July 2008 Archives

Post race time is all about recovery, right? I expected to be barely able to walk by Tuesday after Vineman but alas, such was not the case. I was sore but not that sore. By Saturday I could no longer live with myself being so sedentary.

1). Saturday - Masters swim (but not for long - I only lasted 40 minutes) and then a 3 mile run. It wasn't all that fast but it felt pretty good.

2). Sunday - off.

3). Monday off - old habits die hard. I'm not on a plan but Monday has been my "off" day for a while so that's just how I roll now. I got my bike back Monday, all clean and shiney and with a new chain - WINNER!

4). Tuesday - ride. Ahhhh.... I was so happy to ride again. I had to go solo because the Good Doctor is very busy but I was so glad to go. I had thought I'd get back in time to go to the 10:30 swim but I was having so much fun I just kept going. Not fast but lovely. The bike felt great for the first hour and then the chain started slipping in the back. I have to call the shop but I think I just need to adjust the cable with the barrel thingie (I know - the thought of me touching the bike when I use that vernacular is terrifying, right? Okay - the barrel adjuster. Feel better?)

5). Today - swam. I managed to gut out 2,000 whole meters. Go me. I'm sure I'll get back to my 2400- 2500 meter workouts any day now.

6). I'm missing my pre-race happiness and glow, though. I have a very nice sparkle when I talk about the race still because I'm still very happy with how I did. See? Happy!

Happy Birthday to my friend the Dread Pirate Rackham!

Please head right this way and give her a birthday shout out and some words of encouragement for her upcoming 140.6.

Kick A$$, my friend, arrrrr!

A recent study of 7 million test scores (made possible by No Child Left Behind which can finally claim something good about itself) has shown that in grades 2 through 11 girls and boys score the same in math. In other words, boys are not inherently better at math, smarter than girls or more inclined toward dealing with numerically based concepts. It's a myth.

How sweet it is. After years and years and years of assertion that not only is it unladylike for girls to be as smart as boys in math and science but they really aren't anyhow, a little simple data crunching on a whole lot of data has shown that it just ain't so. The cultural stuff is still there - girls are still teased for being smart but at least we now know that this is strictly a cultural phenomenon and not a genetic predisposition toward dumb.

Here is a really interesting article about the Top 5 Myths About Girls, Math and Science. Mostly what it says is that if you do things that encourage girls in math and science the boys find the messages encouraging, too. It also says that a boy will take a "C" in a math or science course and just keep moving forward if he likes the subject whereas a girl with a "B" will think she's no good and stop. Interesting.

The flip side of all this that boys are failing in record numbers. Some would have you believe it is because our education system is more geared for girls who are more willing to sit quietly and do as they are told than for rambunctious boys. They want you to believe that it is the "feminization" of the classroom that is responsible for this phenomenon but as I scan several articles on this topic I cringe at the absurdity of them and turn tail from the argument like a dog who's just been sprayed by a skunk. Since boys have always been more rambunctious than girls I suspect classroom management trends and free choice are more responsible for this phenomenon than anything but who knows?

What I do know is that we finally have some solid evidence that intelligence is not gender based and that girls are as smart as boys and I like that. I like it a lot.

Today's Humpy Day Miscellany is late and sort of random. That's what happens when your head is scrambled by a head cold.

Let's talk about Starbucks for moment.
1). I went in there the other day because I had a gift card. I got some iced tea. It cost $2.40. I'm thinking the margin on that cup of tea was HUGE!

2). The media announced that Starbucks was closing 600 stores which made a lot of sense to me since they have them on opposite corners of the same street. They then asserted that this might mean the end of 12,000 jobs. That would be 20 employees per store. Even accounting for the fact that most them are minimum wage, part time people and that there are probably some inside staff in the mix that seems a bit high to me. If it takes 20 employees per store then it is no small wonder they have to charge so much for stupid cup of iced tea.

3). I purchased Starbucks at something like $14/share. I expect this investment to work out for me because they are closing stores, tuning up operations and selling smoothies. Who doesn't love smoothies? And if people will pay $2.40 for a cup of tea I'm thinking they'll pay a good 6 bucks for a smoothie thereby generating HUGE cash flow.

