Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Inspiration

Recently Joe and I have been discussing whether Ian is aware of our blogs and what we write about him. For those who may have only recently, obviously very recently, started reading either of our two blogs Ian is our club’s best active swimmer. Even with a gimpy shoulder. The Hyack Masters do have a couple of still better swimmers in the persons of Vladimir and Doug but they don’t practice with the club (our hour-long practices being too short and slow for them) so for the purposes of this post Ian stands alone. Joe is curious about Ian’s thoughts on what we blog about him. From what little I know of him I don’t think he’s particularly interested in what we say assuming he even bothers to read our blogs. My opinion. But every swim club, whether masters, competitive, or triathlon, should have someone, someone like Ian, who has real swimming talent because they provide the inspiration for the rest of us to try harder and to swim better. Watching an individual in the pool next to you who has not only swims faster but works harder in practice leaves little excuse for personal indulgences. So often in life we see where one extraordinary talent leads others soon follow and swimming is no different. Having that person in the pool allows us to measure ourselves and discover we’re not all that different, which in turn provides the motivation to work harder to make ourselves into the person we’re capable of becoming. Now Joe, just how do we get Vlad to swim with us?

3 comments:

Joe said...

Ian, if you read this, please know that we CHERISH every minute that we get to spend in the pool with you. You are indeed an inspiration and a role model (even if you don't do any stretching exercises).

Vlad will probably swim with us again in the summer. I prefer swimming with Ian though because sometimes (very rarely) you can actually come close to beating him for a rep or two. Vlad is entirely out of our league.

Damien said...

I definitely agree that Ian is an inspiration to all of us. I think he is definitely a phenomenal swimmer. I know that he definitely pushes me to be better. When I watch him swim, I say to myself "Maybe I can go faster too if he can go that fast." It's the knowledge that I can always keep getting better that keeps me coming to practice every week.

Joe said...

Hey Scott, it was fun swimming in lane 6 with your tonight. Thanks for showing me the ropes.