Working on my fitness - Part 1

At the end of the summer I'm running a long distance relay with a bunch of friends. To prepare, I run or swim several days a week.

When we arrived, Becca and I asked Arnaldo if there were any pools close by our apartment. Turns out there is one about five blocks north on the same street we live on. Laura at the front desk explained it all to us. 50 meters, 3 lanes, $30 per month for lap swimming without a coach. Every Tuesday and Thursday I'm kicking off the wall at 11:00 sharp.

This is what I look like in a swim cap and goggles.

Although we initially chose to swim without a coach, I've made friends with all three of them. Damian is tattooed and doesn't say much. He did demand that we try mate. The next coach is also named Damian. In Ecuador, when someone is teasing you, you call them a "malito." So I call him "Damian the Malito." He teaches me words and then tells me not to say them at church. When I told him that I don't drink, he called me "Flanders." Whenever he says something to me in English I laugh. He's corrected my freestyle stroke and he makes fun of me when I run into the wall (there's no T on the bottom of the pool and no plus sign on the wall which makes it hard for me to gauge the distance).

Damian, me, and Mechi with the banner from our pool

Mechi (short for Mercedes) is vegetarian and she has a nose ring. She gives besos to the ladies after teaching them water aerobics, practices speaking English each time I'm there, wants to come to Utah to visit me so we can go camping, and owns a bike but not a bus pass. She has a beautiful soul.

The pool where I did the first relay I went to

At the end of June, the coaches invited me to a relay tournament. Becca wasn't up for it, but I paid the 200 pesos to participate. It was a relay. The team had about 15 people. Each person would swim 50 meters, then jump out of the pool. The team that swam the most meters collectively after 90 minutes won the tournament. We got second place. Damian the Malito gave me the trophy to take home to my country. It sits on top of our fridge in our apartment. I put my phone in it to amplify the audio when I'm listening to podcasts in the kitchen.

We all sat in the pool while we waited for the judges to tell us who won

A few weeks later they invited us to another tournament and Becca came along. This time it was 60 minutes and each person swam only 25 meters. We made friends with Carla, a city attorney that took her turn right before me. There were orange slices, cut bananas, and Gatorade just like at my soccer games when I was in first grade. Our team got second place again. Damian the Malito told me I did great. We ate hamburgers after and made friends with the other swimmers.

Our team with our second place trophy and banner. The pool is called, "Pileta Climatizada Circulo de Obreros del Rosario"

I decided to pay the $7 extra for Damian the Malito to be my coach. He still makes fun of me when I run into the wall, but he also corrects my stroke and kick. I'm much more tired after swimming for an hour than I was before.

Me and Becca at the second trounament