Back to the Beach

Meet Steve, the new swim coach for our tri team. I feel safer already.



We had our first ocean swim of the season this weekend. For you land-locked triathletes there, I'm sorry but you are missing out on the challenge of ocean races. There is a certain fun/excitement/fear that goes along with fighting the ocean waves that you just don't get in a pool or lake.

Our group of about 20 was going to practice our "ins and outs" - basically getting out past the waves, which is the most tiring part of an ocean swim, then coming back in. After the first outbound trip, the group returned to shore. The World's Greatest Triathlete stayed out past the waves to act as a buoy so everyone could swim towards him on trip two. Out of the goodness of my heart, I offered to stay out there with them to keep him company since I knew it would be a while before everyone else came back.

Of course, the REAL reason I stayed was because I wanted to avoid fighting the waves again. Yes, ocean swimming is fun but there's no reason to be stupid about it.