Castaway

The afternoon was at its prime.

The sun had heated up the humid afternoon air but behind the clouds, it seemed ineffective.

I went through the gates of the stadium and found myself a locker to place my things in. My towel, wallet, keys and mobile were all placed into the small locker. Then the shirt and slippers were removed and placed into the locker as well. I slipped in some money into the coin slot and turned to key lock.

Crossing over out into the open sun, my feet felt a slight sensation of the heat from the tiled floor upon my bare feet. It didn’t really bother me. I just knew that I would cool down soon when I step into the shower.

“Ooo, new shower tap. Upgrades are nice.” The chilly underground water splashed on me as I gradually forced myself to stand completely under the shower – covering me in a refreshing awakening.

Dripping in water, I approached the pool and sat at the edge as I began to cup the pool water onto my body. The water was mildly heated to a comfortable temperature; perfect for diving in and swimming around.
I threw myself in and kicked off the wall of the pool without my goggles. Slowly rising to the surface, I emerged from the warm pool just like how the guys from Bay Watch would do. Pulling my hair back as water trickled down the smooth edges of my skin, I leaped backwards as I backstroked my way to the edge of the pool again. Surprisingly, the water was perfect. I felt like I could go on forever in this pool, so I saw to it that I would make the most of this opportunity to enjoy myself.

Diving back down under, I hovered over the pool bed for as long as my breath can allow. The clearness of the water was amazing. From where I was, I could see the end of the pool 50 metres away. I felt like a little fish innocently munching on the seaweed underwater without a care in the world what is happening up above. But unlike an innocent little fish, I was struck with his suffocating sensation within my body as I am forced to surface back into the world.
Right after that, I swam around underwater for a little while longer before deciding it was time to swim intensely. The swim to the other end of the pool was not strenuous but I stopped at the other end to do some last minute stretches.

Off I went again and in ten minutes, I was able to complete six laps with every sixth lap doing freestyle. One after another, I pushed myself to complete each lap as I conserve energy at the same time for the following lap. Managing my average time of ten minutes per every six laps, that’s roughly 0.5 metres per second. Maintaining this speed wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I was constantly fighting with myself to conserve and breathe every time I surface. Under the humid air, it did become difficult. To make things a bit more difficult, I had some sort of fluid stuck within my throat. This made breathing a bit more energy consuming because I had to gasp as much as air I can take in during those few seconds above water.

At each ‘pit-stop’ after I had exerted myself to dash across by freestyle, I could feel the heat screaming to escape my body. If I stood above the water, the heat upon my skin could grow quite unpleasant. I felt just like a car that had just overheated and was in need of something refreshing to get rid of the heat. Maybe smothering my naked body with chocolate flavoured ice-cream would have done the trick. Then again, I could catch hypothermia from the immediate change of temperature.
The heat in me was just like standing out in the open sun as the light shines upon your exposed skin - heating it to a point where it becomes uncomfortable. Eventually, the heat from the sun will become irritating as your body captures the heat into your body; and that was how it was like.

Also, on top of the warm humid air, the blood pumping hard in my body from all the swimming made it even warmer because just like exercising out of the water, perspiration takes place to cool the body down. Fortunately for me, I was in a pool which meant lots of water. This allowed me to get as hot as I wanted without worrying about getting drenched too much from my own sweat. If I did get this hot out somewhere else, I might get as wet as I was in the pool because I would get soaked in my own sweat. I’m being serious. I can get so wet my shirt would seem like it was being washed in the laundry.
With the heat surging through my body, the most logical thing to do was to just dive under.

Placing every part of my body except my head underwater, it became better. The coolness of the water removed most of the heat from my body until I started to get worried that I would sleep under the conditions.
I picked myself back up and placed the goggles over my head. Taking a strong breath, I kicked back into the pool, repeating the whole process for another few more times.

Thirty five minutes into the process, I had completed my usual number of laps of twenty. It felt good. I felt good. It was warm, but to know that I was able to complete twenty laps in thirty five minutes with one or two minute breaks in between, I felt good.
My back and chest was feeling pretty warm at that stage, so I quickly took a big breath and dived back underwater, sitting upon the pool floor.

After emerging for another breath, I went back in and laid upon the pool floor facing up the pool watching my air bubbles float to the top in succession. It was great to be able to enjoy this again. My only concern at that time was the water pressure on my ears. I felt the compression of the water on my ears and it was quite obvious that there was a bit of pressure on it. I’m not sure if it was safe to remain underwater for a very long time, so I decided to stop after returning back into the pool bed a few more times.

