Waikiki RoughWater Swim

I'm not 25 anymore.

You know, when I was 25 I could get up in the morning (unless I'd been out drinking the night before I guess) and feel all spry and chipper because whatever I did the day before didn't have much of an effect on me. Ahhh... to be young...

I woke up this morning and it was crystal clear that I'm too old to feel good while racing 3 days in a row. Well, not really, because I did still get up and race, and I did fine, but I really am still not 25 anymore.

Waikiki Roughwater was this morning... it's the biggest swim race we have all year. 2.4 miles in the ocean.

Some years it's fast b/c we have a nice tail current. Sometimes it's crazy slow and swimmers get pulled out of the water because the head current is so strong it's literally impossible to swim against it. This morning there was just a little minor head current so not too bad. Water was flat and calm and warm and clear so there really wasn't much to complain about.

I will say though, there were people from 23 countries there this morning... and from all over the US... It's split into 4 waves based on predicted time. I got put in the first (fast) wave, which I was happy about until I arrived at the race and heard some guys (who I know to be much faster than me) talking about how intimidated they were to be in the fast wave because all these long distance champions from all over the world were there and they knew they wouldn't be able to keep up.

Ok, if THEY are intimidated, clearly I should be too. Oh boy.

So I spent the hour before the race feeling nauseous with anticipation of how badly I was going to get my butt kicked in this swim... I warmed up and felt totally sluggish. You know, I'm only a decent swimmer when you compare me to triathletes... I'm not really a good swimmer when you compare me to real swimmers. I am completely outclassed here. Might I be the very last pink cap to finish? Why do I have these terrible negative thoughts before every race lately??

SHUT UP, Brain.

The horn sounded and we all ran into the water. I started way off to the side, as far as I could while staying in the channel so I wouldn't land on reef (low tide means exposed reef and it's hard to swim when there's no water). I was totally intimidated by these swimmers and oddly enough, instead of busting my ass to sprint to get with the fastest group possible (like I usually try to do), I kind of chilled out and just started at a solid steady pace. I found myself behind some people who were not faster than me, which I was surprised about because wasn't everyone in this wave going to kick my butt?
Anyway, I can't say I'm impressed with the effort I gave over the first half of this race, but somewhere in the middle the Michelle I know came out to play and I turned on the gas. I worked the second half of the swim solidly, but I still figured that all my age group competition was way ahead of me so was somewhat disappointed when I got out of the water, especially when I saw 1:01 on the clock. But then I looked around on the beach and didn't see some girls I was looking for so I got a glimmer of hope that maybe my swim wasn't as slow as I thought. Sure enough, I saw them run up on the beach after I was out. Hmmm. Maybe I placed in my age group after all? Checking the results, I saw that some super fast gal from Beverly Hills crushed us all, but I was second. Nice. I'll take it! Funny, but I really only compare myself in swim races to girls I know, so the fact that I actually (surprisingly) beat Jana and Anna today felt good. They've been beating me most of the summer so this was a nice 'win', even if it wasn't an actual win.

Scott and Moana came down to the swim this morning too. Moana had a blast playing in the sand and the water after we started...

Then she and Scott went to the zoo where she was enthralled with the elephants...
Then Nalani and her husband and I came back after swimming and we grilled pancakes and drank coffee at the beach.
So it was a super fun day! Next up? REST.