Thursday adventure

I got to practice open water swimming this week! I haven't really (besides the river trip) done that since...um...well, the tri in April! One thing that's great about the news business is that you know a lot about what's going on around town. Well, Thursday, I was informed that a nearby lake would have a free day all day. I turned to a co-worker and said, 'Hey, let's go!' It was one of those, if she's interested, it could be a lot of fun, but I'm just throwing it out there and she can grab or not. I didn't really think she was interested until she was about to leave and mentioned it. She said she'd be cool with me training and bit and her just splashing around. We went for it.

I grabbed my wetsuit, knowing I'd look like a dork out in it alone. We drove out there. I'd never been to that lake, and there were a lot of twists and turns on the drive and fields...it took a while to find actual WATER. Finally, we did. I put the suit on, and we jumped in. I decided to swim out to a far off marker and back. I can't imagine it was more than 300m, but I really don't know. It was a good swim. My suit was totally boyant and even swimming against the wind wasn't bad. I got out there, looked back and thought, 'Geez, that's far. Really far away.' I started back a couple strokes and stopped, getting a little freaked out because I was getting tired and it was far. I sat there treading water easily and realized I would be fine. It was so easy to tread water in the wetsuit, so I knew I could do it all day if I needed. That was all I needed. With the mini-freakout over, I swam back well. I didn't get freaked out about the vastness of the water (which I did in the tri and before), nor did I worry about not being able to see anything (Oklahoma lakes are gross) AND I swam in a fairly straight line. Pretty good stuff.

I'm going to make sure I get out on the open water a few more times before my September tri (and my August tri should help me practice racing), so I'll be better prepared. But overall, it felt good to swim in my wet suit in open water. Lovely.

Then, we tried to leave. After sitting around and talking, it was getting dark and time to head out. I was driving and figured we could make it back since we got there in the first place. We were a few miles north of the highway and a few miles west of town. Somehow, we turned or missed a turn and started heading straight west. Of course, I felt like I was heading south, or at least southwest. We ended up on a dirt road...I made a left turn, thinking I'd hit the highway, but instead we went on a bridge over the highway. Wait a minute, there IS no bridge on 51. I couldn't figure it out. We kept going...eventually we'd hit something we recognized, right? It was getting pretty dark, too. We then go under a bridge. I know I need to be turning left, but for miles, there is no left turn. Finally, we get on this paved street. Oh! There's a sign! We are in Orlando. A tiny town 20 miles WEST of Stillwater...how? Well, we drive through town and try to find 51. Finally, we stumble on it and continue the trek home, finally knowing where we are and how to get back. We're still not sure how this happened, but the 20 minute or so ride home took an hour. Good thing we like an adventure...right?