Every few weeks, The Pioneer‘s sports section takes a look into the daily life of a Whitman College varsity athlete. This week, a sophomore swimmer struggles to stay awake through an unending cycle of swimming and studying.
Tuesday, Jan. 25
5:40 a.m.: Alarm goes off. Morning practice today. Countdown from 10, then will limbs out of bed.
5:43 a.m.: Don sweatpants, sweatshirt and parka; grab toast and head out the door.
5:51 a.m.: Arrive at Baker Ferguson Fitness Center. Exchange mumbled hellos with groggy teammates. Slowly change into suit which is still damp from yesterday’s practice.
5:58 a.m.: On deck. Some teammates stretch, a few chat. One has fallen asleep on his stretch mat. Assistant coach announces the warm-up set.
6:01 a.m.: Practice begins.
7:36 a.m.: Practice ends. Team in lively spirits on post-practice endorphin high. Choruses of “Breakfast Time” (sung to the “Flight of the Concords” tune “Business Time”) echo in the locker room.
7:51 a.m.: Swipe self and upperclassman into Prentiss. Bleary-eyed diners with eight o’clock classes recoil at our boisterousness. Load plate with an obscene amount of food.
9:07 a.m.: In the class Introduction to Environmental Studies. Awake and ready to go.
9:41 a.m.: Sleepiness setting in. Note-taking quality way down. Almost fall asleep during slide-show on logging.
9:50 a.m.: Class ends. Head to Olin for German, but have an hour to kill before class.
9:54 a.m.: Start working on tonight’s environmental studies reading, but too tired. Find an empty classroom, set phone alarm and fall asleep slumped over one of the desks.
10:45 a.m.: Phone alarm sounds. Wake up to see backpacks in the room, but no people. Creepy. Quickly leave before anyone gets back.
12:00 p.m.: Lunchtime. More absurd amounts of food.
1:03 p.m.: Microeconomics and the Environment.
1:42 p.m.: Post-lunch slump. Energy dropping faster than an inelastic demand curve. Leave class under guise of a bathroom break and do jumping jacks in the hallway.
2:19 p.m.: Made it through class. Back to Douglas for a pre-practice nap.
4:00 p.m: Practice round two.
5:56 p.m.: 5,400 yards later and we’re off to the weight room. Sweat is pure chlorine.
6:15 p.m.: Basketball player walks by and comments how clean the varsity gym smells after the swimmers use it.
6:28 p.m.: Finish last set of reps. Dinnertime.
6:34 p.m.: Swimmers descend on Reid. Employees grumble about massive order influx, and other students are crowded out as swimmers colonize one of largest tables.
6:58 p.m.: Stuff face with remaining food and run to Kimball for a film screening.
7:41 p.m.: In film screening. Darkness and comfy chairs. I know where this is going.
7:43 p.m.: Asleep.
8:25 p.m.: Wake up for the end of the movie. I will never know what happens in the middle of “Chinatown.”
9:30 p.m.: Bedtime. Get to sleep in tomorrow.
Recap: Three and a half hours of swimming, five separate instances of sleep, one clean-smelling weight room.