Bicycle seats -
I went into Sports Basement the other day and looked at seats. Jenny says her hiney never gets sore because she has this cushy, padded Trek seat. Sports Basement didn't have Trek but they did have Terry. The men's seats cost $30 - $40. The women's were more like $120. Terry can bite me. I'll take a men's saddle, thanks.

The incredible shrinking woman -

Who is that tiny little thing standing next to Jenny? I know Jenny is tall but I look like I just flew in from Lilliput!

Click on the pic to read Jenny's Vineman report.

In search of - At IM CdA there was a man who, after the first loop of the swim, just stood in the water shivering. His hands were white and he was obviously going hypothermic. I took my shoes off, waded out to him, took his hand and pulled him out on to the beach. I told him he had to warm up before he got out there again. He said his head was killing him. I didn't quite know what to do but some other people came up and told him he needed to do push ups. He was so cold he couldn't manage that but he did some jumping up and down and then push ups and then he ran up the beach and back and did some more push ups. His hands were pink, he felt better and off he went. I noted his number off his cap and later looked him up. If anyone knows a Brad Williams from Sacramento please tell him I said WAY TO GUT IT OUT! He finished the race in 14:54 which is very respectable when you haven't suffered hypothermia and the stuff of legend when you have.

It all started Friday when I picked Jenny up from the airport and we took what seemed like an interminably long drive up to Santa Rosa - the traffic was nasty. Welcome to California, Jenny! We got there too late to go to the welcome reception and just decided not to worry about it and went out to dinner, instead.

Saturday we got up, put the bikes on the car and headed out to check out the course. While we were looking at the river me met another racer, Linda, from Santa Barbara. We all decided to drive the bike course and then ride the run course. Note - riding the bike course is long and boring. Riding it is way better.

While we were waiting for Linda Jenny saw a guy on the bike she is lusting after and in true Jenny fashion said, "you better be fast on that bike!" and then I looked at his helmet and saw the number 7 and remarked that he was a pro so he was probably fast. I was correct - he won the race with a time of 3:49.10 setting a new course record.

Like a lot of you I am on Facebook and like a lot of you I am connected to other bloggers. Some of you read me and some of you are connected to people I'm connected to and so you connected yourself to me and that's all great because I love the internets and some of my favorite people in the world are my creepy internet friends.

There is one such person I am connected to in Facebook whose last name seemed kind of familiar. It tickled my brain ever so lightly from time to time but I just didn't make much effort to put it together with a memory. As it turns out I didn't have to make much of an effort to figure out why her name rang a bell because last night the reason exploded in my head like a piece of freshly lit flash paper.

I was going through a drawer full of some very old letters trying to see if I had kept any from a steamy little relationship I had with a college professor about a zillion years ago. I didn't find any from him but I did find one from an old friend and on it was a little note that said "ps - thus and so got officially married" and in that second I flashed on my niggling memory and wrote a note to Running Chick With an Orange Hat.

I'm sorry to have to report that I inadvertently made that note as maximally creepy as it could be. The note:

If the answer to this question is "yes" you will undoubtedly be slack jawed but first I need to ask the question.

Are your parent's names Thus and Such? If I've got that right let me know and I'll tell you a story.

Far be it from me to just say "I grew up in such and such town and knew these 2 people Thus and Such who had a daughter with your name. Is that you?" Oh no - Must be a drama queen. I wanted to envision RunningChick having the same explosive moment I had. What a tool I am. A very effective, tool, though because I got this response:

{blink blink}
{rubs eyes, re-reads question} followed by words that clearly said "you are really creeping me out"

Let me just say this - I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out.

Turns out I knew the Running Chick with the Orange hat when she was but a wee one. I was thinking I knew her parents before she was born but maybe not. I do remember her as a teeny little thing and that makes me both creepy and old. Very old. I was only in my late teens then but still.... I moved away from Connecticut when she was probably about 5 and I did inquire after her later in life when she was a teen and was told she was "a really solid kid". And so she is. Solid and fast and smart and happy and successful.

