I had an awesome swim today! I decided last weekend that before setting off for England, I wanted to do one more longish swim in the Bay. When deciding a course, these were my requirements:

1. Must be something cool, preferably with a defined “start” and “end” point. Not just “I’m going to swim along the waterfront for X hours and then back X hours.” No no no. Needs to be something more inspiring than that.
2. Should be 2-3 hours long (since I’m going to be swimming 25 miles 6-12 days from now, I didn’t want to do anything too crazy).
3. Cold water required (not like I”d have a problem finding lots of cold water around here! I just had that in my head since Maui was so warm).

I checked the tide log on Thursday and got really excited. Between 8am and 1pm on Saturday, there was going to be a big flood! If I were to swim away from the Golden Gate Bridge and into the South Bay, I’d get a nice push the whole way.

Know what’s 10 miles along the water front to the south of the Dolphin Club? Candlestick Park, home of the 49′ers. I’d already been to AT&T park a couple of times, where the Giants play. Why not visit the stomping grounds of San Francisco’s other major sports team? This sounded perfect!

So at 9am this morning, I jumped into the water with Neal in a zodiac alongside me and set off toward Candlestick Park. The flood was really hauling – I was embarrassingly slow fighting it to get to the opening! But once I got outside the cove, I really started to fly. I decided, then, that I was going to scrap my original plan of mimicking my Channel feeding tactics. I was going to push the first 3 miles, feed, then abstain from GU or liquid for the rest of the swim. My thought was that by not feeding for 2 hours after swimming a pretty hard 3 miles, I’d get more tired faster. Sure, I’d break down a bit. But I have plenty of time to replenish, and I kind of wanted to feel the sensation of being hungry, tired, and sore and still force myself to swim hard. I figured it would reinforce my confidence in my mental toughness were I to feel like I’d been in the water longer than 3 hours by the end and still keep swimming fast.

(Frankly, it’s probably silly of me to feel the need to “test” myself. But I’ve always been like this, and if a confidence booster is what’s needed, then that’s what I’d go after.)

I hit the 3 mile mark in under 50 minutes! Swimming down that flood felt sooo good. I proceeded to annoy the heck out of Neal when I refused the next 4 feedings he desperately encouraged me to get down my throat – I hadn’t shared my little change of plans because, in all honesty, I knew I was being a tad bit crazy. “Act first, apologize later,” I thought to myself guiltily.

Sure enough, as I passed by really cool industrial scenery I’d never before seen, my arms started to tighten up, my stomach started to rumble, and my hip flexors knotted up painfully. Still, I kept my turnover stable and pulled hard, smiling reassuringly at Neal every now and then. I did pause to take a quick rest and stretch out my back and hips a couple of times, though.

Neal found us a nice stretch of beach to land on in Candlestick Park. I finished the 10 miles in just under 3 hours, and I was very happy. I wasn’t cold, I felt fine to keep going, and I was stoked to have done such a cool swim!

We motored back to the Club, stopping for lunch at a bayside restaurant on the way (I was starving). What a great way to spend my last weekend before Dover!

It’s official: I’m now allowed to swim the English Channel.

At 7:45am on Sunday morning, I set off on a 6 hour training swim that would also serve to officially qualify me for the Channel swim (the CS&PF requires all hopefuls to complete a 6 hour swim in 58-62 degree water prior to their attempt). It was a perfect day, with the sun already shining, clear skies, and little wind. I had a totally amazing support team out with me: my friend and mentor Reuben, my sweetheart Neal, my sister Karri, my father Larry, my mother Connie, and my friend Dave. Though things started out a little rough around Alcatraz (think Spin Cycle of Death), I soon got into a groove and felt absolutely awesome.

I remember thinking to myself, “Remember this. You’re young, you’re strong, you’re fast, you’re doing something you love on a beautiful day, and you are surrounded by people you love who are only here for YOU and who want you to succeed. Drink it in.” And I did.

Powered by GU, the hours melted away as we saw parts of the Bay I’d never before seen. Even when my arms started to hurt around hour 5, I was having too much fun to care, battling my way through rising winds as we worked our way back toward the Dolphin Club. This time, I didn’t get stuck anywhere, and finishing on the DC beach felt really good. My shoulders held up, my ankles and hip flexors made it through, and my mental state stayed high with the cheering and smiles from my family and friends.

I feel confident. I still have a month to improve, to get stronger and even faster. I can’t wait to tackle the greatest challenge of my 25 years.

A HUGE thank you to Reuben, Neal, Dave, Karri, Dad, and Mom for being so selfless and so supportive. I love you all!

My 5 hour swim on Saturday was incredible!  I had a blast, and I realized that I’m the luckiest girl ever.  I had so many wonderful people out supporting me – check out the support team breakdown:

In the Farrell – Reuben (Senior Pilot and navigator), Neal (Co-pilot and chef), and Daddy (photographer and videographer)

In the Arias – Dave (Captain and boat deflector), Mom (head cheerleader and occasional commando), and Old Grand Dad (champion open water swimmer and Laurin Fan).

We started at the Dolphin Club at 8:05am and headed toward the Bay Bridge.  Neal and my parents prepared a wonderful surprise for me in the form of large poster boards with uplifting or funny messages written on them.  Neal or my dad flashed them at me often during the swim.  So freakin’ cool!

30 minutes into the swim, I found my stride, and started flying.  The water was warm!  57-58 degrees, warm enough such that my hands did not splay for the entire swim!  After months of swimming with claws for hands, that alone was super exciting.

We passed under the Bay Bridge and continued on toward AT&T Park.  The sun came out from behind the clouds as we rounded the bend, and the stadium loomed above us, breathtakingly beautiful from the water.

Everything just went perfectly.  Neal warmed up my GU before putting it into the GU Gel Bot (an awesome contraption that allows you to have GU and a drink of your choice in the same vessel), so for the first time I was able to actually able to get the GU out of the Gel Bot and decreased my feeding time to about 25 seconds.  My friends and family cheered me on for the entire 5 hours, clapping, waving signs, laughing, making me feel strong and happy.  Dave made sure no boats ran me over.  The sun came out 2 hours in, warming my back as I swam.  I felt fast, I felt strong, I felt warm, and I felt loved.  I couldn’t help but smile as I swam.

Our only mishap was misjudging the currents – I ended up swimming into a very strong flood current.  But hey, fighting a crazy current is good training, too.

I’m humbled to know that so many people care about me and want to see me reach my goals.  It’s amazing how fun training can be when you have such a plethora of love and support.  A huge thank you to all of my supporters on Saturday!!