She wakes up to the screeching of several alarms going off continuously, grappling with her conscience so early in the morning.
It is five o’clock in the morning, and she needs to get to swim practice by 5:50. She arrives at the practice pool in Marymount College (EF). As she walks into the locker room, she sees all her teammates with half-closed eyes, languidly lying on the floor.
Lydia Pak, a senior who has been in the swim team for more than 4 years, said, “I first started swimming because I thought that it would be a fun sport. I think that I continued to swim mainly because of the people that I met on the team. I mean, swimming can be fun sometimes, but bonding with the other members of the team is probably the best part about swimming.”
Then, the coaches’ clear, booming voices cut through the heavy silence of the unwanted swim practice so early in the morning.
The 30 second countdown starts as the coaches rush the swimmers into the pool. As she dives into the pool a little unwillingly, she feels the cold water enclosing her entire body.
Practice begins with a 400 yd freestyle, 300 yd kick, pull, swim, 200 yd IM, and 100 freestyle. Aayushi Jha, a sophomore, said, “Warm up is my favorite part. You don’t have to go fast to race against the clock.”
However, after warm up, she has to swim multiple sets that the coach gives the entire team. When practice ends though, she is given time to socialize with her friends from different schools, including Sleepy Hollow, Hastings, and Edgemont. Nevertheless, she needs to go straight to school, lasting seven more hours before being able to go back home.
However, swimming is never far away because she knows, the next day at five o’clock in the morning, in less than half a day, she has to wake up again to the millions of alarms for swim practice, allowing her to jump into the icy box of water again.
