So Many Good Things

So many good things keep happening to me. Last week I was freaking out. So much so that I couldn't write. Everything was worrying me. Which suit to wear, should I take seas sickness medicine, what about food for the people on the boat, I'm going to have my period during my window (bummer), should I use channel grease or bag balm, sunscreen, how do I get solid food, why do the last two km take longer than the first five and on and on and on. My friend Steffan said that this is the time when the romantic notion of swimming the channel gets run over by the enormous reality of the challenge ahead. Well I was getting a splitting headache with too big a dose of reality.
But that has all changed.
So many good things keep happening to make my channel swim feel like a group effort.
Cathy gave me a yellow silicone South End swim cap.
Katrina loaned me a new two piece suit with South End stitched on the butt (and it fits)!
Mark loaned me his spot tracker so that everyone can follow me across the channel.
Joe asked to swim for three hours Wednesday morning to help him train for his Tahoe event, as did Danielle for this Saturday and Suzie and JP plan to jump in too. Fast Eddie wrote my name on the Channel plaque (in sharpie - I hope it comes off) just to make me laugh. My cup runneth over with good feelings and encouragement. I am feeling so much support from every corner.
I am going to crew for Karen from England on her Catalina Channel swim, just think what an invaluable experience that will be. I will see first hand just what a channel swim is like.
It might freak me out, but I think it's worth the chance to learn what goes into one of these events before I try to host my own.
Suzie reported to the chat line that "Summer had reached SF, the water hit 60 degrees." Well it left the very next day. Tonight the water was 57 again. Who cares, I love the cold water! It's better for my sore shoulders, right? My right shoulder is sore. I go to the doctor Thursday for him to take a look (ultrasound). I think he will recommend corizone, and I will probably agree to it just before I travel. You have to take four or five days off from swimming after the shot, so I need to wait until the last minute...
I have this funny feeling that my channel experience is coming to an end. It's bitter sweet. I have been thinking of little else for the past nine months, and now there are only three weeks left of swimming, then about a week of waiting, and then one really tough day of swimming!
Wow, then what? Well, I think all of the great things that have been happening this week will come back to me while I am swimming and they will help me get through the tough parts. Eddie, writing on the plaque, Mark telling me the sweetest parts of his channel swim, JP telling me not to do a 6/7 back to back that I had done enough and a 4/5 would be fine (oh joy) and Suzie asking me to help get her out of the house before 7:00 am and Kristine getting me to kayak for her in Lake Del Valle. All of this is karma and good feelings in the bank for the dark times in the cold water. And Jonathan's story of him making it even though his rotator cuff was shot, and Katrina lending me her suit, it's like they'll be there with me. And Steffan wants to use my bubble cap after I christen it. This all feels good, and lucky and I know I will make it.
Stick with me, I have a spot tracker to follow now, thanks Mark!