The William Paterson men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams spent part of the 2010 winter break training in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. Junior Lauren Horowitz (Hillsborough, N.J.) shared her experiences with wpupioneers.com.
Every year is a new challenge when training in Curacao. People returning always think that they will remember what the pain was like, and the freshmen have no expectations as to what the week of swimming entails. As always when we start the trip, people begin to question what they have gotten themselves in to, and some people even start threatening to take the next flight home. This one week of swimming tests your physical and mental capabilities in the sport of swimming. You will swim more meters than you ever thought possible in one practice or even in one day, but somehow after every practice you find that you have made it through.
This year we arrived the earliest we ever have to Curacao due to our direct flight. We also shared our flight with Queens College, one of the rival teams that was training in Curacao for the week as well. Arriving early, to my teammates and me, meant we would get in the water and finish practice quickly before dinner; to Coach Gurka it meant staying in the water until the outdoor lights came on. For the next two days we had double practices and each got harder as we went on. Then finally on Tuesday we had practice in the morning and then had the afternoon off to go to two different beaches. The first beach is where you can jump off a cliff into the ocean. It’s always fun to see who is brave enough to go first. The second beach has a lot to offer. There is a snack bar, a beach side massage station, and this year there was a floating dock which got a lot of use by my teammates. After a fun day at the two beaches, we all got ready and went out for our team dinner. The food was delicious and we all had a good time sitting at a long family style table talking and laughing. But as the night came to an end the team had to prepare themselves for the next three days of double practices. Those three days of swimming were very intense, but we were getting stronger. Coach Gurka even started to add more meters into practices because we could handle it. And by Friday night we had swam just over 86,000 meters. That night the team all spent a great night out in the town at one of the clubs dancing and having a well deserved good time.
Curacao is a different experience each year. Since our trip was shorter than ever before, we trained harder than ever before. But when it comes down to it at Championships, the pain you felt in your arms and legs, the thought of “I can’t do it” that ran through your mind, and the exhaustion you constantly felt, will all be worth it. I am proud of all my teammates who successfully made it through this year’s trip. We never gave up and we always kept pushing ourselves. The best part about making it through the week is knowing that you did your best, knowing that your teammates did their best, knowing that our Coach is proud, and knowing that at Championships we are going to swim incredibly.