Leg cramps are funny

I have to laugh when I get one. Yesterday, I was hell-bent on getting in 3000 yards in the pool. I've had limited (read that: none) pool time in the last year, and I'm trying to jump start my system. So yesterday's plan was to go in and do 10 by 300 in the pool. I brought pennies with me to help keep track of the sets. I move one from the right side of the lane to the left every time I finish a set. K. thought some little kid might come along and steal my pennies, but it didn't happen yesterday.

So I'm cruising along at my comfortable 1:39/100 pace (yes, it's slow, but I'm still building), and I'm already feeling stronger in the pool when I feel a twinge in my left foot. It's just a twinge, but I know what it means. It's the start of something more. It starts in my toes. I can't wiggle them (or wriggle them if you are British).

It spreads to the arch of my foot. So I start to try to kick the cramp out. My toes stay cramped, but the arch of my foot is still just twinging, so I think I'm safe. I've got just 600 yards to go for my 3000 yard swim, and this thing is not going to get me.

I push off the wall and suddenly I can feel the twinge move from the arch of my foot to my Achilles and lower calf. MAN. Imagine someone cutting open the back of your leg, dropping a golf ball into the opening, closing it up again, then rolling the thing up and down your leg under the skin. That's the best way for me to describe the experience. But damn it, I was going to finish that 3000.

And I did. I smiled through the cramp. I glanced at the lifeguard a couple of times to size her up to decide whether or not she might actually be able to save me if needed (determined it wasn't likely). But I swam on.

At the end of the swim, I hopped gingerly out of the pool to find that my toes had never uncramped and my hip flexors were considering rebelling. My toes were practically crossed. I'm not kidding. How can that not make you laugh?