I hated to bring new meaning to the term 'creepy internet friend'. Fortunately we have communicated and she is not freaked out or creeped out - yay! And I must say once again that I loves the internets. How else would I ever have re-connected to a little girl I once knew 30+ years and 3,000 miles ago?

Let's talk about lubrication, shall we? No no - THAT kind. I mean the kind you use in a race. I have been riding my bike almost exclusively in my tri shorts which I much prefer to biking shorts but I have not been using any sort of anything in them. I'm thinking that 56 miles of racing that way is not going to feel good so I'm wondering what is YOUR preferred product:

Please feel free to fill up the comments with anything you have to say about lubing up for the ride.

In other news - we had an evening with Michellie Jones the other night. Here's proof:

I know - I'm short.

1). She passed around her Silver Medal from the 2000 Olympics and I rubbed it on my cheek hoping for some race magic. We'll see if it worked on Sunday

2). She fuels up on a cheeseburger and fries the night before a race. It's her favorite meal

3). She could barely walk after her first HIM or after Florida.

4). She won her first ever IM (Florida) even though she was over 30.

5). She's sponsored for another 2 years which means she will be a sponsored athlete in her early 40s

6). Let's hear it for the 'old' broads who are out there still dominating the field!

Sunday is Vineman day and I am SO excited. IronMomJenny is coming Friday and we are driving up to Sonoma for the weekend to hang out and race together. Ms. Muppet Dog will be there, too as will some folks from over at Trifuel. Too much fun. Anyone else going?

Jenny has enough racing cred that she doesn't care about her time so she's doing this thing with me. I know she will have plenty of time to blog real time from her iPhone while she waits for me in transition and then she will get me through the run. What a lucky girl I am!

Today is Monday, my normal rest day and I always appreciate a Monday when I feel I have earned it and need it. Today qualifies - my legs are tired. I rode by myself Saturday because there was a particular ride I wanted to do and I wanted to do it at my pace and I didn't have any available riding partners so off I went to ride the Berkeley Hills via Wildcat Canyon Road. I love this ride. I loved it all the more Saturday because I had one of those experiences that affirms your faith in humanity.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I can get lost in a walk in closet. Put me on a 43 mile ride on winding roads and you have a recipe for serious disaster. I had looked at the map. I had committed the major turns to memory. Did this help? Not much. I was fine until I got to an intersection I knew I was supposed to turn left. There was a sign pointing left that had the name of the wrong town for me on it, though. The only street sign I could see had the wrong name on it. I was confused. I thought I had to turn around and head back up the hill because I'd missed the intersection where I was supposed to turn (not that there had been one but, you know). I asked 2 women who were on bikes but stopped and chatting how to get to Pinehurst and they said they thought I should go left but they weren't sure and then a man rode up the other side and they asked him. He said "go straight until you hit Skyline and then it runs in to Pinehurst". Bliss. That was left for me so off I went. Then I got to the next intersection where 4 roads meet and got totally confused again but I finally figured it out and kept going. And then I finally got to the intersection where Pinehurst and Skyline meet only there are 3 other roads that meet there, too and it was ugly and confusing only the guy was there, waiting for me! She pointed the right way and said, "just head straight down there!" How nice was that?! So thank you again Mr. VeryKind Cyclist. You made my day.

Straight down is the operative word. Truth is I could have gone riding with my race club but they were doing this thing from the other direction (coming up Pinehurst) and I just didn't want to do it that way:

Okay so the way I went up looks just about as steep as the way I went down but it isn't - trust me.

My time on this ride was 47 minutes faster than a year ago. Rock on.

Sunday I swam with my race club at an open water swim clinic. It was both good and bad. I swam at a reasonable pace but I managed to introduce a whole new problem - cross over. This has never been a big problem for me before. Sigh... I have 2 more swims before Vineman and I'll just have to straighten that out. On the plus side I test drove my sleeveless wetsuit and although the neck felt really tight at first I quit noticing I even had it one after a while. More bliss.

