The Open Water

On Saturday, I finally got to take part in an open water swim in the Hudson.  It was a beautiful day in the Hudson Valley; the sky was a clear blue and cloudless, without the haze that sometimes hides the far shore. It was warm but not oppressive, a perfect day for taking on the river.

As I drove to the beach club where I was meeting the team, my stomach churned with worries.  Would my stitches be a problem? Would I be so far behind that I wouldn’t complete the scheduled ¾ mile? When I arrived at the club, one of my teammates mentioned that she had been reading the blog and has felt many of the same fears I’ve been expressing throughout.  It was nice to feel the camaraderie of shared fears, to know that I was not alone, but it was also a reminder that sometimes I swim with fear wrapped around my ankles like buoys dragging behind me, slowing me down, holding me back.

As I entered the water, someone asked if anyone was nervous, I, of course, raised my hand, when I asked what I was nervous about, I responded cheekily “oh, you know, dying”.  Even though I was clearly being a smartass and masking fear with a joke, it occurred to me that while the likelihood of that happening for me was fairly low, it isn’t for those I am trying to support.

The swim itself went fine, though it was very hard. For the first quarter mile I could not remember how to stroke and kick and breathe simultaneously, I swallowed about half the river and managed to smack one of my teammates on the rear (oops!). During the second quarter mile, the waves picked up and I forgot how to swim completely, though I was rapidly becoming a river chugging champ! By the end of the third and final lap around the big orange buoy, however, I could, for the first time, envision myself crossing the finish line on September 10^th.  I still have a long way to go and I’m sure there are still setbacks and bumps to overcome, but I will keep swimming, and blogging, and bothering you for money, and getting a little farther every time.