Night swimming

Last week, in a fit of motivation and an inability to deny the siren call of the view of the pools from our office, I joined the local swim and tennis club. How very waspy! To be honest, I did not technically join the tennis part of the club, and therefore will not be playing in any of the leagues or anything, but I do have the pool. Ah, the pool...I love it. I went for the first time on Tuesday, flush with the concept of getting up early and having a refreshing swim before heading to the office, and it was fantastic. I was then beset by my inability to wake up early and didn't make it there either Wednesday or Thursday mornings. But after an excessively long day at work, I girded the loins and jaunted over for a late night swim tonight, and I am so glad that I did.

Here's the thing - swimming is one of those activities that is incredibly good for you, but doesn't feel like quite the chore that running does to me. Don't get me wrong - I like running a great deal (much to my, and I'm sure, all my elementary school gym teachers', everlasting surprise), but that doesn't change the fact that running makes me sweat like a pig and pant like a debilitated dog. All things which point to its great cardiovascular effect, but also make it somewhat arduous and less than attractive. Swimming, though, feels very natural and peaceful to me, which is a major irony to my entire family, as I basically almost drowned as a child during my first swim lessons, and then was kept from swimming without multiple flotation devices until I was 12. Maybe it's the weightlessness (which is tempered by the horror of swimsuits) but I feel very at home in the water, whether it's in a pool, or in the ocean. And as I swam tonight in simple, leisurely laps, with the wide expanse of the night sky above me and the shimmering of the lights through the water of the pool, I thought that it was a very good thing to be able to find that comfort at the end of a difficult day.