After the swim I ran for 70 minutes and honestly I thought it would be horrible because my legs were tired. I didn't really care, though which was a nice change of pace. Any run would be a good run as far as I was concerned. My pace was about a 10:15 which isn't bad and I didn't die which is great so mission accomplished!

And here, for your final viewing pleasure is Bruise Watch - Day 11. Almost gone:

In conclusion let me just say - BRING ON THE VINEMAN! I'm ready.

1). Best headline ever Watch your waistline: Fat men have bad sperm

If that doesn't get a guy to put down the Freedom Fries I don't know what will. And here's the best line in the article:

"But experts aren't sure if that necessarily means obese men face major difficulties having children."

Let me just clear that up for the experts. The answer would be "yes - yes they do" Between the enormous differential in the length of his bishop vs. his girth and the enormity of his unattractiveness you've got to believe that a huge guy getting his seed anywhere near an egg is a bit of an issue. Of course the article doesn't cover stuff like that. It's all about sperm count, temperature and fertility but frankly, I think those are non-issues in this case.

2). I finally had the ride I wanted to have today - 16.2 mph average. YES! This is the same ride I kept doing at 13 mph or so last week.

3). The mechanical issue with my bike was a loose skewer in the back that had the wheel crooked in the frame. That just doesn't work. Eventually it got so crooked it jammed and dumped me on the ground. I'm just glad that happened going uphill, not downhill.

bruise watch - day 6

4). After my oh so fantastic ride today I ran 3 miles. Average pace 9:17. This particular route used to take me 32 or 33 minutes. Today it took me 27.

5). High on cycling and running I chose to go swimming. We did drills and stuff so I don't think I was all that fast but I led the lane from time to time. I swam 2100 yards in the heat of the day. Bliss.

6). Fitness rules - it really does!

UPDATE:
I almost forget to mention my new favorite fitness blog Mizfit! Go check her out. She is just chock full of great tips and advice and information and runs a very interactive site.

I got a call from The Good Doctor last night at about 9:00 asking if I was up for a ride - yeah! His back still hurts but biking isn't the cause so he still wanted to go.

I told him about how I discovered that my bike had mechanical issues that were making me go slow. I don't know if I wrote about this or not but the last 3 times I rode with him I was killing myself and only averaging 13 - 13.5 mph. It was making me crazy.

When we met up this morning just about the first thing he said was "slow down! I can see the difference" Woo hoo! I felt great and rode well.

He went short because he wants to take it easy on the back so I went on and did the normal loop which is about 23 miles. I tried to ride well but was not going all out or at race pace for most of it. I did, occasionally, pump it up but mostly I was just enjoying the morning.

I got home and looked at the Garmin - 15.8 mph average. PRAISE THE LORD! Seriously. My race day goal is 16 mph and I feel like there is some chance I can do that. Phew!

I do so hate to blame the bike for poor performance but when that turns out to be the case it is such a relief. I also have the advantage of having spent 2 weeks riding on a bike that had some resistance to rolling. This has turned out to be a good thing. A very good thing, indeed.

It was a good weekend - good for training, good for racing, good for having fun and I was productive, too. In fact I'm feeling so good I'm going to expose myself to you on the internet. Consider it a free treat!

Thursday night I went for a ride with a couple other FMRC people. This is the same ride I wrote the Goofus and Gallent post about only it was just the host and the woman who paced me in my 5K last year. The ride was the same route as last time so I thought it would be a good benchmark of my progress. I thought wrong.

I got dropped instantly - I mean instantly. I could not keep up for a second and I was really struggling and SO frustrated. This was not unlike the last 2 rides I took with the Good Doctor where he rode curlicue - dropping me and then circling back to try to get me to hook on. I couldn't do it. These guys made no pretense Thursday - they just rode on. And then I got lost. And then I figured out where I was and carried on, up Dog Hill.

