Success!

The swim festival was this weekend, and again it was a success!! This year the festival was only 2 days - Saturday and Sunday - because there were fewer people swimming. We had booked our airbnb before they changed it from 3 to 2 days, and so we went up on Thursday and spent Friday skiing, shopping and playing. It was a really nice, and really exhausting, weekend. 

The most important part, of course, was the 200. Somehow I got lucky again and was paired with another slow swimmer who I beat by about 30 seconds. And I beat my friend who I always swim with - he actually came in last. It snowed on Friday night into Saturday morning - probably about 5 inches. In northern VT they are very efficient with the clean up though, so it was no problem to get to the lake. The hat racers started in flurries and by the end of that round it had stopped snowing. As I was walking out the sun came out - a good sign. Despite that I was not at all psyched about the swim, in fact I was kind of dreading it. But, that's what I was there for, and so I got in when they told me to, and then off I went. 

Once again I started too fast and my spotter had to tell me to slow down a little (which of course is kind of a funny thing to tell someone in a race, but it was really appreciated). The second length I slowed down a little and let my heart catch up to where it should be. On the third length I was like "this sucks, I'm getting out when I get back to the other side," because my heart was racing and I was feeling a little gaspy. But then as I was swimming back I had a little talk with myself and reminded me how much I had prepared and how frustrated with myself I would be if I got out, and that it was only going to take me another 3 or 4 minutes, and I could do anything for that amount of time. And when I got back I just turned and kept going until I finished. I did run into the lane line a bit and didn't focus on my stroke technique at all during the swim. When I was pushing off at the last turn I realized that the woman I was swimming with was just getting to the turn, and I put on a little speed to #1 finish and #2 beat her. We high fived and hugged and then got out of the water.

My hands felt like blocks of ice, they were so cold! I couldn't get my goggles off or my robe on (even though someone was assisting me) and my feet were so cold I couldn't bend them to put them in my shoe, and then I couldn't use my hands to move the strap that was in the way - someone had to do it for me. One I had shoes and robe on I was so happy to walk to the nice warm changing room, dunk my hands in hot water, and get a hot microwaved sock with rice in it. I got changed, warmed my hands on the sock a bit, and jumped around a little. I was smart this year and brought my own microwavable hot pad so I could take it with me when I left the changing room, and we were lucky that we got the table by the fireplace. I was thinking about going back to the airbnb to shower, but then there were french fries, so I just ate and warmed up and felt happy and accomplished.

It turned into a really nice day. I went and cheered on the other swimmers a little bit but then decided it would be amazing to ski across the lake - not something I would necessarily do here in MA, so I got my cross country skis and went for a little jaunt. Which was super fun. Because it had snowed the evening before the snow was light and flaky, but a bunch of people were snowmobiling around, so I went in their tracks. It was really nice skiing! I got back to the restaurant where the races are held, though, and realized that I'd kind of over done it. I was so tired and a bit dehydrated. I decided to go back to the airbnb, stopipng for a gatorade hydration drink, which I am sure saved me from a migraine. 

I went back for dinner and the awards celebration where the merfolk won the scallywag's award, which I think means that we are considered cool and "in," because I don't understand what else he was talking about when he gave us the award. One of our crew had written a song to the tune of an abba song, and so we sang it then (I sang in front of people and no one clutched their ears and ran, in fact they gave us a big round of applause). The dinner was all heavy sauces and gloopy stuff, and I decided to skip it and just go back to the airbnb - everyone else soon joined me. We were all pooped!

One of our group really wanted to do the 50 meter relay, but she'd been back and forth so much that I didn't think it was going to happen and signed up for the 100. But on Saturday night she talked a group of us into it - it's a 4 person relay, with each swimmer doing 50 meters for a total of 200. I was all "I'll do it, but I think I will switch from the 100 to the relay rather than do both of them." And then when I got to the restaurant on Sunday I got dressed and did the 100 and then the relay. Which was also hard! I remembered that last year before the relay I had been all "it's nothing. I did the 200, this will be easy." And it wasn't easy. So this year I kept my mental game up, reminding myself that it was still 100 meters and then 50 meters in 32 degree water, and that's no joke. Which I think was really important. Both races were fine. Hard, but fine. I didn't have as long as I would have liked to warm up between them. In fact I changed from the 100 right into my other swim suit for the relay. It was fun to go with my friends and swim as a group.

There was this olympic athlete swimming this year - I think he won silver in 2004. He was amazing - I just saw him swim the 25, but wow he was fast. Anyhow, he was supposed to be on the relay team that swam against us. At first I was like "that's gonna suck" but then I was really excited about it because how often do I get to race against and olympic athlete? Unfortunately there is a blizzard coming tonight into tomorrow, so a lot of people left early, and three of four members of his team weren't there. So they didn't compete with us. Probably they were just scared. :)

I haven't seen the time results for any of the races but the 200 (which I did in 5 minutes and 17 seconds, so 2 seconds slower than last year, which I can totally live with). My friends said that I looked strong swimming, and they couldn't tell that I wanted to get out of the water. Which I also felt good about.

I went cross country skiing three days in a row - I stopped on the way up at franconia inn which has trails. It's kind of behind cannon mountain. It was really warm that day and the trails were pretty slushy, so skiing was tough, but I still went for about an hour. On Friday I was thinking about going to craftsbury cross country ski area which is like 45 minutes away, but then I learned that there were trails right in newport, and the newport ones are free. So I did that instead. The conditions weren't that good, but it was nice to be skiing out in the wild where the scenery was so pretty. And then of course the ski across the lake which took me about a half hour.

As I mentioned, we are expecting a blizzard tonight into tomorrow, so I wanted to get home to beat the storm and buy some food. It's the end of school vacation week, so I was a little worried about traffic, but it was totally fine until Concord - the last hour was pretty crazy. This one idiot in a truck was so close to rear ending me, and there was no where for me to go to change lane - I just clutched my steering wheel and screamed. Because we were going pretty darn fast ( I bet he was going 100), fortunately he moved over to the next lane and went around me. I gave him the finger and fumed about it until I reminded myself that my being angry wasn't bothering him.

When I got home my cat had thrown up so many places and pooped on the bedroom rug. That was not a nice surprise. I spent a half hour doing clean up before unpacking. Now it's nice to be chilling on my couch. The tips of my fingers are still a bit numb which I guess will take a couple weeks to heal. But otherwise a really fun, though exhausting, weekend. Psyched to do it again next year. And also to go to the lake and just be able to play and have fun, while wearing my swim gloves and booties!