no pain, no gain. I learned this was a mantra that proved to be incredibly true. 

Oddly enough, the stroke I was good at happened to be butterfly.  This is the stroke where both arms literally fly out of the water simultaneously.  As you dive back in each time you move forward through the water by "kicking" with both feet held together.  Ironically, butterfly arm movements are paired with a dolphin-like kick.  Some people think this is one of the hardest strokes, but if you ask me, that endowment would go to backstroke.  I never could get backstroke down.  In high school, the event I swam during meets was the 100 yard butterfly.  This is four lengths of the pool and I remember that at the end of such events, I was for lack of better terms, pooped.

I can vividly recall standing on top of the diving block, looking out over the pool.  At one meet against a neighboring high school, I waited for the starters commands:  "On your mark", I stood tall and looked out across the length of the pool, deep breath in, don't be nervous, just concentrate "Get set"  Reach down and grab the block, ready to catapult at the next command "GO!" I shot off the block and into the water.  As I moved down the pool I could see out of the corner of my eye I was keeping pace with the other girls.  My arms flew out of the water and I tried to take as many strokes before taking a breath as I could possibly stand. I reached the first end, touched and shot back off the wall - three more laps to go.  I kept my concentration... no pain, no gain - well this was pain, I hoped it was paying off.  Finally at the fourth lap it was time to step it up with what little energy was left in me.  I could see I had a chance to pull forward - as I took the last half length of the pool I felt good about the race.  My fingers touched the wall at the finish and I looked up from the pool at the time keeper "What was my time?".  Instead, one of the referrees posed me an odd question: "What time is it?", I looked at my watch and replied "Uh, 4:30".  "Well, you're disqualified, you can't wear a watch or any jewelry during a race."

Competing is tough.

You can imagine after the unfortunate disqualification, I never made that mistake while racing again.  I realize how valuable all those years of swimming were to help me push myself, learn to be a little bit tougher, and to sometimes push myself physically to where I wasn't even sure I was capable.  Now as I go for my four mile runs I try to think back about all those things.  I mostly try to remember my coaches, the tough practices and the challenging races, meets and matches I participated in to help push myself now, even though I'm not competing in a race.  And when it seems my motivation is lacking, I think back at that mantra - if I want results - no pain, no gain.