I finally see them coming back and they yell "are you going to the top?" and I yell "Yes - just keep going" and on I go - for a minute. Then, just as I'm really working a lot harder than I should need to my rear wheel locks up and down I go - BAM! I get up and see that my knee has a little cut that is bleeding. I really don't care about that but I'm puzzled by my bike. The rear wheel is crooked in the frame and stuck. I discover that the skewer is loose. Nice. I've been riding on a bike with a loose rear skewer for over a week. I monkey around and get the wheel seated better and try to get on the bike only to find that the handlebars are twisted. Yikes. I've got no bars on the cell phone and no company. Minor panic sets in but then I think "you have a mini-tool, you have a brain, it's just a bike - deal". So I get out the tools, inspect the screws and figure out what to loosen. I get the thing re-aligned and carry on.

My friends rode back up as I was coming down and we all rode to the start together. I had little trouble keeping up on the way home. Hmmm.. interesting.

Friday as I am warming up for the 5K I realize that my butt is sore and figure I must have hurt it falling off the bike. On later inspection I find this:

Ow. Not "Ow" enough to stop me but ow. Today I looked at it again and it looks like this now:

Still hurts. I won't tell you exactly where that spot is but if I had any decency I would not post these pics on my blog. I'm sorry - I'm just a lost soul.

Saturday I rode with the friends I started my cycling days with and it was about time - I miss them. On the way out as I was pushing the bike along my porch the rear wheel locked up. I got it centered with the aid of my face as something to push against while I tightened the skewer wondering all the while, "do bike mechanics use their faces when they repair your bike?" I didn't have a good feeling about that. Several hundred yards into the ride it locked up again - clearly the face technique was a failure. I almost gave up the ride but not willing to be balked by my bike I finally took the wheel out of the frame and got it in correctly without having to use my face - success! My ride was like being on a new bike. Very pleasant. Especially the part where we stopped and had a latte and a pastry. Best part of the ride, for sure.

That afternoon, in addition to a pain in my a$$, my abs were itching. On inspection I found this:

Which in close up looks like this:

It itches like hell!!

Please feel free to hate me for those abs. Did I mention that I'm 53 and had 3 big babies (7 lbs 14 oz, 9 lbs, 2 oz., 8 lbs 10 oz). Yeah - did I also mention how much I LURVE training? Really. It's the new me but I'm not done yet. By March I intend to have a visible six-pack. Please hold me to that.

Anywho... Saturday night I had dinner at a friend's house and that was oh so fun and Sunday I did a trail run up Mt. Diablo. We managed 1200 feet of climb. The run down that last part was wee bit dicey - that really isn't a GPS artifact. It was very steep which made it that much more fun. Okay it might be a little bit of an artifact but still - it was steep. When I stood at the bottom of the ridge and looked up and saw how high we had climbed I felt like Superwoman - it was great.

After the run we all met back at a very nice house and sat around the pool with our feet in the water eating fruit and treats and chatting. Have I also mentioned how much I love my race club? Love them.

Sunday afternoon I started cleaning up my yard in preparation for IronMomJenny's visit. She has landscape envy but there is nothing enviable about my yard - it looks horrible. I'm working on it, though, but not today. Monday is my day off. No swimming, no riding, no running and now it's too hot to garden. Oh shucks. What it isn't too hot to do is be very, very thankful that my rear wheel did not decided to jam itself up against the frame when I was screaming downhill at 30 MPH. A thought like that could be a real buzz kill.

Like 80% of every other blogger I read, I ran a 5K yesterday. I had not run a 5K since I did this race last year and last year I did not PR in spite of having a pacer. She was fresh off finishing Coeur d'Alene but she's young and she's fast and pacing me at a 9 minute pace was a good recovery run for her. Sadly, it was too hot and I was not fit enough and ran the race in 29:31 which was not a PR off of my December time of 29:29.

Yesteday I was pretty sure I could PR since my mile splist for just going for a run are often below 10 minutes and the whole run will be anywhere from 9:50 to 10:05. I figured if I worked hard and made it hurt a little I could carve into my previous PR pretty significantly.

I was right. My official time was 26:38 - woot! My splits:
8:37
8:56
7:55

not sure about the last .2 because I forgot to turn the watch off in the chute. A little math suggests it was 6:00 which is absurd. This is the problem with races that don't use timng chips but whatever - I was smokin'!