There was a figure in my head that I wish I could accomplish while in the pool. That number was something I had wanted to do because imagine the bragging rights! How wonderful! It was a very difficult number to reach, but accomplishable the very least.
Without much contemplation, I slipped my goggles back on and leaped off the wall of the pool to begin my journey. One wall after another, I kicked off each end two times before telling myself to stop for a while. In those four laps, I had actually wondered what it would be like doing freestyle laps throughout my swim because there were people next to me who were able to do them one after another. I thought to myself since they were able to do them, I’m sure I could too. Sadly, after the first lap had tired me out by the end of the first 50 metres, I decided to switch back to my usual breaststroke. After another two more laps, I reconsidered doing freestyle again and leaped off the wall in search for two freestyle laps but it was not to be. I had to stop. I was left tired by the 24th lap.

Determined to reach ‘that number’, I fought fatigue to recover as I soon stood again to swim once more.

“Another 6 laps in a row and you’re almost there. Not hard at all. I’ve done it 3 times already; easy.”

That was my mindset. Complete five laps doing breaststroke then finish the last one with freestyle. From there, it shouldn’t be hard.

Off I went.

First lap – No problem. I can do it.

Second lap – I can do it.

Third lap – Oh crap, only the third lap. I’m not even half way!

Fourth lap – What!? Only the fourth!?

Fifth lap – Argh! I still have the freestyle lap after this! I’m gonna die.

Sixth lap – I’m gonna die.

By the end, I was so proud of myself. I managed to get another six laps from out of nothing. I stood at the end of the pool, submerged with only my head exposed above thinking, ‘Wow. Thirty is a nice number. Three-zero. It’s nice. … … but not as nice as thirty two.’

That was the number I wanted to hit. Thirty two. 32 laps was my goal. Those two numbers together means a lot to me. Not because I like the number 32 but rather thirty two would be a very nice number to brag about. ahahaha!

So for the sake of bragging rights, I had to get it. I had to get another two more laps. By then, my body had taken a good beating and at this stage, I was fearful that my body might cramp up or fail on me from some freak incident. However, that was not gonna stop me. I wanted another two. It wasn’t too hard. I knew I could do it.
There I went. Leaping off the wall of the pool for the second last time, I ‘fished’ my way underwater for as long as I could until emerging from under the water and crashing above the surface again. The thoughts that ran through my head went along the lines of, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to blog about me suffering some freak accident and retelling the story of how ridiculous I was to push myself so much to have my body swim another 2 more laps? I think it would be a great blog story to tell about me experiencing some insane accident in the pool but do I really want that?” I mean it was possible. I could have over exerted myself during this swim because I hadn’t swim since the Batam retreat, so to swim a record beating 30 laps was something my body could crash under; yet alone 32. I dunno, would it be more interesting to blog about me managing thirty two laps or would it be more interesting to blog about me overdoing it and having some horrific accident in a public pool. I’ll leave it to you guys. But this was what happened.

A lot of things filled my head as I did my final two laps. I didn’t want to break down in the pool. That was the last thing I wanted. There was a chance that it could happen. Of course there was a possibility that I could overdo it. So I was a bit cautious and made sure I didn’t over exert myself.
At the end of the first lap, I kicked the wall one last time – knowing that this was gonna be the last lap. Stroke after stroke, kick after kick, I got nearer and nearer to the end. It was only a matter of time now. My exhausted body pushed on. It pushed on until I couldn’t push on any further. But I couldn’t stop now. I had to finish it. I kept on pushing myself to swim until I approached the final ten metres when I decided to finish it off with the butterfly stroke.

Tired and exhausted, I pushed. I lifted my arms up above the water before allowing them to crash powerfully back into the liquid medium. One after another, I got closer and closer.
Creating a big scene with all the splashing, I proudly crashed right into the pool wall.

It was finished.

All the pushing, all the exertion, all the determination to do the 32 laps pulled through. I have finally broken my record for the number of laps. It was great. My body felt worked. It felt used. It felt abused.

I leaned against the wall to catch my breath, and as I did, there to my right was a family of five. The father was swimming across my lane as his two older kids swam behind him. The older girl swam well with their Styrofoam board but the younger brother was lingering along the edge of the pool on the Styrofoam board. He approached me and as he did, he asked me, “Excuse please.” Politely, I pushed off the wall, away from the direction of the young boy. I watched them swim by as they reminded me of us as kids when we would be taken to the pool with our inflated floats wrapped around our arms with me wearing them underwear swimming trunks. Those were the days. (FYI, I wear speedo-pants under my swimming pants, so don’t start thinking about me wearing any underwear speedos while I swim now! ><”)

When they had passed, I jumped onto the edge of the pool to drip off any excess pool water. After that, I got up and walked to the shower at the pool. The water from the shower was especially chilly this time but it served well as I cooled down from all the warmth in my body. Scrubbing as much chlorine water as I can, I walked away satisfied. My body had a newly formed shaped. As I walked towards my locker, the shadow of my tired body painted itself onto the tiles of the complex floor. However, I was proud to see the imminent shape of my triangular shaped body as I made my way to my locker. I felt tired but stronger at the same time. My shoulders, my arms, my body, all felt stronger. It was a very good workout.

And to imagine I managed all that without any girls around. Try imagining what I can do if there were girls there. XP

Does 50 sound good?