By Olivia Jarras

“Mommy, it's embarrassing that you volunteer to coach our team, yet you don't actually swim” said my 8-year-old one evening during practice.  

Me: “Really?”

My son: “Yes. Mommy. It is.”

Me: “How about we make a deal? If you can swim a 25 yard butterfly length, I will join Masters Swimming for a month, but if you can’t, you do extra chores for a week.”

At this point, my son could barely keep his face in the water during freestyle, let alone during butterfly, so I was certain the odds were in my favor.  I had blind faith that he would NOT be able to finish an entire 25 length of butterfly. 

Well, the next morning I found myself at my first master's practice.  And oh boy was I unaware of the adventure that awaited me. As it often goes, one thing led to the next, and my new Masters Swimming friends encouraged me to sign up for my first swim meet. My first meet led to my son challenging me to finish a 50 butterfly.  Finishing my first 50 butterfly left me so emboldened and proud, that a few weeks later I signed up for yet another meet and the never-yet-attempted-by-me 100 butterfly. 

You know how they say fortune favors the bold? I’m not sure who coined that term, but I don’t think they were right. My bold first attempt at the butterfly 100 was not very favorable in any way. I mean, the first 25 were great. The second 25 were pretty hard. The third 25 were really rough. And the final 25… Suffice to say I crashed a few times into the lane lines because the tears filled my goggles and water filled my lungs.  It was not graceful, but I finished it. 

Now you’re probably wondering how does this all tie in with a recap for Irvine? Well, as a total newbie to the sport, I can’t coherently speak to the vast amount of awesome results and records set by everyone at nationals… But I can certainly attest to the thousands of swimmers who were there pursuing their finest hour, pushing their own physical limits and stepping into a better version of what they themselves thought they were capable of achieving. 

It was a beautiful sight to experience- 2500 swimmers who were there because they love the sport and love the perpetual chase for improvement and perhaps even a personal best.  Most of us weren’t there to break a world record, or prove to ourselves that we are faster than others out there, but rather to break our own limited perception of what we as individuals can accomplish. 

Personally, I can thankfully report that I did not shed a single tear during my 100 butterfly, though I did cry when I watched so many men and women competing in the 200 butterfly… (Who the heck even came up with such a grueling event?!)

I had no idea what to expect from my experience at Master’s Nationals. Yet what I brought with me from Irvine was so much more powerful than I could have ever anticipated: I brought home a new community of friends; all of them passionate about our sport and their own personal progress. All of us audacious enough to know that we are masterpieces in the making, worthy of pursuing our best, and bold enough to believe that today gives us the opportunity to become a a better version of who we were yesterday. 

So the race recap in a nutshell?  From this newbie’s vantage point, there were a lots of awesome people swimming really fast. Lots of laughter, good company, and the strengthening of an already awesome community. Can’t wait to do it all over again.