The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway in Magical Realism

I started to write an entry yesterday, about how I've been feeling kind of discombobulated lately, but then I stayed up until 3am last night getting work done and assorted other life organization things and now am feeling much better. So I think it was just work stuff hanging over my head.

For my own sanity I took an hour for dinner and I made turkey lettuce cups and baked some lunch for today in the oven, and we ate, drank some red wine and watched "The Following" which was a great mental break. I am so in love with television right now!

Right now I am eating roasted salmon, butternut squash and brussels sprouts that I made last night for lunch today. I put everything in this three sectioned tupperware thing and am way too proud of myself, even showed it to a couple of co-workers. It's a little too much food so I will wait to get hungry again this afternoon and then devour the remainder. Homemade hot lunch - it's the little things!

Hoping work stuff will calm down soon, it's really just the usual, plus a couple of high-profile special projects that should be right up my alley but so far I'm not really enjoying them. After March 1st my life should be my own again.

In the midst of work madness I took off a few weekends ago for a 24-Hour Relay Swim in Aquatic Park. Swimming in SF in February meant 50F/10C water for hours on end - not sure what I was thinking. The trip was also super in-and-out so didn't really have any time to enjoy San Francisco. I know part of me was thinking, "How hard could a relay be?" This was the ill-advised thing I mentioned in the last entry, and my hunch was right - relays, never again.

For any swim or race, of any distance, the hardest part for me is getting started. Jumping into or walking into cold water, the first 100 strokes are always so painful. Even in a warm water swim or the first mile of any run, my limbs feel like lead and almost resist turning over. Even breathing is harder than it should be. In a solo swim, you only have to do this once. The swim gets hard at various points of course, but there is only one start. I hate getting started and with a relay, you are constantly getting started, there's not enough time to sleep and with the rain and cold air, I felt damp/cold for almost the entire 24 hours.

A and I flew in Friday morning, checked into hotel, walked around in the rain a bit, did some shopping and had a Specialty's cookie. Yum. We had some time before the pre-swim briefing, so we had drinks at the "International Sports Club" - a dive bar we used to frequent in our SF days - happy hour from 4-8pm and well drinks/drafts are only $2.50...very nice. We had a few drinks, grabbed sushi up the street at North Beach Sushi and then headed to the briefing. Met my team members, Ilana and Denise from SF, Andrew from Seattle, and Amanda from Australia. I had actually done the Manhattan Island Marathon swim a few years ago with Amanda. Very cool group, solid cold water swimmers. After the briefing we went to grab another drink, then went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Got started at 9am Saturday. Denise kicked it off and the 24 hours started. We swam laps in the cove of about .8 miles each, and the next swimmer had to be in the water knee-deep before the previous swimmer could get out. We saw a huge sea lion in the middle of the cove, eating a big pink fish - he kept jumping up and the birds were going crazy. Glad that one was well fed. Getting in was a hassle for me. I took too long wading in and started shaking as I was walking, but once I dove in/started swimming I was okay again.

Starting my first lap with Ilana (me in pink cap):

Finishing first lap and handing off to Amanda:

After each lap I'd put a towel and flipflops on, walk to the sauna, get a bit warmed up, then put clothes back on. I drank a lot of hot water and consumed mass amounts of calories (something about cold water swimming really depletes me and I need to eat a TON to keep energy up.)

Splish Splash:

View out towards Alcatraz:

View from water towards land (with Orca):

The swim organizer mentioned that the first few swims would feel great but that it would be the fifth, seventh, ninth swims and the swims in the middle of the night we needed to watch out for. For me the first and second swims were probably the worst, and I actually enjoyed the laps at night. The lights of Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf were so pretty in the darkness, this photo completely doesn't capture it, but I guess they never really do:

A was so great helping us stay on track - they also enlisted him with random tasks including moving zodiacs, helping kayakers, and even driving a huge sailboat out of the Marina into the cove. We took a badly needed nap between 2 and 4am, and when we woke up it felt like the end was finally in sight.

It stopped raining between 4 and 5am, and I took my second to last lap a bit after that. People were swimming very different times for each lap so it was hard to calculate whether I'd be going again or not. A few people were really cold/tired at the end so I took the last shift a couple of people early, and Amanda joined me for a last partial lap. We swam out to the cove opening to take a peek at Alcatraz - it was the one thing she wanted to do before heading home. She's around my speed and it was really nice to swim with her.

Last Swim with Amanda:

Some ducks and another team's final swimmer joined us on the way in:

It felt great to be done at 9am - I took a quick shower, said goodbye to my team, and we headed back to the hotel, I was so glad we kept it for another night. Showered up, blowdried hair (I was finally, blissfully DRY) and went to grab some brunch. After brunch we went home to hotel for work (me) and napping (A.) We meant to meet up with our friends K and F but they flaked out due to rain (lame) so we went for a walk and got Italian at our old North Beach place, which we always slightly preferred over the other, very similar 12 other places nearby. We shared caprese salad and an order of gnocchi with some pellegrino.

Checked out and took cab to airport to get on the red-eye, which was delayed a few hours. Slept like a rock on the plane when we finally got on (I was just happy to get out since I had to leave for a work trip the next day) and the weather has been causing loads of problems lately. Got home, took subway back, took a nap with A and then headed off for my work trip (miserable.)

Was sick all week, worked a ton, then was supposed to get home late Thursday night but everything was cancelled due to weather so I stayed put an extra night and made it back late Friday evening instead. A had done home improvements and cleaned while I was away, and brought me a really heartfelt card and a single red rose. He made an arrangement of it floating in one of our stemless wine glasses - so pretty. We headed out to the Crosby Hotel for dinner and a showing of "Midnight in Paris" in their screening room. (I went back and forth until I confirmed that Woody Allen would not be profiting in any way from the event.) Stopped in at Pravda for a couple of martinis on the way home (fig infused vodka and apricot infused vodka) and went to bed at a fairly reasonable time. Spent the rest of the weekend in bed.

The end. I should write more so that I don't have these massive catch-up entries.

(Entry Title from "Let it Go" from the "Frozen" soundtrack - this song made me feel happy and strong today. I haven't seen the movie yet but look forward to watching on a plane sometime soon.)