It was the weekend after the Fourth of July and Rudy Garcia-Tolson was still searching for a place to swim in Southern California. With all the public pools near his home closed, his attempt to come out of a three-year retirement at age 31 and make a fifth United States Paralympic team was stuck in first gear.
He’d started swimming and surfing in the ocean, plenty fun and a tough workout but hardly the best way to prepare to face elite competition in the 200-meter individual medley and the 100-meter breast stroke.
Then Garcia-Tolson’s phone lit up notifying him of an Instagram message. David Duchovny, best known for playing Special Agent Fox Mulder on TV’s “The X-Files,” was reaching out. Duchovny, a fellow swimmer and triathlete, had read the article in The New York Times detailing Garcia-Tolson’s efforts to find a place to train. The actor had an idea.
Rudy Garcia-Tolson doing the backstroke in David Duchovny’s backyard pool in Malibu, Calif
I was still trying to find a pool when I got one of the great messages of my life. It was from a woman who said she worked with the actor David Duchovny, telling me to get in touch with her about finding a pool to train in. She gave me his number and told me to reach out. When I did, he told me he had a 25-meter, one-lane pool in his backyard. I was welcome to use it whenever I wanted. I just needed to give him a little notice.
The funny thing is I actually met David at the Malibu Triathlon when I was a kid. I was there with the Challenged Athletes Foundation. He didn’t remember that when I told him, but then I showed him a picture of us, and then he totally did. How crazy is it that I met this guy like 20 years ago and now I am training in his pool?
Garcia-Tolson, left, meeting the actor David Duchovny at the Malibu Triathlon in a family photo. “How crazy is it that I met this guy like 20 years ago and now I am training in his pool?”
So far I’ve gone about 12 times. I text him, tell him when I am going to be there. I park in his driveway, next to the garage. I go right to the pool.
The first few times we talked some. Now it’s less and less. I uncover the pool, get my equipment out, and within five minutes I jump in. I do my 90-minute, or maybe a two-hour workout and I am done. It’s pretty nice.
The first few days I was in awe that I was in Malibu, at an outdoor private pool. After I got over that, I was able to get into my zone.
It’s my fourth week now. I feel tired and sore, but it’s the good type of tired and sore that I really missed and enjoy. I’m hitting my intervals and going fast, and feeling good again.
source: nytimes
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