secret swimmy goal

i've had a secret swimmy goal in my head since i had 30 minute monday swims put on my schedule. i know how to swim, but i have never been a swimmer, so i wasn't quite sure what to do when presented with the officialness of swimming on my schedule. so i've just been getting in the pool and swimming. it was a nice change of pace from my usual routine of being a slave to my watch and my running pace. swim times had no meaning to me. i could just swim and not care how i did. but dammit, i like to measure things - to know how i am doing. and then one day i noticed the sign on the wall of the pool club that stated how many lengths equaled a mile. i didn't fully understand the lengths vs. laps. i had to ask the lifeguard to explain the difference between the two. i went home and plugged my lengths into a calculator, and then into my favorite workout log. and now i had a new goal. you know, in addition to that BQ. swim 1 mile in my allotted 30 minutes by the time this marathon training was over. and so i swam today and got out of the pool fairly elated, thinking i had done it. i swam a mile. but when i got home and plugged my lengths into my log, i realized i didn't. i was two lengths short. almost there.