Open Water Swimming
What training for a six mile open water swim is like: Getting up at oh-my-god 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday just so you can swim three miles with your swimming buddy. When you arrive at the beach, you find out that your buddy has decided to sleep in. You could be watching the Wimbledon final, but no, you're swimming alone. You have the ENTIRE beach to yourself. Although it's kind of cool, it's slightly creepy because... Of the seaweed. Every time you run into an exceptionally large clump of seaweed, you shriek underwater. In your vivid imagination, the clump of seaweed is a monster, the dreaded "what lies beneath", or a clammy, dead human hand wrapping itself around your wrists and calves. If there's such a thing as "kelpophobia," you have it. That should totally be a movie, you know...Like Arachnophobia? You're not watching it though! You're also getting a rash, but you're not going to go on about that. Swimming in the ocean is always an adventure though, and you like to think that not just any swimmer can be an open water swimmer. It takes a special kind of courage. At least, that's what you like to think.
