Life at Zero Degrees in Magical Realism

Got back from that work trip by 10pm-ish on Friday to see my love. Went for a Coney Island swim the next morning at 9am, or rather breakfast with my girls and then a very quick dip. A and I hung out and then went for boozy dinner - we had a gift certificate at this terrible place in Times Square that I’d gotten when I bought tickets and backstage passes for the Broadway musical Once for my mom. Lots of vodka sodas and a grilled chicken salad for me, some beers and fried foods for A. We went barhopping after and stayed out way too late.

Next few days in the office, then took subway to JFK for the afternoon Aeroflot to Moscow. Flight was delayed but I made my connection to Tallinn, Estonia (I thought I missed it but forgot about the hour time difference.) Took a cab to the hotel, checked in, did work, and crashed at 4pm. Slept through the night, then got up for brekkie. Woke up late and threw some water on my face, no make-up, so of course the first person I saw was the mysterious and super-fast Petar who said hi to me before I was even fully awake. Sat with a lady at breakfast who turned out to be a swimmer and had a nice chat with her and her daughter. Three hardboiled eggs, fruit, crepes with orange marmalade, coffee and juice. Did work, took a nap, registered and saw Henri and co before meeting up with Rory and Kate for our medical exams. Of course the doctors weren’t there yet so we hung out for a bit - love them. Passed my medical, met up with Karen who agreed to act as my second, and waited for instructions. The venue was Pirita Marina that was the site of the 1980 Moscow Olympics Sailing Event, even though Pirita is 1000k from Moscow . The pool was nice, just 4 lanes for the 1k, 5 for the shorter events. There were a lot of ice chunks/sheets floating around and I hoped they’d clear them before we went in.

A few people dropped out/didn’t pass medical, plus me and Kate were the only two females, so they decide to put us in with the men. Enzo from Italy and Andrey from Moscow. Nice guys…I’d met Andrey at 1k World Champs last year and Enzo was new but good friends with my buddy Paolo. I had a feeling Andrey was close in time to me, Kate was dying to know what their times were and said she hoped we’d beat both of them. Someone who had been to this venue before warned us that there was a metal platform sticking out of the water, so we needed to keep our feet raised up and away from the bottom rung to avoid cutting up/bumping our feet/legs. Very good advice.

Near the tent before the 1k: from left to right, me, Karen (my second, friend from Scotland), a volunteer, Tatiana (my Russian sister and Andrey’s second), Andrey (in green ski pants), Kate (in red), volunteer. Also, snow.

For the 1k at zero degrees it’s really just me against the water, just survival, so I wasn’t concerned about racing, but Kate has that great competitive spirit so her partner Rory asked Andrey his time from Murmansk. He did like 19 minutes which I knew was close to my 18:30, so I immediately knew him being Russian and a dude, he would get a bit macho and try his best to beat me. Ugh. I knew I needed to focus on my own swim and just stay smooth. We waited together and got briefed and then all of a sudden, it was time. It was snowing pretty consistently at this point…we paraded out, Karen with me, they announced us, I waved to the spectators, then got undressed and into the water.

Right away I was out ahead, but Andrey was right with me and Kate not too far behind. I wasn’t messing up turns but they weren’t the usual asset to my swim, I could see the platform sticking out and it was costing me some power. After just a few laps I knew I’d be numb and didn’t want to push it too hard and bang up my feet/legs. Andrey stayed with me about 14 laps, then made a move to pass. I focused on myself and let him go a half body length ahead. I felt good but wasn’t going to push myself and put myself in the danger zone to beat some dude. Plus I had a feeling he was going to tire himself out. He held the lead for about 4 more laps, then I knew he was letting go and fell behind right at 20 laps, the halfway mark. I was happy to see that number, but knew that half way is really only 25% of the journey because the back half tends to be so much harder at zero degrees. I felt good though, and put more energy in as the laps went on. 18, 16, 14, 12. 10 always felt good going into single digits and around 8 Kate started speeding up. I had more energy so I put more speed into my arms and kicked my feet, and felt great the last 6 laps. I was stupid and kept my mouth open so my tongue felt weird but otherwise nothing unusual. I lapped Enzo a few times, had a good lap on Kate and Enzo, and then plowed into the finish. I was tempted to do the last few strokes butterfly in my joy at being done but didn’t want to piss anyone off by showboating after winning the heat by very comfortable margins. I walked out, Karen accompanied me, and I went right from the deck into the woodfired tent sauna.

