Yesterday I entered the Grimaldo’s One Mile Swim Competition, held on the beach at Coney Island. Things did not go as planned. Let’s tell the story chronologically…
The alarm clock rings at 4:30 a.m. Parky 1, 2, and 3 are ready to go, and so are my goggles, towel and Parkinson’s pills. The picture is a little fuzzy because frankly speaking, so am I at this hour.
The race takes place at Coney Island. Here’s the famed boardwalk at dawn, with the iconic amusement park next to it.
The three Parkys spread out a towel so they can sit and watch the event.
Everyone wears a yellow cap, and there’s a lot of milling around by the water’s edge.
Still milling. I believe my right arm is at an odd angle because of dyskinesia, which is an involuntary muscular reaction to my Parkinson’s meds. At least, that’s what a leading Parkinson’s researcher said a week ago when she viewed a video taken of me at one of last year’s races.
We line up in numerical order, based on the number that’s written with magic marker on our arms.
We enter the water and stand waist deep waiting for the starting signal. The horn blasts. Everyone swims out to the orange buoy, turns right, and swims parallel to the shore for one mile, then swims back to the finish line on the beach.
Everybody but me. About halfway to the finish line I felt pain in my right shoulder, as if I was injuring my rotator cuff. I tried to compensate by raising my right arm higher out of the water, but this didn’t help. My pace slowed to a crawl and I doubted I could finish the race with my shoulder continuing to hurt with every stroke. One of the race “angels” (lifeguards who swim alongside the racers to help out if someone gets in trouble) approached me. I said, “I think I need to get out now.” He swam with me back to shore and I walked alone to the finish line, where my husband and a friend from grad school were waiting.
Naturally, I was bummed. I know other people quit swimming in the middle of races like these, but it’s never happened to me before. In the months leading up to this race, I regularly swam two to three miles in our town pool, often non-stop.
But here’s the surprising part. At the awards ceremony the first award given was the “A+ for Excellent Effort,” and they called out my name. I received a cap, a blue beaded necklace with dolphins on it, and a framed photo from Coney Island’s heyday. Not bad!
Here’s a close-up of the photo. It’s so campy!
Today, Sunday, my latissimus dorsi muscle has been sore. It’s not the rotator cuff anymore, but my lats. I tried to do some stretching exercises to loosen it, but that just seemed to aggravate it further. This week at the gym and pool I’ll stick to lower body workouts…and hope I’ll be OK for my next swim, across the Hudson River, in three weeks.
Thank you to everyone who supported me with donations to my Team Fox page! Even though I “lost” the race, we are all still winners!
Here’s to a healthy tomorrow…for everyone!
Drawing of the back muscles by sv:Användare:Chrizz,
found on Wikipedia.
So sorry that you were injured!