For the past six months I have been attempting to swim for exercise at a local pool. At first it was a challenge to swim even a half of a lap, but I have been going about 3 times a week and am slowly improving. In fact, I am proud to say that I have can now swim several laps. (Well, that is if I rest a little in between laps).

I wonder if I look this good swimming...
With my new found confidence, I decided to set up a new challenge for myself – like swimming a mile. Which after looking it up on google, I learned was 16 laps. I was so excited to see how close I could get. I decided to use the grate at the pool’s end and my flip flops to help me keep count and I was off –

like so...
When my time was up (I go during my lunch hour so time is limited), I had swam 12 laps. 4 laps short of a mile!
I was so excited that I called my sister after to tell her!
But then I started to think about it. I am no Olympic athlete (heck, I barely qualify as a swimmer) could I have really swim nearly a mile in 40 minutes? Wait – am I even swimming in an Olympic size pool? I didn’t know. So I set out to investigate the size of the pool today. It measured 101 of my feet – which translates to approximately 23 meters – about 27 meters short of an Olympic sized pool.
Those of you that are good at math have probably already figured this out, but my almost mile was a little bit closer to almost half of a mile.
I guess I still have some work to do.