Anyone who knows me knows that for the most part, I simply love to swim. However, my training has recently hit a bit of a stall, though not for any particular reason. I have felt sluggish in the pool and not super motivated to swim fast as I prepare for my Manhattan swim. Maybe I am feeling this training slump because I just finished college, or maybe it is just the normal motivational drop that often happens after a successful long swim (and I am only noticing it because this is my first time doing two marathons in one summer).
Regardless of the reason for this temporary lack of motivation, I finally had a swim this morning that I thoroughly enjoyed! My friend Gino and I are a little over a month away from our Manhattan swims and are planning to swim a total of 8 hours this weekend split into 2 on Friday, 4 on Saturday, and 2 and Sunday. Today, I met Gino at the beach at 5:20am and it was still dark outside. I like to complain about being up before dawn, but in reality I actually love being awake before everyone else and driving to the beach when the city is quiet. We entered the water as the sun began to rise and I was painfully aware of how much colder the Pacific is in California compared to Maui. I love getting to watch the sun rise over the coastal edge of the city while we swim.
We swam south to the Venice Breakwater and I saw two large dolphins pass very close on our right. My stroke felt smooth and strong as I swam next to Gino and matched his tempo. Together we swam south, and I hummed songs to myself as we cruised along. At the breakwater, we turned back north and swam through some very gross seaweed patches.
I was still feeling great in the water and loving the cooler temperatures. As we neared our starting point, I began to hear the dolphins again and suddenly we were surrounded by the pod, with some animals swimming directly towards us. I had never seen so many dolphins at one time before and was simultaneously scared and amazed to be swimming among such powerful animals. As we passed them, it occurred to me that we are so lucky to be able swim in the ocean pretty much whenever we want and have these experiences that others only ever dream about! We swam all the way to the Santa Monica Pier and turned back to swim our last half hour back to the tower. My stroke still felt strong and I didn’t want to get out of the water and could have kept swimming. We swam through the small surf and walked out onto the warm sand. I am so grateful that I have these opportunities and can spend my summer in such an amazing place. A huge thank you to all my friends who help make these adventures possible!
Open Water Abby 