I wasn't eaten by a bear - Part #1

Yeah, I know. I am not very good at this whole blogging thing. Well...I'm not sure if that is exactly true. I think it is more that I am not actually very good at this whole "training" thing. I have not been successful at maintaining any kind of regular training schedule and truth be told, I have been enjoying myself a little more than I should be seeing as my race is about 2 weeks away. Did you really expect any different from me???

With that confession out of the way, I would like to give myself a little credit as I have achieved some significant feats in the last month.

The weekend of August 7 we were invited up to our friends family cottage in Ladysmith QC. I pledged when we got there on Friday evening that I was going to swim across the lake. I was told that it was about a mile from one side to the other. That would have been if I could swim in a straight line. I apparently cannot. It was estimated that I probably swam twice the distance if you took all the zig zagging into account.

Here is the proof:


Here I am with my swimming partner in the boat on our way out to the dock.


Swim, Swim, Swim


Look Ma, no hands!


Yes...I'm okay...No...I am not about to drown...Thanks for checking on me though...


Look at that form!


Hallelujah!

Growing up in Toronto, there has never been much opportunity for me to swim in the open water. It is kind of scary; to tell you the truth. Every little flutter of light under the water and you are convinced that you are about to meet Nessie. There are no black lines clearly defined on a turquoise back drop to keep you on track and you can swim for 10 minutes, lift your head, and realize that you have veered way off track. And, unlike swimming in a pool you don't have the luxury of stopping and grabbing on to the side if you need to catch your breath or if you get a cramp. And as you can imagine, the other side always looks closer than it really is.

I paced myself well on this swim and all zig zagging included it took me about 40 minutes to get across. My original plan had me running back around the lake to the cottage, but my friend advised that it was not unlikey that I would be eaten by a bear, so I opted to be escorted back in the motor boat. Can you blame me??