Yesterday was my third time swimming the Charles, sadly it didn't go as I hoped. I blue biked there again, which is definitely the way to go - I took an ebike because it was 6:45 in the morning and I was already running a little late. But, I got there in plenty of time to check in and get my tshirt (black this year, boo, but I still got one because I guess I can own one black tshirt, and it is super cute). I met up with the merfolk + group, which was 6 of us, all gals. I even saw one of my students there!
The weather wasn't great and I think there were a lot of people from the "orange cap" group (the group that goes second) who didn't show up. The "yellow caps" are the faster, more competitive group, and there was a huge lineup of them - our group was much shorter. I got in the water early with my group and wound up treading water for a bit, but I was like "I belong here as much as anyone else, and I'm not going to wait until everyone leaves to get away from the hunger game scrum at the beginning." And I didn't. There was one woman who was smushed up against me at first, and I just kept swimming until eventually we parted. I got a tiny bit off track on the way to the first bouy, but nothing serious, and I was doing really well for me, going at a 2'43" per 100 yard ish pace until the turn around. Unfortunately my goggles were really uncomfortable and I knew if I messed with them I would regret it, but at the bouy I couldn't help myself and I tried to fix them. That was where things went bad. I could not get them on right for the way back and had to keep stopping so that my pace slowed down to as slow as a 3'29" per 100 yard pace at my slowest. At one point my goggles were on so tight I could feel them sucking my eyeball! My eyes were red and puffy for the rest of the day, and today I have a bruise around my right eye.
In the end I didn't pick up my time ticket because I think I was second to last again, around 53 minutes, which means the goggles costed me about 5 minutes. I was doing OK swimming wise, and a few times I actually picked up in speed on the way back, when the goggles were leaking a bit, but I kept my eyes closed. Anyhow, I have thrown away the goggles, and will be using a different pair in the future.
After the swim we went for brunch and I had the most delicious and pretty avocado toast. Then we went to the pride parade (aka no kings, yaas queens), which was super fun! It lasted about 2.5 hours, which I think is the longest parade I've ever been to. Four of the swim crew stayed for the first hour, and then after they left another friend came and met me there. When the parade finished we walked up to the common and then to the over 21 party, which we thought was a no kings thing, but when we got there was clearly a pride thing, because there was pole dancing and dudes wearing almost nothing twirking. I had a delicious mozzarella pesto crepe and then we headed out.
Walking to the blue bikes I was reminded of haymarket and the Saturday sale there. Sadly I had no cash, so I couldn't buy anything, but that might be a thing to do on a Saturday morning. It's so easy to bike there now. Anyhow, I was pooped by that time so I got an ebike for the ride home as well and enjoyed a quick ride back before sitting on my couch for pretty much the rest of the day.
Will I do the swim again? Probably, just for the redemption. But with different goggles for sure.
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