[at-l] TA DA!!

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

There isn't much to tell because for the most part it was pretty boring.
I didn't leave the house till after 9:30 because the sun just refused to 
come out
and I really needed sunny conditions. I would have waited longer but the boat
traffic really goes nuts once people get off work at three so I couldn't wait.

  I didn't replicate the original swim that I did as a kid because, as I 
said, they
damned the river and instead of our own personal playground with, maybe
three dozen little boats, it's a recreational hotspot with hundred of huge 
boats
and jetskis <grrrrr>.
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/projects/foun099/Urbanization/Fabridam.html

If I swam the same route now, it would take me past the Marina and into water
that now gets 2 foot chop with only a steady 15mph wind with 200 hp boats so
I cut about 1.5 miles off the end of the swim and tacked onto the beginning,
Also, now that it's a lake, I lost the current.  Based or historical date 
from the
USGS i figured that the dam has reduced the current by at least a factor of 3,
not counting the present drought conditions that further slow things down,
so I bought a used set of fins from ebay and cut them down to double the 
size/area
of my feet to sorta compensate for swimming thru almost still water instead 
of with
the current.

My shoulders are built wrong for a swimmer..just don't have the rotation range
needed for a proper stroke so I'm limited to the breast stroke which I hate.
So I basically use just my legs, either on my back or on my belly  and use a
mask and a snorkel .

I towed a lightweight "wake board"  with shoes, a skirt and a fleece jacket
(in case I had to bail and walk home) plus gatoraid and milk and gu, on
a line tied alternately to my wrists and my waist.  I tied a  2 gallon jug, 
painted
dayglo orange, to the board so the boats could see me.  In case of
trouble I had it to float on but didn't need it. (See Gimee.I did tow a 
lifevest <g>)

One thing i didn''t check was my mask which developed a leak that
hadn't really bothered me until yesterday.  After about four hours with my
nose constantly in a puddle, it began to run like a race horse.  Nothing
worse than wearing a mask with a runny nose.  I have no clue to how
much more than six miles I swam but for sure, it wasn't the straight line
course I had planned.  The further downstream I swam, the less effect the
current had and the cues that I relied on to keep me headed downstream
failed.  I got in a sort of zone where i didn't look up as often as need be
and kept going zigzag...waaaay off course.

Also there were mats of rotting water weeds....huge...caused by last
weeks mega heat, which I tried to avoid until the sun went in and then
I swam into/through it because the decomposition raises the water temp to
toasty.  When the sun came back out, I exited.....yucky yucky.  And
the occasional fishing boat that i had to swim out to avoid.

My throat is really sore today because I didn't swallow enough and
it really dried out.
I got the hiccups at one point.  That was no fun.  And was harassed by
a horse fly for maybe a quarter mile....that was probably the fastest
quarter mile i swam <g>.

It didn't take as long as i thought because in my training swims, I was
looking around more and fooling around more.  This was pretty much
business from the get go.  I saw a bunch of suckers in the weeds,
one decent sized bass, hundreds of minnows which is how I knew i
was swimming too close to shore.  I saw the silt trails of a couple bigger
fish, probably carp.  And a duck and I scared the heck out of each other.
Ducks look pretty strange from under the water..   I didn't see it until
I was almost under it and it took off...sorta like spooking a turkey in'the 
woods.
That's it..like i said..pretty boring.  Too much to think about, and after 
a while,
too hard to concentrate to do any real deep thinking.

Right now I never want to do anything like this again, but maybe I'll
change my mind......I did it in part to prove that I'm not old yet but
man do I feel old this morning <VVVBG>.  I HURT..even my back
which surprises me.  I think it's because of the shivering.

Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and congrats!!!!!!!!  I'm headed
for a hot soak <ahhhhhh>.


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