It was bound to happen eventually! We've finally done some open-water swimming two weeks before the race. It happened on Sunday, May 22 at Upper Mystic Lake in Winchester, MA. Now there wouldn't have been anything so tough about getting to lake water in MA, except that we've had so much rain that most of the open water has been closed, to swimmers that is, until now. We must have done about 1000 yards in various intervals, mostly getting used to the feel of our wetsuits. It was chilly enough letting the unheated water inside the rubber panels, but I really didn't find it bad at all standing out there for the photos and the lessons. Moving through the water was surprisingly easy, even though the full-armed suit can be rather confining. Once I was confident enough that I could rock and roll out there far enough to get a clear breath on either side in my freestyle stroke, it started to be fun. I'm pretty confident now that I'll have no real trouble getting through the 1500 meter swim at Newfoundlake on June 5. But lemme tell you something: about 90% of these folks can out-paddle me out there, and it's going to take some discipline just to stay in my own groove.
One of the little games I play with my would-be donors is to ask them which one of the team is actually me in the picture. So I'll set that up again here: where am I in the photo above? To find out the answer, check out my fund-raising web page at http://www.teamintraining.org/ma/moose10/dgraessle.
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