Don't mind me, I'm fine

This morning I met Annie at 5:45am at Pineview's Windsurfer beach.  We did a lap together just as the sun was coming up over the east.  The full lap is just under 2.5 miles, so I backtrack just a bit to get that 2.5 miles in there per lap.  The water felt just a touch colder than earlier this week.  When I got to the dam buoys my watch said it was 66 degrees.  The water was flat and calm.

Annie swimming into the turn at the dam buoys.

Annie told me at the dam buoys that she would join me for one lap and had to get on after that.  We swam along the southern side to the no wake buoys and then along that line back to the north side, then back to the start.  I got out and had to use the men's room real quick.  Then got back in for three more laps.  Annie introduced me to a couple of other guys in wetsuits that were there at the beach.   Talked with Matt for a few minutes and I was starting to get cold so I went on to my next lap.  The second and third laps were nice and more and more boats and recreational SUP and fisherman also grew in numbers.

But on that fourth and final lap the wind really picked up from the east.  It was c

I love watching the sun come up
from within the water.  

oming up the canyon from Ogden fairly strong.  Got some white caps and the boats and all the SUP and fishermen started to head out.  It was just me and a few far away water ski boats, without water skiers.  It was too windy.  Heading into the dam was tough and a little frustrating.  I was getting a little ticked off getting mouthfuls of water instead of air and near the end was sprinting just so I could get to the dam buoy line and then get a free ride along the southern side.

When I got there at the very southwestern corner of my route I took a quick break for a feed and take a picture.  Just when I was about to start up again I noticed some dude up on the road watching me.  I'm sure he was watching to see if I was struggling.  I wanted to yell out "Hey!  Are you OK?!  Do you need some help!"  But figured that would be a bit too cheeky.

Chop always seems to look quite wimpy in pictures.

The last lap was awesome I got a new burst of energy with the waves.  It seemed to give me a surge rather than a drain on my energy.  It made it more entertaining, that's for sure.  The swim along the sourthern side heading east was with the wind and the waves, it was quite a fast finish.  Then when I started heading back north along the buoys I was getting hit at my 9 o'clock.  I noticed a couple of boats slowly circling me watching.  Another group of people making sure that I'm safe.  Thank you!  There was a guy who drowned out here very close to shore and that already hit the average quota of drownings for the year in Pineview.  One more, and they're double the average.  I wanted to stop and reassure them, "Don't mind me, I'm fine."  But figured if I just kept swimming they'd notice that I wasn't struggling and rather enjoying it.  At the end, my GPS read 9.93 miles, so I back tracked for a couple minutes, and then swam back.  10.0 miles exactly.  My time was 5:40, but about 15 minutes of that was on the John and talking to Matt and Annie.  So not too bad on the time.  I was glad to be done, but had more in the tank which is a great feeling!

There were some wind surfers, SUPers,
fishermen, and lots of boats out
there during my third lap, but
on that fourth one, you can see it
pretty much died down to just
a couple boats and some chatterboxes
enjoying the sun in their beach chairs.

SpotGPS takes waypoints
every 10 minutes.
It appears that I took different
 routes almost every lap,
but not so.  The interval is too
 long for decent accuracy.
But you get the gist.  

I feel like I'm ready for Catalina.  Sure it'll be tougher than the EC.  But I think I can take it.  The sun was out in full force today and that felt great.  The water temp reading I got as I got out was 69.8 degrees so it warmed up a few.  Felt wonderful.





Total: 10 miles in 5:40