A Day in the Life of Avondale Swimming
2:22 - 7th hour ends and 13 Avondale swimmers sulk their way to the pool, included me. We’re all dreading another day of mid-season practice.
2:30 - The whole team’s in the locker room. Half the team is asleep on the benches, the other half of the team is in line for the single stall because the swimming locker room bathrooms are easily the nicest and cleanest in the school.
2:40Â - Emil is being chased around by Justin Van Acker who has a water bottle filled with soap. The typical Emil shriek is heard as everyone has to wake up.
2:41 - Richard Fawaz brings the voice of justice as Justin and Emil “SHUT THE F*** UP”.
2:50 - “We should probably get on deck” I say as the whole team finally puts on their suits in solemn silence.
2:52 - As soon as we get on deck, and we have all come back from the dead. Ashton goes back to not speaking English, Richard and Justin throw Emil’s flip flops into the pool. Everyone else fills their water bottles and takes another nap.
2:59 - Finish Stretching. I jump into Lane 5. Between Stone, Kendall, Justin and I, we use lanes 4 and 5. They bounce in between lanes every day, but I don’t. Lane 5 is my lane. N
400 Warm-up - nobody bothers to actually count their laps and just rely on finishing when someone else finishes. We end up doing 100 more than we were supposed, and honestly it’s a miracle we even stopped.
6x100 IM on the 1:30Â - Another day, another fast IM set, and this one is the most boring.
200 Kick - I make sure to not get the board with “Kimberly Bryan” on it, because the other side has some mysterious stain.
8x75 Free on the :55Â - Kill me now. Easily the worst set of every day.
200 Easy - I spend the whole time worrying about what the main set is going to be. Richard and Joey are drowning Justin, and Emil is as silence during practice as ever.
8x50 Freestyle, Descending 1-4, 5-8 on the 1:00 - Oh my god it’s Wednesday. Wednesday is test set day, and especially if we’re starting with these, we know we’re in for a doozy.
2x Yellow Jackets on the 30 - Thank god for the legend Brian Williams. I actually really like these.
      Main Set: 30x100’s, Broken into 12,6,6 and 6.
1-12 of 30x100s, pulling on the 1:35 - If you’re Justin Van Acker you love this. If you’re me, you lag behind because you can’t pull to save yourself, because I can’t keep my hands outside of my shoulders like I should be.
13-18 of 30x100s on the 1:25 - These aren’t too bad. Actually they are bad, but child’s play compared to what we know we are going to do afterwards
19-24 of 30x100s on the 1:20 - If you didn’t get a song stuck in your head by now, you’re probably going insane. The song I’ve been singing today is “The Cops” by K.Flay.
6x100s on the 1:15 - At this point we’re all exhausted, too tired to even sing that song in our heads. We just count down the laps one by one until we’re done.
300 Easy - I can’t move my arms, and I don’t really want to.
5:00 - We all climb out of the pool and walk into the showers. Kendall and I end up sharing our UltraSwim with the entire team because it’s almost magically how well it removes the chlorine from our hairs.
5:01 - Shower Captain Richard leads the way in the typical shenanigans. Daniel Wang continues to meme.
5:04 - The water turns cold and we start dreading the 5ish minutes of cold water that comes before it heats up again.
5:09 - Right on time the water is warm again, and I sit in the water contemplating life.
5:20 - Nobody actually showers, we just like sitting in the hot water.
5:25 - We finally get out and we change like normal. CJR Hostile puts more deodorant on. Dominic is in the stall again. Daniel Wang is still Daniel Wang. Everything is okay, until we have to come back tomorrow.
7:30 - Aston Donaghy sends another roast of the day. Today it’s another lil’ Richard roast.
                              FIN
If you read that entire thing I applaud you. It’s really personal and I had a lot of fun writing it. As much as I hate swimming, I wouldn’t do anything else, and I will genuinely miss it. Nothing is a stranger feeling than sitting in the locker room at the state meet after your final event, on the verge of crying because after four long years, you’re finally done. My place in this tribe has changed over the years, and so have the people who have come and go, but somethings will never change, the practices, the memories, the relationships, and the showers.