Swim for Life

Friday evening my son had to “carb load” for the big swim meet he was to swim on Saturday. He invited anyone in the family who could to come eat spaghetti with him as he prepared for the event. With the offer of free food fourteen relatives showed up to help him eat the ton of food he had prepared. Our family is good to help each other when free food is involved. We all ate like we were going to swim with him.

Saturday morning we all met at the Chester River near Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. David was one of the 215 swimmers who were participating in the Swim for Life race. Swimmers could choose to swim either one, two, three, four, or five miles. David swam five miles. Swimming in a choppy, murky river is a lot harder than swimming in a pool. These were some strong, athletic people. We all cheered him on at the start and then sat and enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine and visiting for the next two hours. We cheered those who swam the shorter races as they completed their swims and began to anxiously watch for our man to come into sight. We were excited to finally spot him as he approached the finish line and cheered wildly. He ran out of the river through the finish gate and collapsed onto the sand. I've never seen him so exhausted. After about ten minutes my tired, dehydrated boy drank two big bottles of water and began to look like he would recover. The exertion had left him quivering, sore, and nauseated. He wasn't sure he ever wanted to swim again.

He called this afternoon to report that he was fine today. He had polished off a huge dinner last night and felt great today. He is talking about swimming across the Chesapeake Bay next year.