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The essential aphorisms of marathon swimming
evmo
Sydneydev
Inspired by a <a href="http://www.marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/comment/351#Comment_351">suggestion</a> from @david_barra...
<ul>
<li>"Nothing great is easy" (attributed to Capt. Matthew Webb)</li>
<li>"One stroke at a time" (attr. unknown?)</li>
<li>"Just keep swimming" (attr. unknown?)</li>
<li>"Even a paper cup will eventually reach France" (attributed to Alison Streeter MBE)</li>
<li>"As sh*tty as this is, thank god I'm not on the boat" (<a href="http://www.marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/comment/336#Comment_336">Bob Needham</a>)</li>
</ul>
Others? Let's hear 'em.
<ul>
<li>"Nothing great is easy" (attributed to Capt. Matthew Webb)</li>
<li>"One stroke at a time" (attr. unknown?)</li>
<li>"Just keep swimming" (attr. unknown?)</li>
<li>"Even a paper cup will eventually reach France" (attributed to Alison Streeter MBE)</li>
<li>"As sh*tty as this is, thank god I'm not on the boat" (<a href="http://www.marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/comment/336#Comment_336">Bob Needham</a>)</li>
</ul>
Others? Let's hear 'em.
Tagged:
Comments
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
- No-one ever died from sore shoulders.
- Swim from feed to feed.
- Every Channel swim is different.
- The Channel will still be there tomorrow.
- Practice everything.
No attribution for any of them, they are all too well known. (But maybe Freda Streeter for the first one).loneswimmer.com
"I never met a shark I didn't like"
I feel this way after almost 3 years of swimming in a 15 meters (per length) pool...
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
www.darren-miller.com
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
"Pain is temporary, victory is forever."
My high school swim coach always said, "Pain is negative energy. Make it work for you." Intersting thought when you are hurting ...
<))><
One of my rowing class instructors likes to bark out "Pain . . . is just a warning sign!" when we're in the middle of a hard row. I've never found that particularly reassuring!
But it does make me laugh, which always makes things hurt a little less, so I guess it's in some sense effective.
Made up this one today. Was inspired by the fact that there was a persistent and annoying creeper in the pool I was trying to avoid. I got in 5000yd continuous swim before he left.
I just take a breath.
loneswimmer.com
Don't touch the butt (another Finding Nemo gem)
What for? (Gertrude Ederele's response to her support crew telling her to get out because of stormy weather and high waves. It became a catch phrase in the 20s.)
Molly Nance, Lincoln, Nebraska
loneswimmer.com
Sisu: a Finnish term meaning strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity.
loneswimmer.com
This is just a toss off email to the channel chat group, by a non-swimmer, non-swim coach, and non-nutritionist. Not sure it qualifies as an essential aphorism of marathon swimming.
Ouch... :-)
Milko
https://db.marathonswimmers.org/p/milko-van-gool/
-- South End Rowing Club legend Bob Roper, via Mick Jagger, exported to the east coast by @david_barra
A phrase that became popular among the elite group on my club school back in high school. It's my personal mantra when a set starts to get too painful. I think we can all agree that those big sets hurt like hell, but as soon as they're done you realize it hurt so good
http://andrewswims.com/take-it-too-far/
<blockquote>Swim all the time. Swim through Love. Swim through Loss. Swim through all emotions that come in between. Never ask if swimming is the cause or the cure. It is probably both, but knowing that won’t help anything. Swim as your life crumbles around you. Swim while you rebuild it. Never stop swimming.</blockquote>
Just go read it.
As I rounded the peninsula, I could see the 12.5km-long bridge that spanned the strait I needed to cross. The bridge has piers every 250 meters and I could start to quantify my lack of movement. I started to cry, and my coach wrote a doozy on the whiteboard:
"Don't measure. Just do." -- Coach Phil Evans
It still moves me to this day.
Luke: What's in there?
Yoda: Only what you take with you.”
&
Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
@sharkbaitza
"The trick . . . is not minding that it hurts" - Lawrence of Arabia
The African Queen
Old thread, but happened upon it. When I mentioned being tired, my coach said, "there's no such thing as tired." Another time when I mentioned cramps, he said "there's no such thing as cramps." I could have dreamed that second one, but I distinctly remember the first.
So much is mental though.
In a similar vein, my coach always says "there is no such thing as fatigue"
Mine always said, “there’s no such thing as altitude”
When I'm getting tired, my mind jumps straight to, "Each stroke is one stroke further than you just were."
"Go slow to go fast"
"It's not THAT cold"
"cold is a state of mind"
"I was born on the crest of a wave and rocked in the cradle of the deep"
"Clear water=cold water"
at least for lake michigan lol