I hit the bay solo Saturday morning to attempt a 90 minute swim. Here is a picture of my drive to the beach. As you can see, the conditions were ideal. The bay was smooth as glass, there was no wind and the air was warm.
I started my swim with a couple laps around the park. After completing my second lap, I saw something that made me nervous. There was a swimmer cutting across the cove, weaving between the boats, and something was following him.
I took my goggles off and looked again. My view was obstructed by a small sail boat, but I was sure something was following the swimmer. He was only 100 yards away, but he couldn't hear me call out. I put my goggles back on and swam closer to the swimmer and his pursuer. As I got closer, I was surprised and relieved to see it was his dog. I'm pretty sure it was Jake the Alcatraz dog from my previous post.
Three more laps around the cove and I was close to my goal of 90 minutes. It was 8:30 and the sunshine was warm on my shoulders. A band of wetsuit clad Team-In-Training folks were starting a training swim. I stopped swimming and treaded water while watching them practice. I must have stayed put a bit too long because I was starting to shiver.
I glanced at my Kobold, a total of 80 minutes had elapsed. All I had to do was swim back to the club and I'd be done.
Just then an older swimmer, probably in his early 60s, swam up and asked me to join him for a lap around the cove. The cove is a big commitment, there is no short cut back. However, after almost an hour and a half swimming alone, I appreciated the offer and decided to join him. I felt really cold during that last lap. I noticed he was breathing on his right, so I pulled up along side him so he would notice if I ran into trouble. Since we were swimming together I felt safe.
By the time we reached the Dolphin Club my Kobold showed a total swim time 1:46 minutes! I finally broke the century mark! My swim partner waived goodbye and headed out for another lap. The 100 minute mark is a huge milestone for me. I've tried twice and fell short each time.
