Reality Check

I swam with Karen for a half hour this morning, then with the full group for an hour around noon. I quickly discovered I am at the back of the bus with this group. There is one guy who is about my speed and he just got into swimming last year as a way to lose weight, so this has been a humbling sort of day.

Ocean swimming is monsterously exhausting. It makes swimming in a pool seem like gliding along on roller skates. Instead of swimming, I feel like I'm in combat with the waves, each stroke a punch through the water that's crashing over me.

The cold is a challenge, but I find the effort to swim in the waves and the nauseating discomfort of swallowing seawater to be the worst. And, being at the tail end --  way behind the pack is disheartening.

We had a nice lunch after the noon swim, then had another swim. I just didn't feel up to getting back into the cold water, but I did it. I swam about 20 minutes and did some breaststroke to see where everyone was. I was way out from the beach and couldn't see anyone near me. I felt pretty gross with food and saltwater in my gut and decided to swim to shore. It took for freaking ever. I was glad to see my slow buddy Gregg also came to shore. I didn't see him in the water, but we must have been close together. I have no idea where Anne was. She was probably nearby, but when I couldn't see anyone, it made me nervous.

With such a crazy ambitious goal, I should be in the water swimming every minute I can. I feel a little discouraged for bailing out of the last swim after a half hour, but it IS my first day of ever really swimming in the ocean. I'll push it more tomorrow.