Learning to lose

Today was the Pentathlon meet and no, I didn't participate but I was there supporting my husband, Scott. He flew around the water with flying colors and I was a proud, cheering wife from the deck.

A lot of fellow swimmers asked me why I wasn't participating. I thought it would be obvious: I just stopped swimming with fins and I'm very slow in the water. From swimming a speedy 100 yards at 1:24 with fins a month ago,  to panting the same 100 yards at barely 2 minutes, I already know I'm slow. Realizing that I'm the slowest of the slowest would be devastating to my ego and I rather not see it in paper. Fear, you ask? Absolutely, I say!

But today, there were swimmers of all types, speeds and ages, even an 82 year old woman who finished a butterfly set. She finished it! No matter how long it took, no matter what position she got. She got all the way to the end.

Watching her, I realized that, like in life, swimming is not about the competition, but about the taking the plunge. Being a professional marketer, stop trying to be get first place will a tough habit to break. But I guess it's never too late to start losing.