Cleopatra's Barge

When I was a boy swimming lap after lap after lap, I would imagine pulling Cleopatra's barge up the Nile. When we shifted to sprints, I'd shift to Tarzan attempting to outswim crocodiles. When we slowed down for underwater work, I'd do my best Submariner. When we had to tread water forever, I'd recall Odysseus hanging from the fig tree above Charybdis, his legs in the water, churning and churning.

Hero tales.