Link to Aruba photo gallery
By Melissa Wallace
Winter training. Two words many athletes dread hearing.
What if you had the chance to spend ten days of your winter training in 90-degree weather, running mountains instead of treadmills and training amid the warm air instead of a stuffy room?
For most athletes, it would be a dream come true. But for The College of New Jersey's men's and women's swim teams, it's a reality.
Their annual trip to the island of Aruba every January is an experience marked by grueling workouts, intense training sessions, fun in the sun, and countless memories with teammates and friends.
It begins with a departure time of 4:30 a.m. Not the best time to leave, but it guarantees an early arrival with enough time to squeeze in a two-hour practice. Since that's what they're there for –to endure the hardest week of training in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Upon arrival, The Mill Resort gets bombarded with nearly 60 swimmers and the aroma of chlorine escalating throughout the hotel area. The dreamlike ambiance attracts the lustrous eyes of the teams' newcomers –palm trees, blue ocean water, and skies with hardly any clouds. Crowds of tourists and locals watch the every move of this large group who seem all too eager to endure the strenuous days ahead of them.
And so day one begins with the usual morning workout at the pool. Roughly 40 minutes away from the resort, the swimmers get as much rest as they can on their commute. It's an Olympic size swimming pool, so it's not like swimming at the pool back at home –roughly two times plus the size of the College's pool. The promise of the beach and the sun pushes the swimmers through the workout ahead of them.
“You're there to train,” says Jennifer Rashti, a junior, “But at the same time, you are in a warm, tropical place in the middle of winter. You just want to experience all that the island has to offer. Not many athletes have that opportunity, especially during their winter training.”
If you think that swimming every day, twice a day at the pool is what the teams do for nine days, you're wrong.
In replacement of pool workouts, the men's and women's' swim teams partake in various other ways of training. One of the most memorable practices –a tradition from past Aruba years –is the mountain run. Over 500 steps reside on this giant landmark.
The men's team begins their journey with a light jog before running up and down the mountain three times. The women's team gets started right away, for they have to jog up the mountain three times before they can stop at the top for their annual photo opportunity.
“It's a rush,” says Rashti, “When you finally do get up there, the view is amazing. The whole island is visible. You don't get that image from swimming up and down a pool for two hours.”
Later on in the week a change of scenery establishes a break from the usual routine. A trip to Baby Beach in between training sessions leaves the swimmers time for snorkeling with the coral reefs, observing the striking sea life beneath the water, and hanging out with teammates and coaches.
“The sea life in Aruba is amazing,” says Margaret Molloy, a junior, “It's great that we get to do all these things on our training trip. Not many athletic teams get to have opportunities such as this.”
It's an experience they all remember throughout their four years at the College. But eventually, the week in paradise has to end.
And what better way to finish off the week with a little friendly competition.
Another tradition passed on from past Aruba training trips –the annual run, swim, and run –an opportunity to train on the Aruban landscape. Both the men and the women compete in this event, yet on separate days. The race begins with a warm-up run on the side of the road down to the beachside, where boundaries are set for the first part of the event. The running usually totals around three miles. Buoys are set in the ocean as swimming boundaries for the middle part of the race.
The heat, the warm air, the tropical setting –all contribute to the performance of the swimmers during this event. But the effect of the Aruban atmosphere is positive. A grueling workout this is, but each swimmer manages to persevere and push beyond their usually physical limits. They finish in no time, drenched in sweat, sand, sea water, and the Aruban air.
And it's all over. Another Aruba trip gone by.
Yet there's no denying the love-hate relationship of a training trip. For many of the swimmers at the end of the trip, island fever has set in. Bodies ache, muscles are sore, and the sight of a swimming pool makes each swimmer cringe.
When the time comes to pile into the airport as the swimmers feel those last few seconds of the warm island air against their skin, they realize that they won't remember the grueling workouts or the painful runs or even the intense dry-land sessions, but will instead remember the moments they shared with each other that would be difficult to experience elsewhere.
Because being able to train in Aruba is really all about the experience and it truly is the experience of a lifetime.
