As promised, I'm making waves at Aquatic Park. Last week, I lived the dream and did my first open water swim of the season. I'll spare you the fluff, aquatic park is not for the weak. While the guy in this picture looks happy, my interpretation is that he recently lost his job, his wife, his money, everything. And so swimming in Aquatic Park really doesn't seem so bad to him. The pictures make it look all beautiful and sunset-y (that's Alcatraz in the background, btw), Pedro and his damn positivity talks about how lucky we are to live in such a place...but man, that water is more unpleasant than getting a root canal.
And I'm only being a little sarcastic.
Temperature was 54 degrees. The current was in a strong flood. We went just outside the lip of the park and once you leave the protected area, you can feel how powerful the body of water really is. Did I mention that humans are not, by nature, aquatic creatures?
But these are not the things I will think about as I continue to train for Escape From Alcatraz. This swim is all about the mental conditioning, and the one thing Pedro is right about is that we're lucky to be able to train for this race in the actual environment because there's no way I could do that swim for the first time on race day. I'd be praying for a shark to come and put me out of my misery. My goal is to be so used to the water conditions that by the time race day rolls around, I can view the swim as a somewhat unpleasant, but surreal experience. Kind of like going to the moon.
3 comments:
There is nothing about those photos which looks fun in any way. I was uncomfortable and queezy just looking at them.
I like the difference in reactions amongst the swimmers. Take, for example, the happy idiot above and this chick. I'd argue that the girl has a much better handle on reality.
Thanks for the props. Sadly, I don't think any of us have a sound grip on reality.
One of the things I do like about swimming at AP is the tourists walking by who make comments like "you guys are all crazy." Once, there was a guy cleaning out the port-a-potties who said to me, "you really have a lot of guts to swim out there." I was like: this guy's cleaning crap and he thinks WE'RE crazy.
Oh shit. This is a particularly funny entry. I laugh like a sea lion on smack.
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