Double dip with a little salt

Today was such a wonderful day for swimming. First, I hit the pool for a nice easy mile early this afternoon. I actually did it, to make sure I was getting a decent amount of yardage in, just in case I didn't do to much in the Great Salt Lake open water clinic in the evening.

View from the top of the boat ramp before I jumped in.

I was stunned to see how many people were at the marina when I arrived around 5:45. Josh and Gords have really done a great job with these and more and more people seem to be interested in open water because of these two guys. They did a nice little talk, going over some of the basics of open water and then we all jumped in.

I kind of felt like an overeager fool at first, because after the "lesson" I was the first one in the water. I was pretty amped and immediately took off before the rest of the group. I finally purchased a Safe Swimmer from Josh and I was excited to try it out, so I set out for a buoy Josh told me about a little earlier. I seemed to hit the buoy in no time and flipped around to head back up to the boat ramp. I passed the group on my way back and it seemed like they were heading out to the same white buoy.

I'm so happy I bought one of these. I was pleasantly surprised with it today.

The salt wasn't bothering me nearly as much as it did last year, and it was nice to be able to stop once I reached the buoy and pull my bottle of water out of the Safe Swimmer to rinse out my mouth a bit. I did the same thing once I returned to the boat ramp. I was feeling good, so I went right back out and once I swam out of the marina, I saw Josh and Chad by a different buoy (green one this time) and swam to meet them. It was nice to finally meet Chad and chat with the two of them for 30 minutes or so, floating lazily in the warm Great Salt Lake water, while we waited for the rest of the swimmers to all finish up and return to the ramp. I'm not positive how many yards I swam, but Josh gave me some rough calculations based off his GPS, so I think I guessed fairly accurate.

The lake was so calm and the weather was perfect. I didn't think I'd be so excited for next week's race, especially after the experience I had last year, but thanks to today, I feel much more confident about it.

P.S.: I really need to invest in a waterproof camera, so I can take some good shots during swims, now that my open water season has officially began.

Total distance: 4,200 yards (sum of both swims)