Diana (tridad's Boss) picked me up from my office and I was secretly hoping that she would tell me it was to cold out. It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't the kind of day where you are dying to get your feet wet in Lake Michigan. Cloudy, overcast, windy and 65-70 degrees out. To give people some background, I'm from the Mid Atlantic, specifically the DC area. I grew up swimming on the swim team (in pools) and spent many early mornings swimming in a cold pool. Regarding open water, I was an Outer Banks (OBX) girl! every year my family went to our house in Avon, NC on Hatteras Island and spent anywhere from a week to two weeks just hanging out. I was a water girl and spent all day boogie boarding, surfing, etc. The average water temperature in July and August there is between 76-79 degrees. the currents in OBX are pretty tough at times, by the age of 6 I knew how to swim out of a rip tide. I was also a life guard as a teenage at a public pool that was a routine field trip for inner city children, most of whom did not know how to swim but had no fear of a diving board. Needless to say, I have no problems jumping into save a 6th grade boy who's flailing his arms. I'm sharing all of this to give you some background on why swimming in lake Michigan has taken some adjusting to over the last two tri seasons.
So needless to say, when I showed up to my first triathlon (Big Foot Triathlon in Lake Geneva) I had never swam in fresh water before or in a wet suit. I simply thought, shoot, I grew up swimming in OBX, I can handle some fresh water lake in Wisconsin. Well, I was wrong. It was a windy day (30 mphs) and I started swimming and I thought I was going to drown. The suit practically strangles you and then the waves were crashing right into my mouth. Plus the water is FREEZING. I mean REALLY REALLY cold (coming from a girl who is used to 76-79 degree water temps, 69 degrees is pretty cold.) It's so cold that when you put your face in it feels like you are having an asthma attack because it's just so cold. Another thing, there is a world of a difference between swimming in salt water and fresh water. With salt water the buoyancy allows you to sit on top of the water. It can be really rough but you are so buoyant that you don't end up swallowing the water. Big difference. To get through the race I swam back stroke for the rest of it. As soon as I got on my bike I made a commitment to myself, open water swimming in Lake Michigan
So last night marked me first day swimming in Lake Michigan. It wasn't my first time open water swimming (St. Croix on Vacation and Triple-T). Ohio Street Beach is pretty awesome. It's actually set up for people to go swim in it with buoys enabling up to a 1 mile swim. Every time I've been down there there are at least 2 other triathletes down there in wet suits getting a workout in.
I went out thinking and expecting it to be REALLY REALLY cold and that me and Diana would only last for 20 minutes. I was so afraid of the cold water that I refused to look up the water temp. Surprisingly I got in and it wasn't that bad. The first time you go under is always painful but once we got going it was actually pretty awesome out there. We ended up swimming longer than we thought we would (a half hour or so). I guess it's time to do the weekly swims down there!
Summer is here ladies and gents! The lake is ready.
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