Swimming is a demanding sport both physically and mentally. We train for hours a day, six days a week, every week of the month for a single race at a meet. No matter how much you train, you can never be 100% that your race is going to go perfect. The slightest error can ruin the thing you've been training so hard for. Even though there is a lot of pressure on swimmers, I wouldn't trade being a swimmer in for the world. Once you're a swimmer, then you're always a swimmer. You know you're a swimmer when...

1. You wake up when you can't even tell it's morning.

Morning practice means being in the water at 6:00AM. You wake up, leave your warm bed, throw on your bathing suit and sweats, then venture outside to make your way towards the pool. It's still dark, the moon is still out, the stars are still shining and you can't tell whether it's 6:00 in the morning or 2:00 in the morning.

2. You Get Overly Excited When You Can Set Your Alarm Past 5:30AM.

Even though they are rare, there are days when we don't have morning practice. This means that we can actually sleep in and wake up at a normal time. Looking at the practice schedule and seeing "morning practice optional" is equivalent to seeing "you won the lottery".

3. Chlorine Becomes Your Natural Scent.

No matter how many times you shower and wash your towels/suits, the smell of chlorine never truly goes away. Your friends are always commenting that your room smells like pool, other athletes complain that the gym smells like chlorine when we leave, etc. Chlorine has become your scent and it feels weird when you actually can't smell it on you or around you.

4. You Can Have a Conversation on a Ten Second Interval.

Since you can't talk when you're swimming, you make sure to get your conversation in between sets. Usually, you only have ten seconds before you have to leave the wall again, but you make it work.

5. You Can Eat as Much as You Want.

When you're swimming hours a day plus lifting plus dry-land training, you earn the right to eat whatever you want and all that you want. If you saw what a swimmer ate on a daily basis, you'd wonder how we're still able to stay afloat in the pool. We let ourselves treat ourselves because we know for sure that we are going to burn it off at the next practice.

6. You Identify Yourself as a Fish Instead of a Human.

To be honest, we spend more time in the water than on land. We are literally fish out of water when it comes to anything other than swimming. We accept this fact and embrace it.

Swimming is the best sport out there. It keeps us in shape, gives us a family, and is the cause of pain and joy in our lives. The relationship between swimming and a swimmer is a love-hate relationship. There are days when we want to quit more than anything, then there are days where we could not picture our lives without it. Where would the world be without us?