#OceanSwimmingProblems

Last night I sent a text to Mark about swimming today... This is how workout planning is going right now...

I don't think I would have chosen to swim that long today but Mark is doing a long weekend of swimming next month... 3x channels (like 5-6 hours/day swimming 3 days in a row between Maui>Lanai>Molokai I think?) I actually asked if I could do it too but it's a boys trip no girls allowed so ok whatever I'll still train long sometimes.

Walking to the water this morning I looked down and saw the biggest man-o-war I think I've ever seen. My eyes got huge like OMG. It had a tentacle that must have been at least 6ft long. I didn't get a picture but it looked a lot like this (pic stolen off the internet somewhere).

We looked around and sure enough saw 2 more right nearby. Ugh. I asked Mark what he thought the chances were of us swimming this morning and not getting stung? His response, "Fucking ZERO." Awesome. I didn't get up at 5:30 to go to the beach and not swim, so I bucked up and prepared myself for some pain and got in and started swimming.

Sure enough, 10min in I felt the searing electrocuting pain around my face/armpit. GAH! ARGH! UGH! I hate that! I think after having been stung like 6-8x/year for the past 11 years I've got a bit of an immunity to some man-o-war stings, but these big ones are legit and they hurt like mad. I'd rank the sting I got today in the top 3 worst of my life. Out of sheer stubbornness, I kept swimming, but can't say I enjoyed the rest of the swim at all. Mostly b/c every stroke I had this fear that I was going to get electrocuted again. I didn't, but the pain from the first sting lasted 3+ hours until the Benadryl kicked in.

We didn't make it 4 miles but got close to 3, which was a miracle in and of itself. My chin and armpit are still swollen and welted almost 10 hours later. I should know to stay out of the ocean when we see man-o-war on the sand like that... But then again Mark managed to get through the swim without getting stung (lucky!!) so sometimes it works out ok. #soyouresayingtheresachance