Full results are not up yet but I was somewhere below 3rd. I expect not too far below and I'm happy - very happy.

Update - The official, official results are posted and they upped my time -bastards! But it didn't change my place which was 10 out of 32 in my AG (top 10!!) and 63 out of 374 women. I'll take it!

I've been listing stuff to include in this edition of Hump Day Miscellany and the list seemd long but as with all things in the life of a triathlete that seem long and hard I will forge on (most all things that seem long and hard, that is).

1). CdA - my sherpa experience in Coeur d'Alene was really fun but also really emblematic of my life. I hung out almost exclusively with my friend DPR who is also a chum. She has a sushi hat and we just need to get her one of these and get her out for Sharkfest and the circle will be complete. But I digress. The emblematic part is that I seemed always to be on the fringe of things. I missed the big party Thursday night and I missed the big party on Monday night (with the tequila and the lovin') and I missed seeing some people on the course. I did other stuff like volunteer in sunscreen and as a catcher. So ultimately I felt like I was part of the group but not. And that's very typical for me. I have pictures and stuff but honestly at this point I think you've seen it all. Congrats to all of the finishers - you were awesome!

2). My kitty - what a sad day last Friday was. It actually started Monday evening when I got back from CdA and went to The Good Doctor's house to pick her up (his other nickname has been retired). He looked up at me with her on his lap and said, "you have to have this cat put down". I knew that was true but didn't want to face it. He called Wednesday and asked me if I had done it and I said no so he said he would go with me. I couldn't do it at a time that worked for him until Friday but true to his word he came over after work and he went with me and he rubbed my back while I sobbed over the table as she went to sleep and he hugged me while I cried and he buried her for me. He's a really good man, hence the new name.

3). The Good Doctor has thrown out his back. It happened this weekend. I'm trying really hard not to blame his digging a grave for it since it didn't happen until Sunday and since he went on a hike with a backpack and then went to an outdoor concert and sat on concrete steps but I do tend to blame myself for pretty much everything that's wrong in the world. He has not made that connection. Anyhow, his mountain climbing trip is down the tubes and he can't ride right now. I'm going to miss him.

4). I've started using my own Inifinit formula and I love it. I will have to do a full blown Infinit PSA one of these days - great stuff!

5). Why is it that no matter how much BodyGlide you slather your neck with you end up with a wetsuit hickey? Sharkfest left me with one on my neck and a couple of little ones on my .... what to call it.... 2nd boob area. You know, just to the side of the armpit and above the boob. Ow.

6). I'm a disco queen and you can see my pic on the blog site of Bay Area weather reporter, Roberta Gonzales. Click here and go down to picture #11. That's me on the far left. This was taken at the Disco party that was thrown to comisserate the cancellation of the WS-100 but to celebrate life. It was fun.

7). Blogland met Real Life at BSLT when DPR said hello to Joe Foster and Kim Bruce. I love it when my worlds collide! Kim won a Kona slot in that race, too! Go Kim!

On Saturday June 28th I met up with FeLady, Mr. FeLady and their friends Mr. and Mrs. Chico to take my second shot at swimming from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park without getting eaten by a Shark. It was the FeLadies 5th swim. Mrs. Chico is the smart one of the group and was just along to socialize and be our sherpa. Her husband is the loony one in the family and was also out for Sharkfest #5.

As you can see, Cheryl and I suited up in sushi just to make things a little more interesting. Were we being chums or would we be chum? That was the question. Interestingly enough, both of us had had fantasies that the event might be canceled due to low visibility. No such luck. The skies were gray and there was wind but you could see just fine.

We suited up in neoprene and headed over to the ferry. This is a fairly long walk that must really amuse the tourists. Where else can you see 800+ wetsuit clad people and 20 or so non-wetsuit nut cases marching along one of the world's most famous tourist attractions? Fisherman's wharf's finest hour if you ask me. Not that it took an hour to walk to the ferries but it does take about 15 - 20 minutes. It's a good time to take a few deep breaths and get in touch with the reality that you are about to jump off a boat in dark and very cold water and swim for quite a while.

