for the first time since 1977, with the exception of a little playing around with various strokes one time maybe seven or eight years ago when I was traveling.

I think I drank half the pool, but I didn't drown. It took me a few laps to get settled into a rhythm and remember how to breathe. I did 36 lengths of what I think is a 25 yard pool. So that's half a mile, give or take. Same as they're doing in the sprint tri down the road two weeks from now. In a lake that's so shallow and calm that I could probably stand up and walk if I wanted to.

Ahem.

This thing has been calling my name for months, just because it's so close and the swim is so accessible. But I really haven't been training for anything since the marathon, much less trying to figure out how to swim in two weeks.

I think I'm going to really regret it if I don't do it. Which is why I never took it off my calendar. But if I do it, it'll be just to do it.

I'm thinking of the two men who told me their marathon stories, essentially the same thing, that they did it on a dare, went into them with hardly any training, and wound up with something like 6-hour finishes.

Now, I get that a sprint tri is a different thing from a marathon, but I wonder if I should even bother entering something that I know I won't be competitive against my own potential. I'm okay with not being objectively competitive, and I think I can ride and run at least fast enough that I won't keep the timing and scoring people up past their bedtimes. But you know what I'm saying.

I know what you're going to say, too. Why am I even bothering to ask?