A few weeks ago I was bored and poking around online, and decided to look for information about synchronized swimming. I’ve known about the Masters swimming program for people over 18, but could never find a team close enough to join. Well imagine my surprise when I actually tracked down a team in Sacramento. It’s only been around for a few years (and I get the sense that the website has been around for even less time), which is why I’d never been able to find anything about it before. There was a day or two of worried frustration since their website’s hosting company was having issues and I kept getting errors trying to reach their site, and then more anxious waiting while I fired off an email to the contact person and waited impatiently for a response. But the whole point of this rambling is that I found a team. I found a team! I get to swim again!

I admit my timing couldn’t have been worse. They swim in outdoor pools, at night, which means that because of bad weather, they shut down at the end of October and don’t start up again until February. Plus due to previous commitments I can only make two practices for the rest of the season (last night and one more Sunday night in two weeks). But none of this matters. What matters most is that I can swim again. And I hadn’t realized until I got into the pool last night how very much I missed it – not just the swimming, but being in a pool with other women who understand this sport – who *get* synchro.

After last night’s practice I can see already that while I’ve still got the strength for it (thank you biking and Curves), I need to do some serious work on flexibility. It was quite an effort to extend my leg straight enough for even the simplest of figures and I didn’t try anything too complicated last night. But I know it will all come back, especially once the season starts up again.

There is a faint smell of chlorine in my hair and a nose clip in my purse. I am already visualizing choreography with every piece of music I hear. After twelve years without any ability to practice my favorite sport (and the only one in which I was ever any good), all is right in my world once more.

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