Here are 21 things that only swimmers will understand.
1. You have to set at least five alarms to wake up in the morning.
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You know all too well that you need at least five alarms to wake you up for practice in the morning; because you know that if you do not your coach will personally call you to yell at you for not being at practice, and nobody wants that wake-up call.
2. You have accepted that chlorine is your perfume.
media.giphy.comNo matter how many times you shower or however many body washes you use, you will still smell like chlorine. Even whenever you sweat it smells like chlorine. You have gotten used to everybody making a weird face and asking "what is that smell" whenever you enter a room.
3.You have mastered the art of the "deck change"
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Let's face it we have all been in situations whenever we were running late, so we had to "deck change". You have also used this technique in places like the gym class locker room and had everybody amazed that you could change clothes without ever taking the original clothes off until you had already changed.
4. You have worked as a life guard at least once in your life.
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Just face it, you can't stay away from the pool no matter how hard you try, so you got a job watching other people swim. You also definitely secretly judged the other lifeguards that were not swimmers.
5. Having permanent google/ cap lines on your face.
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There is nothing like going to take a selfie after practice only to find the bright red marks going across your forehead and around your eyes.
6. Taking ten or more minutes to put on a tech suit.
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Only swimmers can understand the struggle of trying to put on an article of clothing that is purposely five sizes too small for at least ten minutes. All of the pain and suffering of shoving your body inside the suit is then rewarded by that 0.01 of a second you dropped in your race.
7. Having weird shaving schedules.
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You were told when you were and were not allowed to shave by your coach so you could get the right taper, and have the least amount of "drag" before your race.
8. Food, in general.
Over your years as a swimmer, you have learned that you can, in fact, eat a whole large pizza by yourself. You have also had some weird looks from the servers at Olive Garden after your second basket of bread sticks and second bowl of pasta.
9. You physically cannot run.
GiphyOver the years your body adapts to always being in the water so whenever you then try to run; you just can't.
10. The pain of hitting your hand on the lane line.
To an average person, the lane line looks like the least intimidating part of the pool; swimmers, however, see it as a thing to avoid at all costs Hitting your hand on the lane line is the swimmers equivalent of stepping on a Lego.
11. You know multiples of 25 better than anybody else.
GiphyYou do not even have to think when somebody asks how much 13x25 is, you know the answer is 325.
12. Top and Bottom mean something completely different to you.
On the top means on the 60 or 00. On the bottom means on the 30. (when the pace clock reads :30, :60, or :00).
13.You have gotten very good at telling stories in small increments.
https://tenor.com/view/talking-wall-gif-5021467You have mastered the art of telling ten seconds of a story swimming to the other side of the pool and then continuing the previous story for another 10 seconds, repeating this cycle until the story or set has finished.
14. You never want to have practice on your birthday.
Birthday swims are the worst thing ever invented. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to celebrate somebody's birthday by making them swim butterfly while being splashed in the face by your entire team every time you try to breathe.
15. Butterfly is not a peaceful animal.
Butterfly is arguably the worst, most tiring stroke that can be swam.
16. Meet warm ups have trained you for the apocalypse.
Meet warm-ups truly are every man for themselves. I have personally been scratched, kicked, and bitten during meet warm-ups.
17. Taper
The one week where you do not want to skip practice.
18. You do not know how to have fun at a public pool.
Every time your friends ask you to go to a pool with them you just end up trying to race everybody at the pool, or just practicing dives and flip turns.
19. You have also mastered water polo.
Coaches would have you play water polo as a fun game but soon it turned into an all-out war and more of a workout than a normal practice.
20. Thunderstorms are your favorite weather phenomena.
You always know whenever it is about to storm, and you always make sure your coach knows too.
21. The bruises you get from the pool.
You know the pain of going to a pool with a high gutter and just knowing you are going to leave with at least three new bruises on your legs.
