This morning when Matt Lauer on the "Today" show said something about the top headline of the day and then, "...TODAY, October 23..." I realized that hey, it's my half birthday. And when I saw the pre-sunrise light and the clear sky and outline of the mountains, I thought, "I want to be in the lake!" What better way to celebrate 41.5 years of life than with a lake swim, my favorite of almost all activities? Tatiana had just sent me an email yesterday reminding me that last year, the 2 of us did our last lake swim of the year on Oct. 22 (weeks after everyone else had hung up their wetsuits). The forecast for today was sunny and almost 70, so I wrote to her and suggested we gather all of our neoprene accessories and meet at the lake this afternoon. Of course, she agreed (so great to have a dependable friend who I know will always go for the lake regardless of how wacko everyone else thinks we are). We met at Madison Beach at 4:30 and it was gorgeous...there were a few REAL wackos actually taking a dip in the water sans wetsuits, which was comforting... We got in and thought we would go a few docks out and stop to assess the extent of potential hypothermia... our hands and faces were instantly cold, then numb, then...just fine. (Good thing I've been eating and drinking post-Ironman and have laid down an extra layer of pure fat insulation, huh?) We didn't stop till we got to the tennis club, although we could barely see a damn thing. Every time I breathed on the "west" (i.e. right) on the way out, the sun was right in my eyes...so for about 5-10 minutes before Tatiana pulled up and stopped near the tennis club and said, "I can't see," I kept thinking, "Where the hell are we?" as all I could see was the Mountain off to the left (pretty view, but not what you want to sight off of in this particular swim route). Anyway, we were both warm and happy enough to stop for about 2 minutes so I could declare, "I'm brilliant!" for having the idea to swim in the lake today and so we could admire the fall colors, the water, and the mountain. We swam back to Madison beach and were both just starting to get cold when we got done. I just checked the lake temperature for evidence of how bad-ass we are, but there hasn't been a reading since September 18...I guess bad-ass is in the eye of the wetsuit wearer.
Perhaps I'll get to do a lake swim after my next 41.5 years on the planet, too :) I won't look wrinkly at age 83 if I have a wetsuit on!!
No comments:
Post a Comment