Life Lessons from the 400 IM
Life Lessons from the 400 IM
By Mike Gustafson//Contributor
“If I can do this,” I think, gasping for air, trying to calm the stomach churn as I hit the last leg of the 400 IM, eyes bulging, legs burning, arms aching, “I can do anything.”
Throughout my thirty-or-so years of swimming experience, one event taught me more than any other. This particular event taught me personal limitations, and how to exceed them. It also taught me not to eat a bean burrito fifteen minutes before performing said event. And all those other wonderful clichés about sports.
The event?
The 400 IM. Otherwise known as Swimming’s Toughest Event.
Perhaps no other competitive swimming event can offer more “life lessons” than this part-sprint part-distance all-four-stroke swimstravaganza. No other event balances all strokes in a distance that’s not-quite-a-distance-event-but-not-a-sprint-either. No other event makes one simultaneously thrilled about their athletic accomplishment while also simultaneously questioning the existence of a higher power. After all, how could a higher power have devised such a cruel and unusual event that is also, clearly and undeniably, the greatest event competitive swimming has to offer?
