Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Swimming in Lake Michigan

My alarm went off at 5:20 this morning. I slipped on my suit and grabbed my towel, cap and goggles. It took me all of 3 1/2 minutes to walk out my front door, across the street, through the meandering mulched trail on the outskirts of the park, and down the winding path to the beach on Lake Michigan.

I live here?

The Lake Michigan Swimmers http://www.lakemichiganswimmers.blogspot.com/ had posted the day before that they were meeting @ 5:45 a.m. As I waited...and waited...I realized that must be a "soft" 5:45. So I hunted for seaglass and found two cool pebbles of it.

Then I saw them stroll down the path, some in wetsuits, but most not. (Not knowing where mine ended up in the move, I didn't even bother to look for it.) I was the only chick this morning.

Water temp read 67.7 degrees. I dove in, and surprisingly I was not the slowest as I assumed I'd be.

The sun rose out from the lake.

I live here?

I hit pockets of warm, and pockets of can't-catch-your-breath cold. It was the most invigorating swim I'd been on in a long time. Wait, maybe even ever.

Out of the 14,000 inhabitants of Whitefish Bay, there are only 10 of us out here swimming?

I could see the rippled, sandy bottom of the lake go past me with every stroke. I always feel faster in open water, but today was better than ever.

Why haven't I joined this group yet??

So perhaps today began a new little thing I'll do...until cold weather sets in, which is not today, since it's about 100 degrees outside and hard to think about cold, except for those pockets of can't-catch-your-breath water. That was cold. But on a day like today, I'll take it!