2 mile GSL swim with Goody and Alicia

Met Goody and Alicia at the causeway entrance at 4:30pm.  When we creeped out way into the water it felt cold.  I took a temp and it read 59.  We started our swim heading out of the marina towards Fremont Island.  There were dark clouds to the north, but far enough away.  It was sunny to the west.  The wind was coming form the northwest with small waves.  Not a big deal.   We swam for about 10 minutes out of the marina and stopped to take a couple pics.  After swimming out about 1/2 mile, I could see very faintly the bottom of the lake with the sandy spots and then the black bioherms.

I would swim about five minutes and flip turn and swim towards Goody and Alicia.  I told Austin to stay with them.  This was Alicia's first swim in the GSL.  We went 50 minutes then headed back cause we started to see some serious black clouds that were up ahead and heading our way.

Here's the GPS data which is pretty much the same distance that Goody and Alicia did.

I went back and forth a few times, I'll estimate about a half mile.  So 2 1/2 miles.  Definitely not what I had planned for the evening, but what do you do?  You can't curse mother nature.  Even though she's been in a pretty pissy mood lately with all this rain we've had this week.  You see a opening in the clouds and she sends you another round to remind you she's the boss.

Definitely found some hot spots to lube up extra well next time,  The front of my neck where the beard starts.  The inside of my legs by my knees, my stomach on each side by my belly button, and my upper check bones under my eyes.  Just to be safe I'll just lube up my entire body.  When I see vid of Channel swimmers totally covered in grease, I just shake my head.

It also tells me my heading (which I don't care about), but
here it is telling me that sitting at my desk, the room temp is
80.8°.  I'm thinking it also sucks some heat from my arm, so
it isn't 100% accurate.

Yesterday my birthday present came in the mail.  I got this new watch that I did a search for.  I wanted a watch that would tell me the water temp when I swim.  Sometimes I'll be at BL and then I'll hit a real cold spot and say in my mind, I wonder what that dropped down to?  Now I can tell at the press of a button.  I had to calibrate it with my digital one just to get it as close as possible to the digital therm, which I'm assuming is the real deal.  During today's swim I took several readings throughout the swim with both the watch and with the digital therm, and the watch was usually off by no more than 0.3°F.  Not bad.  So I'm pleased with it so far.

When I got home I had to hurry and get showered, and then head off to a massage with Cathi.  She's running the Ogden Marathon tomorrow, and I'm

Goody and Alicia swimming into the oncoming rain clouds.

also planning to do a super long swim tomorrow.  It's the last day of my HELL WEEK.  The massage was awesome.  Typically when I roll my neck it sounds like I'm driving on gravel, but now it's smooth and silent.  Love it!

Nice job Alicia for going for so long in the 60° water for so long!  The mile event you're doing will be more enjoyable now that you have a some experience and know a little more about what to expect.

Thanks to Austin for coming out and being the support rower.  He was a good sport and didn't complain.  Goody also is entertaining to talk to, so that helps his mood and makes it less boring for him.  Typically I'm pretty tight lipped and just go.

Today's total was 10K yards from this morning with an estimated 2 1/2 miles on top of that this evening.  Short by about 5K yards, but I'm not upset.  I'd rather swim 3 miles in GSL than 6 miles in the pool any day.