Fun relays at Thanksgiving
Well-deserved time in the hot tub.
Elizabeth Henley
For many years, Thanksgiving workouts were dedicated to fun relays. Coach Doug had a bucket full of balls. It’s not as easy as it looks to move a bunch of balls down a lane and then hand them off to your next teammate. Under the best of circumstances, it’s also not easy to traverse the pool with a cup full of water balanced on your forehead without spilling any of it. We’ve ridden rubber duckies down the pool, swam in socks, and many other fun things.
Are you aware that a whole person can fit into a bathing cap? That used to be the last event of the day. And, yes, it is possible to stretch a latex cap without breaking it and get a person inside. To do this, you need many hands around the cap, adding more as it grows. The group puts the cap under water and lifts it up and down, letting the water expand the cap. When it is big enough, they plop a person inside. Needless to say, we chose the smallest person on the team. What fun!
This year at Christmas, Coach Terry had us ride Santa’s sleigh from the North Pole to deliver packages to the world’s children. For the long distances, we traveled the easiest way (freestyle), then we flew over the nearby houses (butterfly), down the chimney (underwater), left the packages, and then it was back up the chimney (rocket launch) and onward.
We were also given the task of using a kickboard in non-conventional ways. Our first impulse was to ride it sitting up. But, we couldn’t balance with the board across our bodies. Somebody figured out that keeping the board parallel to the body would work, and we soon were all on our way. It was really cold and windy that day, so “reading the newspaper” was a chilly experience.
A few years back, a group of five women decided that they were going to work out with the earliest practice, which then was designated for the fastest swimmers, all male at the time. They called themselves the Sharkettes and called the men Hammerheads. Hammerheads are sharks, but Google also gives an alternative definition; they wouldn’t mean that, would they? At one spring state meet, Peggy showed up with many temporary tattoos of all kinds of sharks. The women on the team all became Sharkettes for the day and had a grand time doing so. The Sharkettes became part of the club’s lore.
We all love the hot tub and feel really lucky to have one near the pool where we work out. We use it regularly, but seldom with 20 people in it!
Club Details:
Dues for club membership are $20 a year, which includes a club shirt. You can learn more about the club and find a link for workout sign-ups at our website, SaddleBrookeSwimClub.org. We welcome new members.