Today was one of those rare days in San Francisco that was undeniably gorgeous. The sun was out in a perfectly blue sky. The air was warm, and there was zero wind. The water was flat and glassy, and best of all, warm!

Normally, when I roll into the Dolphin Club after morning workout in San Mateo, the sky is misty and grey, the air cold, the water colder. I’m always tired from the 8-10 grand I just finished in the pool, and exposing my body to the dreary cold is the last thing in the world I feel like doing.

Today, I was still pretty exhausted from practice, but it was so nice out that I couldn’t wait to get in! I swam hard, feeling fast and strong, for 2 miles, at which point my triceps rebelled. I seriously felt as though my arms were burning! Part of me wanted to stop, but the part that was revelling in the virtually never-before-seen conditions refused to get out. I got an additional 2 miles in before a little thing called “work” necessitated my aquatic exit.

If only it could be like this the day of my Channel swim!

WOW.

I’ve done a lot of fun open water swims in my 20 years of swimming, but nothing compares to my experience this past weekend during the 2009 Trans-Tahoe Relay!  Not only was the day beautiful (bright, sunny, and warm), not only was the swim incredibly gorgeous (pristine, clear, sapphire blue water with views of mountains and evergreens), but I had the honor of being on a team with 5 absolutely fabulous people, a super cool boat captain, and a truly wondeful team captain.

Our team won our division (Mixed 240 – 3 Men/3 Women with a total age greater than or equal to 240 years) and took 18th out of 100 teams entered.  We had a great time cheering for one another, taking our turns swimming in that spectacular water, joking with Coach Ray, and keeping Joel posted with blow-by-blow phone updates.

Thank you to Joel Swartz, a fellow San Mateo Marlin and South Ender, for introducing me to this event.  I’m already looking forward to next year, when I hope to do it solo!  Thank you to my team for making this day so much fun.  And a huge thanks to my parents, who drove all the way up from Southern California to spend their 40th wedding anniversary with me.

If you haven’t swum in Lake Tahoe, you have no idea how breath-taking and spiritual swimming can be. Get some friends together, and I’ll see you here in 2010!

The 33rd Annual Trans-Tahoe Relays are this Saturday!  I’m super excited for this event:  a 6 person relay race across the width of Lake Tahoe, starting at Sand Harbor, Nevada and finishing at Skylandia Beach near Lake Forest Drive.  Some Trans-Tahoe stats:

• 11.5 miles – race length
• 6200 feet – altitude, makes it the highest lake in the US
• 62-70 degrees – range of water temperature
• 6 people – number of swimmers per team
• 30 minutes – length of time for each swimmer’s first swim
• 15 minutes – lenth of time for each swimmer’s second swim
• Crystal clear – degree of water visibility
• Wetsuits – will get you disqualified

I’m on a team mostly comprised of fellow members of the wonderful San Mateo Master Marlins.  Our team:

• Nancy Stern
• Moby Coquillard
• Dan Kearns
• Judy Hellar
• Ross (last name unknown at the moment…eeep)
• Laurin Weisenthal (aka ME!)

And I just learned that coach Ray Laughlin is going to be spectating from our boat!  Hooray!

(If you can’t tell, Ray rocks).

AND, if it couldn’t get any better, my parents decided to come up for the weekend as well!  Do I have an amazing family or what?!

This is going to be such a blast.  I can’t wait!

The Lake Berryessa swim today was awesome!  The lake is beautiful, the water clear, clean, and warm (69 degrees!)  While this is obviously way, way warmer than the Channel, it was a fun chance to have fun and race.  The sun was shining, and it was super warm out. 

A ton of my friends showed up – members of the Dolphin Club, South End Club, San Mateo Master Marlins, and Mountain View Masters were there, and I met some really nice people from Santa Cruz.  I also managed to get my friend and former Princeton swimmer Fernando out to swim.  What can I say, swimmers have a tendency to rock. 

The Davis team did a fanstastic job running the event, and they used a really nifty timing system.  They had us all wear electronic bands on our ankles that recorded times as we ran up the beach.  Very high tech, and it made turn around time on the results very fast. 

I entered both the 2 mile and 1 mile events.  The 2 mile went off at 9:45, and it was this race that was my focus.  I got out fast, and once I was in the lead, I started freaking out that someone was going to catch me from behind at the finish (it’s happened before).  Since open water swimming has no turns, I had no idea where people were behind me, so I kept ramping up the effort through the whole race.  It paid off, and I came in as the first female age 18-39(11th overall if you include the men).  Later in the day, Suzanne Heim-Bowen, a fellow Dolphin Club member, would surpass my time by 35 seconds to claim the 5th spot overall.  Well done her!

I was feeling tired, and the 1 mile was set to start what seemed like almost immediately.  I decided to just have fun on the 1 mile – just enjoy the warm, clear water and the chance to swim with other people.  But 30 seconds after the start, I found myself at the head of the pack again.  Well, I figured, if I’m ahead now, I may as well try to stay there! 

The 1 mile seemed to be over almost as soon as it started, but once again, I finished first out of the women age 18-39. 

I had a great time, and I’m definitely going to be back next year!  Hope to see you there, too! 

PS.  Loved the shirts!

Having moved to San Mateo, and leaving my swim team in Mountain View, I needed to find a new place to train.  Of course I will be transitioning more and more to bay swimming as I get closer to September, but I love masters swimming and I wanted a fun group of people to train with.  I tried a few places around the mid-Penninsula, and I finally settled on a true gem of a team right in my own neighborhood!  Here are a few reasons why the San Mateo Master Marlins are so awesome:

1. The Joinville Swim Center, where they train, is a 5 minute walk from my house – environmentally friendly and invokes  college memories of trekking to practice in the dark at 5:30am.  Added bonus:  no snow this time
2. Short course meters = rad
3. The people are super friendly and a lot of them are South End Club members who also enjoy ocean swimming.  Translated:  I have a posse of fellow crazies
4. The head coach, Ray, is fantastic and thinks it’s funny when I change the intervals
5. Like Mountain View Masters, they offer sequential practice times every morning, so if I “accidentally” sleep through the 5:30am practice, I can still get my swim in at 7am.  Nice.

I’m glad I’ve found such a fantabulous new home!