2011 - 1.76 Mile "Long Bridge Swim"

My Eldest Son,
"The Archer" and I in front of the finish point.....

















Arriving at check in.....
Picnic afterward....

The Start of the swim....

The Archer in the middle (wet suit and green cap)

My son "Archer" again... isn't he amazing?!?!

Me..... try not to laugh ;-)

My husband states he can pick me out by my "wounded frog swim"

Hubby and I at the finish. So thankful for my wonderful supportive husband!!

Archer with the free ice cream!!

As usual, nothing was "status quo" about the Long Bridge Swim for me this year ;-)

The lakes had been cold and didn't warm up till Mid-July which didn't give me a lot of time to train. I almost didn't even do it except that I had told the kids that I would do their dishes turns for a month if they participated. My eldest, "The Archer", took me up on it. With some swim strokes tips from Blue Alice, he was all set for the day!

As usual, I obsessed over what I would wear. All my most comfortable, best hard wearing swimwear are bikinis. I decided to try wearing water shorts over the bottoms for added modesty. In the end the shorts dragged low and looked horrid. I guess the best thing I can do is laugh it off. Last year I wore swim shorts and a tank over my bikini top. That tank created a lot of drag and looked ridiculous. I guess I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board for next year.

In the early morning we arrived in plenty of time for check in. I phoned my husband and told him that Archer go scared and changed his mind.... hahaha. Neither my husband or the Archer found that amusing ;-) My Bloomsday buddie caught up with us and we hung out there awaiting the safety meeting. After boarding the buses, we anxiously got to our start point. It was so much fun having my son be there with me!! I felt so proud of him :-)

Once we got into the water, I lost him but I knew he was a strong swimmer and would be fine. He said he kept thinking of Dorie on "Nemo" telling him "Just keep swimming - just keep swimming" lol!!

Just when I settled into a groove, somebody dropped a cup almost on me from off of the bridge. As it floated by, I became rather leery of swimming so close to the bridge. On I went, a little further out......

Right away I noticed my swim shorts dragging. My goggles seemed too tight. Nothing seemed right but I kept on swimming anyway. I accidentally kicked somebody. Then I punched somebody. Oh dear. None of that was intentional. People just seemed to keep swimming in front of me. As usual it seemed like I was swimming in place and I had to keep focusing mentally to tell myself that I was indeed, moving......

To add insult to injury, as I finally got my mental train of thought back, some old guy accidentally grabbed my behind. I was shocked and he immediately apologized, but it kind of threw me off to say the least. You just never know whats going to happen in these things. Most normal people meet a lot of nice people and have a great time. Me, well nothing ever seems to go "normal". Hahaha.

My husband and kids expected "The Archer" to be ahead of me and so for the first half of the swim I never saw them. I was fine with that, figuring they were tracking him. Then, half way through, just as I was feeling weary there they were cheering me on. Turns out my husband states he wasn't cheering me on, but trying to signal me to pull up my britches - bwa ha ha ha. Really he did cheer for me and I felt the wind under my wings. I even think I might have drafted a little here and there. Though I was tired and worked hard, I never stopped once. I'm still awaiting my time results to post. I think since I didn't train this year and since I was about 13 people later I probably don't have as good of a time.

When I got out, I consumed ice cream, cookies, fruit and all manner of free snack food. Though my incessant craving for steak eventually won out. If ever my appetite was completely out of control, its when I finish something like that!! My Archer made it out of the water not long after me, but of course the kids had to razz him about his mom beating ;-) Really, I'm amazed and proud of his accomplishment. I'm so excited that he had it in him. Besides my most important desire of wanting to pass on a relationship with God, I hope all my kids will have a love for fitness. It is such a simple, yet profound way of expanding and enhancing ones life.

In conclusion, the swim was a lot of fun, but was not without mishaps and misadventures. I suppose if I couldn't look back and laugh at myself I wouldn't have an entertaining story to tell ;-)