Econo-Swim: 7/12/08

Ever the supportive hubbie, Nat brought me my coffee at 4:30 a.m. (ain't he sweet?), so I was up - but despite the early rise I didn't enter the the water until 7 am. I swam the the perimeter of Aquatic Park three times; quick and easy.
I used to think doing coves alone was boring & even a little creepy, but something's shifted since I've been training. It no longer matters where I am swimming. Even with the most exotic course, the view is always the same to my right: my pilots. This is why above all else (attitude, sense of adventure, loyalty, etc.), the most important quality to look for when selecting a crew member is good looks.
Back to the swim, Elizabeth launched the rowboat & we headed East. Elizabeth is such a bad ass, she can manage mixing my feed, watching for traffic and steering me all while manning the oars. We cruised for two hours before turning back towards Aquatic Park. I spent most of that portion working on guessing her mother's name (hint: 8 letters & the name of a state).
Just about there, a loud loud horn sounded. I just about jumped out of the water. The WWII warship, the Jeremiah O'Brien was letting off steam. We didn't know if it was going to move as well, so I sprinted ("Swim for your life!!!") for a very exciting 10 minutes. Back to the dock for a feeding: Hour five!
At the shift change, Alice came out in the kayak to take me West to finish the second half. Elizabeth had given her the name of her sister, which I was working on (hint: starts with a J).
Alice was seriously equipped: marine radio, her new waterproof digital camera & who knows what else all hanging around her neck - probably her pager & cell, plus all my feed between her knees. You have to hand it to the gal, its no easy task being on call for work 24-7 AND being an open-water enthusiast. Try finding coverage for you no-show employee, all while directing your swimmer, manning your kayak and keeping your fancy work-phone from getting wet - just one week after swimming a marathon. Impressive.
By this point my tongue was so swollen, I could feel the carmel from the last snickers bar on my bottom teeth, but try as I might, my tongue just couldn't get at it. Cursed Sea-Tongue! It must be the idea of the snacks I enjoy, because I couldn't taste much either. The rather brilliant idea came to me to have Nurse Alice measure my tongue before & after a long swim with some kind of medical calipers, so we could get an idea how much a tongue really puffs up. I got a look at it in the mirror immediately afterwards and it was all wrinkled in the middle- pruned up just like your fingers after too long in the pool.
Here's a clip staring my Sea-tongue.

I know what your asking: Do I really swim that slowly? It was almost hour 7 when this was filmed, but September 4th is going to be a very very long night, if that's what it is going to look like! It is a brand new camera, maybe Alice just needs to fix the speed setting or something...yeah, that's probably it.
I started working on a brain teaser one of my lane mates Kathy had given me last week:
you start from 100 and continually subtract 7 all the way down. She called it a dementia test - I'm not sure if that's because it determines if you are crazy, or it makes you crazy. Anyhow, it really helps pass time.
Before I knew it, we were headed back to the cove - I did a final two laps around and it was done! My crew was cheering on the dock and asked me how I felt:
"Strong Like Ox!!"

As it was an Econo-Swim, (read: I stuff my mattress with money, rather than spend it. How do you think I became this wealthy, in the first place?), we celebrated by drinking VB's in the women's locker room, instead of Fiddlers.There's something really fun about drinking beer in a locker room with a bunch of tough dames. The conversation seems to go places it couldn't in a pub. Ehem.

Alright -next up, "Three Bridge Swim" with Jim Bock at the helm this coming Saturday:
4:30 am ready & launch boat
6am start at the zoo
9:30am Get to GG Bridge (6.7 NM)
Cross GG Bridge depending on vessel traffic (.6NM)
Head into Raccoon Straights and on to victory. .
The objective is to drop me in some chop and let me log some time slugging it out.