Gorgeous Afternoon

Here's two of my favorite people :-) Okay, technically in this shot, theres only one, Pam. The background peeps don't count. The second person is actually in the shot below.

I spent the early part of the day at a place called 288 Lakes. It's a man-made, spring-fed lake that is used for scuba divers to practice making dives, and for triathletes to practice what's call an "open swim", meaning not in a lap pool. I met my friend Paul, who inspired me to do my first triathlon, to practice my first open swim. It was more nervewracking than I thought it would be and more difficult also.

What creeped me out the most about it was when I left the shore and could no longer see the bottom. I had little moments of freaking thinking something was going to swim up from the 40 or 50 below me and swallow me whole. When I wasnt freaking about that, I was freaking about how far away the first bouy was and how tired I was already getting.... and then thinking, "I'm tired and there's nowhere to rest!" Fortunately, Paul had told me when that happens, just roll over on my back and float. But I was too bent on getting around the whole course, so I pressed on around the first bouy to the second that actually had something to hold on to for a minute.

As I clung to the second bouy to catch my breath, two obviously more experienced ladies swam up and asked if I was okay. I assured them I was and thanked them for their concern and told them it was my first open swim and my adrenaline had me swimming a faster pace than I needed to be. They nodded and pressed on and I fell in pace behind them. It really helped to have other swimmers I could see as well as pace myself off of. I was fine from that point on, except for the very end when I thought the end would never get there.

Paul had done a different course through the water, so we met up on our original launch point and compared notes and he gave me even more pointers. I didn't even THINK about the fact that I would possibly be getting a mild sunburn... I mean, I was EXERCISING, not tanning! We did a few more shorter laps around after that and called it a day after about swimming a total of 1,000 meters. I only have to swim 500 for the actual race. I was sooooo glad I went to do this open swim so that I know what to expect for the race.



And as promised, here's Mike. After the swim, I came home, had some leftover spaghetti (always better on day two!) when Pam called to meet them at Starbucks. It was so amazingly gorgeous we sat outside to hear Mike tell about the mini-retreat he completed just that afternoon. It was great just sitting with them and talking about the things of God and His role in our lives. I'm so grateful to have friends like them whom I can be completely and totally myself with and who call me on my crap... and always in such a loving way ;-)