I Survived!

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Marni

I’m so happy to report that I survived the Alcatraz swim!

And a little sad to report that I didn’t even see one shark. So disappointing. The swim was ok. If you like open water swimming, I think the event is probably great. It was very well organized and I felt safe the entire time. But I really don’t think I like open water swimming.

The morning started very early – it was dark and cold.

I think we (my cousin and I) got down to water at around 6:15 am. We got our caps and t-shirts, then sat in the car until we just couldn’t wait any longer…and then we stood outside with all the other crazy people. The swim starts at Alcatraz so everyone gets on a couple of boats to get out there. You don’t go back to the boats so you can’t take anything with you. So yeah, you’re just waiting in your wetsuit, cap, and goggles. No shoes, no shirt, no phone. We were basically naked.

We were split into two groups and loaded on to the boats. The sun had started coming up and it was a pretty nice ride out…until we starting thinking about jumping off the boat. They stop the boats and there are already a bunch of kayakers in the water to escort us stupid swimmers to shore. We got a brief recap of instructions and within a few minutes, people were jumping off the side of the boat.

We were told to jump off quickly and move away from the boat so that everyone can get in the water at almost the same time. There were 99 swimmers. They want everyone to get in pretty quickly because of the current and boat traffic. I jumped in, had a mild panic attack, couldn’t breathe for a while, moved away from the boat, turned over on my back, and did backstroke until I caught my breath. I’m very comfortable in the water so I was surprised that I kind of freaked out when I first jumped in. I think it was just the cold, the jumping, the anticipation of all of it.

There were definitely people who jumped in, freaked out, and were hanging on the side of the kayaks. I just turned over and started swimming. And swimming. And swimming. It felt like I was swimming forever and going nowhere. I was also zigzagging all over the place because it was impossible for me to swim in a straight line. OMFG.

Did I enjoy it? No. Would I do it again? Probably not. I was pretty bored and it was hard to get into a swimming groove because I had to constantly check where I was going. Am I so happy I did it? YES!!

It was also awesome to do the swim with my cousin (although we didn’t swim together). I think it would have been a better experience if I’d actually done some open water training, but I just didn’t have time.

You can see Alcatraz in the background in the picture below, but it’s a bit deceiving because we couldn’t swim straight to the beach from there because of the current.

It was still pretty cool to see Alcatraz from the beach, though. And I got this great t-shirt!

And now, I’m in Maine for the US Masters Nationals Artistic Swimming Championship! Yep, more swimming. I arrived last night and spent the morning at the pool cheering on a couple of duets that are swimming from my club. These are three of my teammates:

My team swims tomorrow and Sunday. Am I freaked out? Yes, of course I am. Pretty much losing my sh*t every 30 minutes or so. Woohoo!

Wish us luck!!

Posted in Family, Friends, Sports, Travel, Workout | 3 Comments

Just Keep Swimming

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Marni

Damn, once again, it’s been forever since I posted. Let me catch you up: I’ve been swimming. And working. And going to therapy. There you go. Talk to you next month!

Oh and I also turned 43. It was a pretty tame birthday and I enjoyed it. I had brunch with my mom, which was so fun to do on a Wednesday!

I really am ready for retirement. Oh and I changed my hair! Back to the dark side.

My birthday was on Wednesday, but I had an artistic swimming performance on Thursday that was freaking me the f*ck out. I was a bit preoccupied with swimming and I also don’t really give a sh*t about birthdays. Yours or mine. #truth

Anyway, the stress of swimming really messed up my sleep and pretty much everything last week. OMFG. Yeah, such a fun hobby! Damn. Fortunately, my team had it’s best swim yet, which was kind of a miracle.

We head to Nationals at the end of the month and we’re pretty excited to go. Mostly because it’s in Maine, but also because we can stop practicing so much. LOL.

And because I haven’t been swimming enough, I thought I should sign up for an open water swim race next weekend. I’m flying to San Francisco for about 24 hours to swim from Alcatraz to the shore (and hopefully not get eaten by a shark). It’s about a two-mile swim and I should be ok, but honestly, I haven’t done a long distance swim in a while…just a lot of synchro. Oh and I’ve never done an open water race. Super cool.

I’m still loving my studio and no car life. Tot is also living his very best life. He got this stuffed toy in his PupBox and it scares me how excited he was about it.

Yep, we’re definitely madly in love.

Speaking of being in love with my dog, therapy is going well! I’m not dating and I should probably write a post about that. It was so difficult not to get back into dating after the last break up (with the man-child). I didn’t realize what a great distraction it is. Since I’m not using dating as a distraction (or any other unhealthy way to cope), I’m now having to just SIT WITH MY FEELINGS! HOW MESSED UP IS THAT??? Super rude. But I really am enjoying being single and not ready to mingle. It’s nice to do whatever I want all the time. Even if that is just taking a million naps between swims.

Ok, that’s it for now. Be back soon-ish. Whenever. Love yourself. Get a little hippie woo woo.

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Medellin

Posted on September 3, 2022 by Marni

Nope, I didn’t lie. I actually came back to write a post about my trip to Colombia in July! As much as I wanted to write about it, I wasn’t actually sure I would so yay! All right about Colombia, we visited the cities of Medellin and Cartagena. We spent the most time in Medellin (where the competition was held) and I really loved it. It’s such a great city!

The gang: Petr, Lucie, G, and me!

Seeing all the swimming pools from the top floor of this hotel:

We spent so much time at the pools, but had a bit of time to walk around the city and even take a tour.

We liked trying the street food and some of it turned out to be some of our favorite things to eat in Colombia.

Those are potatoes with salt and sauce. Not my favorite thing, but George ate them all – per usual.

I think everyone loved the arepas con queso the most! And they only cost about $1. I would eat these every single day if I lived there.

We spent an afternoon walking around Medellin. Petr read about some church and we decided to walk there. Along the way, we found Plaza Botero, which is an outdoor museum that displays 23 sculptures by Colombian artist Fernando Botero. I’m not normally a fan of museums, but I really enjoyed seeing these sculptures.

And we made it to the church:

Which was fine, but I enjoyed the walk through the city more and seeing all the giant sculptures. It was nice to have a destination, though, and a reason to turn around 🤣.

A couple of days after this, we took a tour of Comuna 13, which we all loved. That will be my next post.

Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday weekend!

Posted in Friends, Travel, Trophy Husband | 1 Comment