Pier to Pier Swim

This past Sunday was the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier swim challenge. It is a 2mi Open Water Ocean swim from the Hermosa Beach Pier to the Manhattan Beach Pier. It was fantastic.

http://www.surffestival.org/Swim/SwimIndex.html

Now... I have wanted swim this race for a few year now, but unfortunately, I never have. I have either been traveling for work or vacation or forgot about it until it was too late. But this year, I was able to compete.

Knowing that my swim time up at Vineman was pretty decent for a 1.2mi swim, I was confident I would finish the swim within the 2hr window. I was however slightly nervous as I had never swam 2mi before. But hey, no time like the present, right?!?!

So with that in mind I swam the race. As I dove into the water, my goggles were knock off, luckily, I was wearing them under my swim cap, so they stayed on, but they were all wonky and water was in them and in my eyes. So needless to say, it was a rough start. As I started to swim, I see Tracy, my TNT buddy who is super fast and agreed to do the swim with me. I am barely getting my breath right and there she is doing the backstroke with the biggest smile on her face. It was amazing and hysterical and just what I needed to see to remember that this was suppose to be fun! So.. I took a deep breath, got in the rhythm and swam... and of course peed 9 times, LOL.

The water was amazing. It was pretty warm, i think it was close to 70 degrees and it was so clear you can practically see the bottom and with that see all the fishes and the sharks! Yes.. I said Sharks. Of course, when I was swimming and saw the dark shadow below me, I convinced myself that it was seaweed or something, because as I looked around, No One was panicking or getting out of the water, so I thought I was imagining things... I wasn't. :-)

http://www.easyreadernews.com/85803/time-sharks-surf-festival-dwight-crum-pier-pier/

Overall, the race was awesome. Of course I was not a fish like some of the other swimmers that finished it in half my time, but to be honest, I was pretty happy with my 1:21:46! Not too shabby for my first time! WAHOO!!

With some proper coaching from Adrian, I am sure I can cut that time down in time for Cozumel.

BRING IT ON.