First OWS of the Year

I like to think of myself as the initiator. I throw out good ideas, get everyone to sign on and then try to back out.  That is my M.O and it seems to have worked extremely well for me thus far.  Unfortunately I have surrounded myself with people who refuse to let me back out and so we get to the subject of this blog post - my first open water swim of the year.

For those of you from warmer climates you may not see any problem with swimming open water in the middle of May.  Indeed I know some of my friends down in Arizona and Texas are already doing tris with open water swims at this time of the year.  But this is the Pacific Northwest.  It gets cold here.  Really cold. And it stays that way until August (i.m.h.o) when it starts getting cold again.

OK...so you may have guessed that I am NOT a fan of swimming in cold water.  Add to that the murky, seaweedy, fishy lake system and well you get the picture. But since Boise 70.3 is only 3 weeks away and the water temp for the race last year was around 52F (11C) I knew I had to get some practice in before I toe the line in June.

So after the race on Saturday we headed down to Liberty Lake.



Getting into my wetsuit seemed like a workout in itself..  I am glad to report that my trusty blue seventy wetsuit still fit me (win) and I wanted to test out my new neoprene cap and socks.





{photo credit Natalie Sidles}

So after much dock pacing  I finally found my courage and jumped in.
Michelle said that my language was a little too colorful but I think I was just mentioning to her here how invigorating the water felt.



{photo credit Natalie Sidles}