Look out for your eye sockets!

I went to swim team this morning for the 2nd time this week...kind of depressing to be indoors when we SHOULD be in the lake, but it's been pouring rain a good bit and windy. I do love a good pool workout, though, and the pool is pretty deserted in the summer so I had my own lane again. By the afternoon, I needed to do something to wake myself up from the post-lunch slump and resorted to the elliptical machine at the gym. I haven't "hamstered" in months and (didn't I say this about the bike trainer on Monday?) I have not missed it.

I really need summer to come back and lake swimming to be appealing and wonderful like it was last week! Summer is so NOT over, that's just not allowed...especially with it being 2 days until the next camping trip.

Speaking of open water swimming, the first 10k open water Olympic swim was today in Beijing. Of course, I didn't see any of it on TV (big bummer), but I looked up the results/story online. When thinking about the distance of this race, I realized that it is about double the distance of Fat Salmon. If I were to double my Fat Salmon race and really beat the crap out of myself, I MIGHT be able to do it in 3 hours. Time for the 10k Olympic swim? Just under 2 hours. Geezis!! Although that little stat is beyond humbling, I did love the article on SI.com about the sport itself and how it's not for the faint of heart (even if I did weenie out and hit the pool this week instead, I'm still an open water swimmer,right?).

From the article, "...adding to... these things, is the intimidation factor.
Though open water swimming may appear a rather placid sport, it's actually a full contact aquatic roller derby. There is punching, kicking and slashing; the ripping off of goggles and caps; there are elbows rammed into eye sockets, and hands grabbing at legs. Overt violence is illegal according to the official rules, but some amount of jockeying within the pack is inevitable and anyway, the judges can't see underwater.
When you add all of these things together, this isn't a sport for the faint-hearted. Which brings us to Wednesday's most impressive first of all: When the 25 female competitors lined up for the open water start, among them was Natalie du Toit, a 24-year-old South African. Du Toit, who qualified for Beijing with a fourth-place showing at the 2008 World Championships in Seville, Spain, happens to be missing the lower half of her left leg. As she dove in at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park, she became the first amputee to compete in Olympic swimming."

Dude. She got 16th without one of her LEGS, how amazing is THAT?!?!