The ride out is the ride out. More time to panic if you don't mind your mental machinations. I did not panic. I trusted myself and my experience and tried not to think about how badly I wanted to run out of the water at Couer d'Alene where the water temp was at least 1 or 2 degrees warmer. I kid you not. Sharkfest allows neoprene hoods but not booties. I had neither. I did have 2 caps, though.

T-minus no more time left and we are at the door with the guy yelling "JUMP!". As soon as I hit the water I hear some woman from the other ferry screaming over and over and over "WAHHHHH! WAHHHHH ! WAHHHHH!". I really wanted to yell "STOP THAT - YOU ARE TIPPING MY WAH"* but I knew she could never hear me over the din of her own terror and besides I figured she was one of the nut jobs with no wetsuit so who was I to criticize?.

We lined up at the kayaks and waited and waited and waited and waited some more for the horn to blow. Finally something happened and we all started swimming and that's when things got really dicey. First of all it meant that it was time to put my face in the ice bucket - ow. Second of all I soon discovered that it was very, very rough out there.

My last recollection of being tossed around by water was when I was a kid playing in the surf at the beach on Long Island sound. Scary but I could touch the bottom. Not here. The water was sort of roiling and rough and I think there were currents to deal with. All I could do was poke my head up once in a while and try to find the 2 towers I was sighting on. The problem is that I'm not good l at stopping and looking around. I just want to keep swimming and swimming but I have no skill at all in holding a line. Can you spell z-i-g z-a-g?

So the swim went like this - zig, zag, roll, bounce, blub, blub, blub, swim, swim,swim, look up, correct, zig, zag, blub, blub, blub.... you get the idea. I drank quite a bit of salt water. I'd draw you one of those amusing pictures but honestly I have no idea. I just kept going. I was gratified to find myself not all alone after 15 minutes like I was last year. I could always look up and spot yellow caps and boats and that gave me great comfort. In fact, there was a guy in a speedo (crazy bastard!) who I met up with repeatedly. I knew he was making the best time he possibly could for shore so I took that as a good sign.

The amazing thing about an event like this is that all you can do is keep trying to move forward no matter how totally unnatural it is and let me assure you, clawing at water from a horizontal position to gain forward momentum and trying to breath and not panic is about the most unnatural thing I've ever done. That's the part I love. It is positively surreal - no drugs needed!

At some point I realized that I could see the porches on the building I was sighting on and then I could see the orange buoy on the lead boat and I knew I was actually making progress. Then I could see the seawall and the masts of the C.A.Thayer and I swam harder and there was the speedo guy. I probably headed more to the left of the entrance to Aquatic Park than I needed to but there is a current that will pull you back toward it so it's better to head left than to try to hit the thing dead on.

Finding that opening and getting through it was a kind of relief you feel only when the traffic jam you are stuck in breaks up in just enough time for you to make your flight. It's just like that. In that moment you know you will get to the shore and get out of that water and you will live to tell the tale. Last year I was so knocked out I couldn't even find the buoys that mark the exit but not so this time. I saw those buoys, made a bee line and finally realized that my hand was hitting sand and I was in about 12 inches of water. HUZZAH! I stood up and ran out on the stubs at the end of my legs. My feet had checked out of service about 10 minutes into the swim.

As soon as I stood up I turned around and was elated to see the waters of Aquatic Park chock full of swimmers who were coming in behind me. My time was not so great and I was 15 out of 18 in my AG (FeLady was 9th - TOP TEN!!) but I was 171 out of 223 women (FeLady was numbah 100!) compared to last year when I was 162/209. So I moved up a few slots. The important thing is that I lived, trust me.

There were really 2 great lessons in this experience. The first lesson is that if you just keep going and don't give up you can get there (absent any medical issues like hypothermia or broken bones). I used that thought extensively on Sunday when I decided to climb Mt. Diablo after riding 35 or 40 miles. I wanted to quit and just head down the hill but I kept envisioning orange buoys and shore and I kept pedaling and I got where I needed to be. The second lesson is that FeLady and I are chums. Not chum - chums. We had a great time together.

*ShoGun reference. I think that was the phrase. Does anyone else remember?