Water +1, Suzanne +2 (Aquatic Park)

Saturday was the last opportunity I had to swim in a bay before the Pac Grove Triathlon on September 10. When I arrived in front of the Dolphin Swim Club in San Francisco, it was a drizzly 60-something degree summer weather, typical of San Francisco. The Aquatic Park swimming area, between the swim club and the Maritime Museum, has a series of buoys which mark a 1/3 mile course from the first to last buoy, and back again. For those of you who are bad at math, you have to swim three circles around all of the buoys to complete a mile.

Over at the Aquatic Park benches, the stands and beach were full of happy Team In Training (TNT, but I like to call them TIT) groups getting ready to take the plunge in 50 degree water. My wetsuit, fortunately or unfortunately, is borrowed from someone who did Team in Training, and it has the TNT logo on the front. Everywhere I go, people yell "Go TEAM!" at me. I usually just play along.

Although the Team in Training folks had yet to approach the water, I was ready to hop in and get used to the cold. They all looked at me, confused to why I was going ahead, then wondering who I was. The water wasn't bad at all. In fact, it seemed much warmer than the water the last time I swam in Monterrey. After 5 minutes, I could still feel my feet. When my swim friends showed up, I was used to the cold and ready to swim!

The first half of the first lap was the most difficult. I had other swimmers kicking and swimming around and over me, much like a race-day situation. Over and over I had to convince myself that I was doing fine, that I was well trained for swimming, and that it would only be 45 minutes of exercise. A few times I was tempted to go back to shore, and believed that swimming open water was too much for me. Then, I thought about how hard I've trained and how disappointed I would be not to finish this triathlon. I literally had to take in some soothing breaths, and calm myself down. Mental games. Total mental games.

After the first lap, I was definitely ready to do another. After the second lap, I almost convinced myself that I'd done enough for the day. I had to tell my inner mental (psycho-ward) patient that I needed to complete the last lap, and that I needed to prove it to myself. At the beginning of that final lap, my neck started burning from the salt water - my neoprene cap was rubbing against my neck and I would most certainly have battle scars. I'd forgotten to put lubricant on my neck before the swim, and now the cap was digging into my body. This idea kind of excited me - YEAH! BATTLE SCARS!

Yet again, I swam one mile in open water. This time in the choppier, colder, San Francisco Bay with about 200 other people kicking around me. I don't know why it is taking me so long to realize that I'm awesome. And yes, I have the battle scars to prove it.

One more week to Pac Grove!