Throwback Thursdays - Summer League Swimming

One of the trends on Instagram is to post a "throwback" picture every Thursday for "Throwback Thursday" (#tbt). Since my past is actually more exciting than my present, at least when it comes to things to blog about, I'm going to try and write Throwback Thursday posts every week about things I used to love, stories from back in the day, etc. And, of course, a potentially embarrassing old picture.

In 2000, my local neighborhood pool formed a summer swim team. I joined with a few of my friends and thus began my (not-very illustrious) competitive swimming career. I went into the beginning of the season only knowing how to do freestyle, but by the end of the summer I was doing the 100 IM at meets, and I was hooked on swimming.

My team picture from 2002, back in the days when I used way too much Sun-In

I was never a very fast swimmer, so for me, swim team was about having fun with my friends. Practices were a blast - sometimes my mom would drop me off early and I would run around the pool with my friends until evening practice, and during practice we would have underwater tea parties in our lane between sets. Saturday practice was the best, though- they were a half hour longer, but it was worth it because the moms would get day-old muffins and cinnamon rolls and donuts from Kroger so that we could feast after practice was over. Then after our Saturday snacks, we'd play Sharks and Minnows until the pool started getting too crowded.

Meets were a blast, too. The first few years, I got such a kick out of having "Eat my Bubbles!!!" written on my back, even though I was the one doing most of the bubble-eating. Between playing cards with my teammates, eating hot dogs and Sour Punch Straws for dinner, and actually getting first place in relays sometimes, Tuesday nights were the highlight of my summer.

I may not have been the fastest person in the pool- in fact, since I didn't do year-round swimming, I was generally one of the slowest (I couldn't even get first place in the B-Meet for the slower swimmers that I got to go to when I was in the 9-10 age group). And sure, my collection of rainbow "participant" ribbons is probably bigger than Michael Phelps' collection of blue ribbons. But I still had a great time in and out of the water, year after year, and I'll probably be a little nostalgic about it every summer.