Congrats Genine, your new bike looks awfully spiffy! Enjoy the roads, speed racer!
Well as you know, the ladies and I are continuing our quest for fitness this weekend, in Staten Island doing the sprint tri FLAT as a PANCAKE as a relay. Yeap, compared to you manly men, it's no Newfoundland (kudos to you!) but rather a little race that includes a quarter mile swim, a three mile run and a 12 mile bike ride.
Is that laughter I hear? Don't be so quick to judge, my fellow Moosemen. I went yesterday to Staten Island to literally test the waters. I dragged my poor mom with me just in case there were no lifeguards and help was needed.
To my surprise, the beach was lovely. It's a bus ride from the ferry terminal. Who knew? Nice and new underdeveloped boardwalk with only one restaurant and one Ben and Jerry's stand. Nice sand, not too many rocks at the shore line, not too many bathers (maybe because they thought the water was still a little cold - bathwater compared to Mooseman) and there were lifeguards.
So I put on my wetsuit and goggles. Everyone stared but hey, it's New York and their stares didn't last long.
And decided to swim a few laps in the open water.
hmm.
Not what I expected. No matter how hard I swam, I did not move. I think I heard the lifeguard laughing at me. I'm not sure. The smallish waves (small!) kept on pushing me back and made it incredibly difficult to get air (salt water is nasty). I was a little fat hamster in a wheel. Pushing pushing and not going anywhere. I tried my old standby breast stroke because I was getting tired very quickly. It was like treading water. Moving nowhere fast.
I was able to do about 50m and had to stop of sheer exhaustion. Kept trying and kept trying, probably ended up swimming only 200m in about 30 minutes. I got out and slept on the sand like a beached whale. The sun felt good on my shoulders. My mother said nothing except "you're doing this next Saturday?" when I nodded, she quietly nodded in return. Hmm.
I recommend trying an open water swim in the ocean if you haven't. It really put things in perspective. What a workout! Ooph.
2 comments:
Hi,
I've done the Flat as a Pancake 3x and should be there with Esther this Saturday (I still have to sign up!!!!) They have always set up the swim so that the current pushes us. Lets hope it is the same this year! I remember getting stung by all the jellyfish there while waiting for my wave to start. Other than that, not too bad of a race.
It will be great to finally meet you! (After hearing so much about you from Matt.)
I did see dead purple jellyfish floating about ...yuck... so I'm hoping the water will be too cold for them next weekend. I have my fingers crossed. We'll keep an eye out for you and Esther!
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