This year I am turning 40 years old. I am super excited about it. I spent the majority of my thirties pregnant and/or nursing babies. I love my kids, but I feel like I am finally able to be me again. Not just Mom. Some women are able to do that while having babies. Me, not so much. I am not complaining. I love being a Mom. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do in life, and I actually get to live my dream. Super happy and thankful about that. But the baby phase is over, and instead of moaning and missing it, I am embracing the next phase as equally wonderful and full of fantastic surprises. One way to celebrate/commemorate that, was to get back into swimming.
I used to love to swim. I was on the swim team in high school. I wasn’t any great shakes or anything, but I really loved being in the water. Loved challenging myself. Loved the feeling of accomplishment when I would swim a length faster than I had previously, or finally mastered a new technique. Plus I always had a pretty good tan during swim season. 🙂 But once I left school, there wasn’t much of an opportunity to swim regularly. And slowly, it just became something I “used to do”.
Every once in a while, I would get a chance to do a few laps. When I would take the kids swimming and another mom and I would trade off watching the kids while the other swam. But in a situation like that, you feel bad getting all greedy and being gone for an hour, you know? So, it was more like 15-20 minutes, here and there. But over the last little while, every time we would go past a pool I would get a really strong urge to just dive in, clothes and all, and swim for as long as they would let me. The water was calling me back. 🙂
So I set a goal to swim across Lake Zurich this summer, in their annual sponsored swim. To make sure I actually did it, I told people that was what I wanted to do, and invited them to join me. Safety in numbers, you know. My friend, Tanya, was really excited about the idea and immediately set up a training schedule for us. It was great. We would meet most Monday and Friday evenings, without kids and swim for about an hour. Wednesday mornings we would each bring our youngest and trade off babysitting duty while the other swam. The kids played really nicely together, and the time passed very quickly.
The first time we trained, we were only able to swim 9 or so laps. The next time, it was 15. And by the third time, we could already swim the full length, 30 laps. This progressed convinced our friend, Julie, that she could do it, too. So she would meet us every once in a while to swim laps. She had no kids at home during the day, so she was able to train at different times than we were, but we would still compare notes on our progress. It quickly became routine for me to make dinner, help put the kids to bed, and then race out the door to get in an hour of swimming before the pool closed. Chris was very supportive and on some nights when I needed an extra push, he was right there to give it to me.
The day of the race was absolutely beautiful. So sunny and warm, perfect for a lake swim. Some years the event gets rained out, but there was no chance of that happening. Julie picked me up and we drove into Zurich together. Tanya and the other Julie, who decided to swim with us last minute, were already at the lake waiting for us. The registration line was outside the entrance to the lake, and the plan was for us to wait in line sans kids, and call them when we got close so they could leave their kids for a few minutes with our other friend, Megan, and come register with us. Unfortunately, the line moved much faster than we anticipated, and they didn’t hear the phone the first time I called them. So Julie and I already had our assigned numbers before we ever got a hold of them. We had planned to just pay for theirs as well, but the 50 I swore I had in my wallet turned out to be just a 10, so Julie had to pay for me, and the other ladies had to go stand in line by themselves. We were number 86 and 87, they were in the 300’s. The line was a beautiful example of Swiss efficiency, as they were able to process so many people in a very short amount of time. As we walked through the entrance, they also handed us a granola bar, and an apple. I got raspberry, yum! Julie thought she had natural flavor, took a big bite and discovered it was lemon. Yuck! But the apples were delicious.
Due to the numbers of people wanting to swim, and the safety issues involved, they divided the start groups into 200 people at a time. We had an hour to wait before the first swimmers were allowed in the water, so we just hung out on the beach with our friends and their kids. 30 minutes before start time, we could participate in some warm up aerobics if we wanted. Julie and I wandered over and joined in at the back for the last few minutes, then it was time to assemble on the dock.
They had set up a continuous shower, so as you walked down the dock, you got dowsed with ice cold water. It seemed cruel at first, but it took the shock off stepping into the cool lake water at the end. It was actually only cold for just the first few seconds. Once you got swimming, the water was a perfect temperature. And the hot weather, made being in the cool water that much more enjoyable.
The hardest part of the swim ended up trying to stick together, rather than the distance. There were so many people in the water at the same time, arms and legs going everywhere. But we could usually find a little gap in between, just for us. We tried breaststroke for the first little while, but the current was so strong, we didn’t make much progress. We ended up trading off between breaststroke when we wanted to chat or find each other again, and freestyle when we actually wanted to move ahead to the next gap. A couple of times we flipped onto our backs and just floated along in the lake, enjoying the view. It was so nice.
At one point, my event-issued swim cap came off my head. I guess my hair was not secured well enough, and the weight of it falling down my head, pulled the thing right off. I caught it before it completely fell off, and tucked it inside my swimming suit for safe keeping. Sure enough, a few minutes later, some older lady swam by and asked me where my cap was. You know, just in case I was trying to swim across the lake without paying my 20 bucks entrance fee. What was she gonna do, report me to the fish? Anyway, I pulled it out of my swimming suit and waved it in the air for her to satisfy herself that I was a legal participant, then shoved it back down again for later. The only other notable incident was that poor Julie got toenailed by some old guy, right down her lower leg. Ouch! And Gross!
I got all excited thinking we were almost near the finish line, because I could see the buildings on the other side of the lake. Turns out, the course curved around and went behind those buildings. Oh well, it gave me something to shoot for, for a little while. At the end of the race, there were lots of people standing around cheering everyone who came out of the water. Our bags were all neatly stacked in groups according to the numbers on our caps, so it was very easy to find them. Now that we had our cell phones, it was just as easy to find our friends. They entered the water after us, but finished well before us. Apparently, they were going for time, we were going to finish. 🙂 The organizers had nice warm bouillon waiting for us, and then we could turn in our food voucher for a bowl of warm risotto with grated parmesan on top, and a bottle of water. Everyone also got a souvenir water bottle which I am now using when I run.
After we had finished our meal, it was time to head back to the other side of the lake, where our car was. It was at this point that I realized I had left my shoes over on the beach! There was nothing for it but to laugh and get back to my shoes as quick as possible. The sidewalk was not as hot as it could have been, since it was evening and getting cooler. In the tram it was filthy, but no fear of burning my feet at all. And on the bus, it was crowded, so there was a slight chance of squished toes, but my friends protected me. When we finally got back to our starting point, I found my shoes quietly waiting for me on the sand, safe and sound. I rinsed my feet off a bit in the lake, but had to scrub them at home before I could stand to put them on my clean sheets.
There were still people lining up to swim across as we were leaving to go home. I was glad we had gotten in early, while there was still lots of light and warmth! We read in the paper the next day that over 7,000 people ended up crossing the lake that day. I am sure the beautiful weather helped with those numbers. It was super fun, and we are already making plans to go again next year.
FYI: do not look for me in any of the above photos. I did not take them. My friends did not take them. We got them from the newspaper, so you could get an idea of what it looked like. It was from the actual day, but not the actual time I went in. 🙂