For starters, I wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who was able to make a donation to support the cause to save Narragansett Bay -- y'all are awesome!! I was able to meet my minimum fundraising goal, and even went a little over ($600!). Even though it's not a local bay, as a swimmer [and general user of water all around], keeping water clean is definitely important to me. And I promise I won't solicit donations for another event again for at least a few years!
On a whim, in the week leading up to the bay swim, I decided to check out my training numbers for swimming over the past few years. I started logging my workouts in 2009, and sure there were probably some periods where I wasn't consistent about entering in my times, but I think for the most part it's pretty accurate [especially for triathlon sports, maybe not so much the extra stuff like soccer, hiking, etc]. Holy cow, check out these swim numbers!! Mind you, we are only in July of 2014 [and not counting the actual bay swim] and I have already well surpassed the past three years combined! I have my swim lane-mates Linda, Hillary, Taylor, Catherine and Dexter [and Chris even though he recently moved up a lane] to thank for keeping me committed to the training. It's easy - well, easier - to wake up before the crack of dawn when you have great lane-mates [and when you know they'll notice when you're not there]! |
| Don't get me wrong, I wasn't sitting on my ass all these years [well, not completely].. I did run over 67 hours in 2013 [prior to surgery in Sept] which, for me, is a LOT. |
Originally, I was placed in the 2nd wave, and was happy to know that there would be a wave before me that I could watch navigate the first 5 minutes of the course. Except, when I got to the check-in, I found that they had shifted me to the first wave.After the safety briefing, I started making my way into the water over the [very] rocky shoreline. Once I got a few meters into the water though, there was a bunch of seaweed that created a softer carpet on the bottom of the bay. Us swimmers couldn't hear any of the announcements that Heidi and Dan heard, giving us the 2 minute warning and such, but all of a sudden we heard the cannon (!!!) sound and we were off!
I was super nervous about this swim. The idea of swimming straight across a large body of water, without any buoys to help guide me gave me visions of a large current catching me and carrying me out to sea, never to be heard from again. Shockingly, that didn't happen. I kind of let most of the swimmers in my wave go ahead of me, and I slowly started to get my groove on. I was breathing only to my right (bridge was on the left) and so everything looked the same with every stroke. I decided to just plug along without looking at the bridge or my watch, though I gave in after what seemed like a really long time... 18 minutes. Geez. Then I decided to look over at the bridge, and it seemed like I was barely into it. Oy, it was going to be a long day.
They had warned of jellyfish in the bay that time of year, and I saw them! There were tons of them just under me in the water, and I did not really care for that sight. I felt like my arms kept swerving through a school of them and I could feel them touch my hands.... I later realized that what I was feeling was more likely the bubbles that my hands created as they moved through the water. I did get stung though. Twice. Luckily, the jellyfish lotion I was wearing did its job and it didn't really bother me at all past the initial sting.
Twice I hit something solid and slimy, that I can only describe as a huge fish head (or sea monster?), even though realistically I know that no fish would swim that close to me no matter how separated I might have been from the other swimmers [which, at times seemed like there was a ton of space, though I think I was always within 15-ish meters of another swimmer in varying directions... I only collided with another person once and much unlike triathlon, we both paused and -- wait for it -- apologized!!]. Touching the sea monster's fish head freaked me out something fierce, but I had nowhere to go but forward. I looked over at the bridge and could tell that I was approaching the middle section, so almost halfway. I kept swimming, trying to get away from the sea monster that was obviously following me, and looked at my watch again... 26 minutes. Then I looked at the bridge again.. still almost halfway... still coming up on the middle section of the bridge... ohmigosh, I felt like I was in an endless pool. It took literally forever, but as soon as I passed that section, the rest of the swim seemed to go really kinda fast.
Honestly, the current wasn't too bad. There were a few sections that were a little choppier than others, but at no time did I feel like I was stuck in a washing machine. There was one completely disgusting section with foamy brown water that I couldn't bring myself to put my head into, so I swam with my head out of water for about 20 meters (give or take 10; I have no way of measuring that kind of distance). I forbid myself to look behind me for most of the swim because I was worried I'd see that I really hadn't swam that far at all. But finally, I allowed myself to stop and glance back to take in the beauty of the area. What I saw was a parade of kayaks decorated with balloons and streamers, all so that the swimmer they were escorting could identify them. It was actually a really cool sight!
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| The top is the mapped course... the bottom is MY course :-) |
One of the things I didn't count on was how much my back would hurt. The wetsuit keeps you buoyant, and it poised my legs at just an angle to put an arch in my back. It really started hurting during the second half of the swim and lingered for the duration. But I kept on going, and realized the end buoys were within reach and I was close to being finished! Some of the kayak swimmers had caught up to me by then and it got really congested trying to navigate around the corner and into the finish chute. The finish volunteers were standing pretty far out in the water, and I wasn't sure when I was officially done, so I just kept swimming until I was basically on top of them. I hit the lap button on my watch cause I wasn't sure if that was the end or just a check point -- we were still a good distance from the beach. 1:16:09. My [completely reasonable, in my opinion] goal was to go under an hour and a half, so this was fantastic! I got my position marker and walked towards the other set of volunteers who took my marker (basically a popsicle stick) and wrote down my number. I think I was probably officially done at this point, but I kept my watch going until I was firmly on the beach. Done! 1:18:18 when I finally stopped my watch for a total of 1.97 miles (versus the advertised 1.7 miles... It was 1.91 miles when I hit the lap button and stood up).
The hardest thing about distance swimming for me is the feeling of being horizontal for so long and then standing up and trying to walk. I was dizzy and disoriented, probably walking around with my head in the clouds wanting to find some water and a place to sit. My mouth was on fire from all the salt water [and my invisalign retainer cut up my mouth as well, as it does on many endurance events]. I looked around and saw Heidi waving at me. Someone handed me a towel and I made my way over to where Heidi and Dan were standing. I went back into the water to remove my wetsuit and the 3 of us went over the the festival area where I snacked on some post-swim fruit (the strawberries were stinging my tongue -- not cool). Then it was a walk to the car, back to the house for a shower and off to breakfast!
The currents didn't get me. The sea monster didn't get me. The nasty brown foamy section of water didn't get me. The jellyfish did get me, but I was prepared for them. Unfortunately, I didn't come out completely unscathed, as I sliced my toe open on one of the shells on my way out of the water. Still, all things considered, this was a win for me.
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| I don't think this band-aid depicts exactly how much this cut hurts! [even though I didn't even notice it until later that afternoon] |
The rest of the weekend was spent at the Narragansett Town Beach, a driving tour of the area, good food (scallops!), great ice cream and a good nights sleep. Heidi and I took a mile and a half stroll along an ocean side trail Sunday morning before it was time to get me to the airport to go home. Heidi and Dan were both incredible hosts [and swim sherpas!] for a fun weekend!
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| Yes, that is Dan in that photo, riding the waves on his boogie board! |
Then.... when we landed in Dulles, a lady from my flight comes up to me and says,
"Oh, I recognize that shirt; my husband and I were in Newport and saw all of you guys swimming! We were actually there for the shark catching contest on the other side of the bridge, and were worried they were maybe using you all for bait -- I'm glad to see you made it out!"Ummmm... say what? She must be kidding. Right? Wrong. Of course I immediately grabbed my phone and looked this up. Sure enough, the Newport Shark Tournament was going on at the same time. It's a really good thing I didn't know about this before the event!! I am now absolutely convinced that the sea monster I touched twice was actually sharks... [I'm kidding... kind of]
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