Welland race

For... who knows what reason, all along since I got registered for this race I had in my mind that the race site was close to the beach where I had swam in Hamilton. Little did I know about the Welland town. The race for me actually started when, after I wrote the last post this morning, I realized that Welland is ... an hour farther that I thought and obviously and as usual I was already late then.

Quickly got my stuff and ran out of the door, got into the car with Katie and drove down there. With the time biting my ass I got lost so never found the registration place and very upset I was almost giving up when I turned into a street parallel to the canal and saw a bunch of swimmers getting ready on the other side.

This must be the guys for the 3 Km. I thought (the 5Km. start time was already gone) so turned around got to the other side of the canal and talked to the organizers.

They kindly let me in for the 3Km. race and then I just got into the water and got ready to start.

That has been the story of this project. Many things planned, much more that had been adjusted on the go. Flexibility is a must!

The water was quite pleasant and clean and three minutes later I was starting the race with a bunch of teens beside me. They quickly went ahead as I was trying to get comfortable in the water. That takes longer than usual so I was sore and I had a bit of hard time trying to get my heart rate stable. After 20 minutes or so, I started to feel much better and catched up with some of the teens ahead. Then I just thought in keeping a relaxed pace and I did it until the end. The only thing that was really annoying was having the swim cap sliding up until I got it as a mushroom on top of my head. At some point ona slow stroke took it off, put it under my suit, on the next stroke I adjusted my goggles and kept going... I was really pleased of the skills to fix things on the go!

The race finished way too fast.

Katie walked almost all along beside me taking pictures and I could see her smiling which made me feel very good about the whole thing.

We waited until the last swimmer finished and talked to a few people including two very experienced open waters swimmers: Rob Kent (L.O.S.T. swimming) and Coleen Shields who also will attempt to cross the lake for her third time!

Got into the car , went to Niagara-on-the-Lake walked a bit just to be relaxed, got some lunch and came back home to get some of the little things missing for Tuesday.

Little by little things are getting aligned.

Let's just hope for good weather conditions and mild wind for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting this project.

Comments

[Susanne Robinson]

Hello fellow swimmer good luck looking forward to meeting u on the other side

[malva]

Thank you Susanne. I will try to be there to see you take off in the morning.
Good luck to you and lets hope for the best weather and wind conditions possible for the two of us!

[Irma Huerta]

Mickey!

Hola, he tratado de localizarte via telefonica para desearte de todo corazon un trayecto exitoso y enriquecedor como el que estoy segura haras. Me hubiera encantado acompañarte fisicamente en el barco, pero aunque no este ahi ten por seguro que estare minuto a minuto deseandote lo mejor.

Te envio mis mejores deseos, lucha como siempre lo has hecho, estoy segura de que sera una experiencia maravillosa que espero nos compartas en algun momento.

Para ti y para Katie, un abrazo con todo cariño.

Vamos!