What's Your Shtick?

Whether or not you are willing to admit it, you have one or at least wish you did. In high school, I developed one in the cross country culture. Since we were all pretty much the nerdiest sport in school, it was easy to take this persona on:

Now remember this was high school; and it is also worth noting that this was posed for a student government poster for my campaign theme: "Ready, Set, Vote for Cate!" So the blanket cape (courtesy of my grandmother) was not something I habitually sported. Still, the hair stuff, and the "racing socks" were regular fare at a meet - not to even mention a spoon staff (missing from picture) but that merits it own discussion for a later date perhaps. At any rate, it is no surprise that I ended up with the "Spirit Award" 2 years in a row at the end-of-the-season banquet. The thing is, though I fancied that I was a competitive runner, I would never be MVP - or whatever is the equivalent in nerdy sports like running. And thus I adopted a shtick, something to help me stand out when my times lacked in comparison to others at a big meet.

So with a new sport, where I find myself in the same position of being good enough to keep up but not really to set myself apart from the rest, I have taken up a new shtick. Thanks to some saved birthday money, I was able to jump-start the investment into collecting novelty swim caps. I can't tell you what a thrill it will be to show up 5:30am in one these:

As you can see, I have some seasonal stuff going here so there will most likely be a bit of a rotation of when I wear these throughout the year. The Rubix Cube one can be year round though and I really looking forward to busting out the Turkey one on our big Thanksgiving swim. The final one of Washington Crossing the Delaware will actually go to my dear swimming mate Tom who has worked tirelessly on my flip turns and kept me honest on my pacing at the early swims. Afterall, he is among those that have to sport the speedo so I thought it was most fitting for him to have it (last one from a discontinued make too!) Missing from this line up is an autumnal leaf collage cap and a fireworks cap, both of which I couldn't find the images online anymore.

Three cheers for hoping to become "that girl with the funky swim caps". I am going to start a revolution:)