Competitive Swimming at Age 29: Am I Wasting My Time?

Yesterday I hopped in the pool for my first competitive USA Swimming meet in more than ten years. I have been working hard in my master’s practices and although I don’t love racing, I recognize that it is time to do it if I am going to meet some of the goals I have set for myself. As I ran through my warm up surrounded by tons of young people, some of whom were not even born the last time I competed, I was overcome by a sense of self-conscious futility.

Who am I kidding? I am retired! Some of these kids are fast enough to have the brightest careers ever experienced by Alaskan swimmers, and I am trying to go head to head with them. I don’t want to be the butt of anyone’s joke, I don’t want to embarrass myself, and more than anything I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. Although I was feeling a little silly before the first splash, every experience after my initial moment of trepidation proved me wrong.

Now that the meet is over, I am trying to remember if there were any “old folks” competing in USA Swimming meets with the kids when I was younger, and if there were then I want to remember how I felt about them being on deck. There were older swimmers, of course, and one that stands out. His name is Mike Sorensen, and he was an impressive swimmer. Not just for an old guy, either; he was impressive by any standards. When he trained…