There is one day left before the big swim, about 25 more hours and I swear, if Les Mis doesn't get out of my head I'm going to lose it! Speaking of songs stuck in your head, last week, after practice, my teammate, Rob, mentioned the songs that had popped into his head while he was swimming, many other people began to chime in with the songs or catch phrases that lodged in their minds while swimming. The thing about swimming, especially for long distances in brackish water, is that it becomes a little like what I imagine being in a sensory deprivation chamber might be like. Most of the time your vision is focused on grey water, the sounds around are muted and the sounds from within are turned up to eleven. There is a fuzziness between fantasy and reality, almost like dreaming while awake.
This happened last week while I was swimming, I started to feel as though I didn't have to swim as hard because I was made of water and I needed to stop fighting and start flowing. I realized that this river that I was in was made up of almost the same elements that I am, water, salt and minerals, that the Hudson runs through New York like the blood flows through my veins. It was at that moment that I realized how appropriate this swim is. We fight cancer in the river just as white blood cells fight within the body.
Several hundred people jumping into the NY's major artery to fight blood cancers, just like the medicines created from the research dollars we raise are injected into human veins and arteries for the same purpose.
Pretty cool, eh? There isn't much time left. Please donate if you can at http://pages.teamintraining.org/wch/Hudson12/emilyg.
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