7/29 Save the Bay Swim

Well, today was an exciting day for me. I swam side by side with my 52 year old sister Belinda across the Narragansett Bay for the 30th annual Save the Bay swim. Got into Boston on Friday afternoon and was immediately struck by how busy this little corner of the world is compared to Austin. Lines formed for everything, from the baggage claim to rental cars to the highway, and some people seemed clueless with regards to common courtesy and politeness. This is why I moved west. Anyway, it did feel good to see the salt marshes and the ocean again as we drove to the beachfront. Settled in at the B&B quite late and tried to sleep since we had to get to the starting point early to check in and get the kayaks set up for our "spotters" (mandatory safety measure). 5am wake up, ate some cereal and was picked up by the sis and support team en route to the starting point in Newport at the Naval Station . Got there at 7am. We milled around for a while since the start wasn't til 9am. We had rented one boat from a company that was supposed to have the boats unloaded and ready to go at 630am, but they hadn't arrived yet so we relaxed and my sister spent a lot of time in line for the portapotties. I felt really relaxed because I was just swimming to complete this one, and my biggest fears were sharks and jellyfish stings.(A great white had recently devoured a seal in plain view of hundreds of beachgoers nearby, and many of the local beaches had been shut down for man o' war jellyfish sightings and stingings...) I was resigned to my fate however, and knew that i was going to just plod along and hope nothing got me. We were reassured by the management that there were no jellys in the water that day, and they didn't mention sharks, which was either a good sign or a very very bad sign.
The rent-a-boat finally showed up at 8:30, so we get that squared away and pull on the wetsuits for the swim. We were in the last wave (for first timers and people that needed to use fins and stuff) so we got to watch the fast people start, and then the intermediate ones go, and then finally at 9:10 we set off. The swim itself was actually really fun. I was able to get into the rhythm of breathing right away, and the temp of the water (mid 70's) made it easy to swim without getting too hot or cold in my wetsuit. The water was opaque and greenish, so I couldn't see down very far, but this was ok because I really didn't want to see how deep we were. We were supported by my nephew Andrew and Bob, Belindas husband, in the boats and they steered us more or less towards the finish, which looked really freaking far. The was very little chop and the tidal current was not so bad, so the conditions were great. Sunny and about 70 at the start. About half way through we stopped and took some pictures in the water with a waterproof camera (i'll post them if i can) and we just slowly motored along, sighting every 6th stroke or so. The combination of wetsuit and the salt water made me feel like a cork and I just skimmed along the surface. It was awesome to see the finish get closer and closer and know we were going to do it, kind of like mile 25 in the marathon. Our official time was 1 hour and 11 minutes so we swam it in about 1:01 with the 10 minute offset for being in the third wave. At the finish, they draped a big beach towel and a medal around our shoulders and that was that. I felt calm and happy throughout, no stings or bites (besides a near tick bite afterwards and some mosquitos in the marsh) and it felt wonderful to swim this with my sister Belinda. She had been thinking about this swim for 2 years she said, so it was awesome to do it with her.
No long run today (Sunday) so i'm letting my legs recover from a month of hard training.