Kate and Andrey came in a few minutes later, she is very lean so she was kind of messed up but Andrey went into Russian dude Banya mode, stoking the fire, offering us drinks and massages - it was pretty amazing. He is a firefighter/rescue diver in Moscow so basically awesome person. I was giddy and shivering, but happy, Kate was pretty messed up but okay, but he was throwing water on the rocks, putting wood in the stove, it was crazy. Luisa and Karen brought us tea, and we shivered together. Then Enzo came in, he was in a long time but finished and we were happy recovering together. I was good to go pretty quickly, then the fast heat of professional males finished one by one. Petar came in first and they needed a seat because the electronic sauna wasn’t working and the other tent sauna was too smoky, so I walked out, hugged everyone, and headed back to the hotel with Karen. I got dried and into normal clothes, then headed down to the casino for the awards ceremony.

I was first female, and it turned out that Kate ended up touching Andrey out after trailing him until about lap 38, seeing he was within reach, and then touching him out right at the wall. After a kilometer at zero degrees. She is a machine. My time was a bit faster than at Murmansk last year, so I was happy. I am not trained and cannot ask for much. We received certificates, lovely medals, and (yo-ho-ho) a bottle of rum, I went out to dinner at this hipster place in Tallinn with a big group of UK swimmers afterwards, it was fun.

The next day we met for breakfast at 8:30, I wasn’t slated to swim until around 11 but had a feeling I was going to get invited for a relay. Lo and behold, Mariia saw me and mentioned that Alex was looking for me to invite me to the IWSA relay. I was of course flattered and ready, so I went down to the pool early and ready to swim. Surprise relay! It was good, I swam first and held the fast men off.

I thought this was a dude at first, until i saw the subsequent photos with my cap and face. Love how (deceptively) ripped I look:

Didn’t even have time to change out of my (cold, wet) swimsuit before I swam the 25 Breaststroke.

Got changed, warmed up a bit at the hotel then went to swim the 50 freestyle. After the 50 the locker room was so packed. Luisa and I were sharing a locker than Olga threw her stuff in too and there was no room to move. I went outside and things calmed down a bit for the 100, much fewer swimmers. By the 200 the locker room was empty, and I had a few minutes before the 450 and plenty of space.

Do you want to see a video of me swimming?

Overall I got gold in the 25 Breast, 200 freestyle, 450 freestyle, the 1k, and then silver in the 50 free, 100 free, and the relay. Not bad. After the 450 I went straight into the hot tub and lounged with my ladies. It was happy and well earned. The boys came and made me do a shot, and there was much hilarity all around.

Went home, got showered, dried hair, hung out with Luisa and Kate and Rory and then Karen for a drink before the awards dinner. It was a lot of fun. I am one of the few loonies who does all the events, so the announcer poked quite a bit of fun at me coming up there repeatedly and I got lots of medals and nice prezzies from the sponsoring Casino. I had to leave all the alcohol with my friends checking luggage due to my tight connection in Moscow, but got some fun stuff including this fur trapper hat. Ha.

Me with my girls, darling Luisa and my new buddy Loli from Spain who currently lives in Sweden, is an awesome swimmer, and is a Nobel Nominee for Chemistry. All while living with MS:

Good dinner, good amount of drinks, but I was not feeling the dancing. Talked to everyone, hung out until after midnight, then went back to my room. The next day I was up early, met Karen and Alex and lovely English Sarah for a dip in the Baltic Sea. It was icy but we had fun.

Sarah in purple, Alex in blue, me in black, and Karen in orange:

Had breakfast with the gang, said our seeya laters, jumped in a cab, flew from Tallinn to Moscow, had v. tight connection but made it, slept on the way, watched “Londongrad” (good) “Unbroken” (amazing) and got home to JFK around 4:30. Took subway home, where A met me at the subway and brought me to a perfectly clean house with wine and candles homemade quinoa salad. Superhero. Stayed up too late and then work this week. Just trying to get everything in order before I launch into the next adventure.

I can do this. I can even make time to write about it. Right?

Last updated March 21, 2016