I swam the VCS open water challenge in Lake Erie yesterday. The water was so frigid, I am suprised the lake didn't freeze over and become an ice skating rink!
I began the journey to this lake on Friday. This was a day before the meet actually began. I had to leave this soon in order to make the four hour drive to Sandusky, Ohio (where the meet was held). My parents and I left at about 5 O'clock in the afternoon on Friday. We arrived at the hotel at about 9 O'cock in the evening.
I can say nothing about the drive except that it was incredibly LONG! I am not a huge fan of long car trips. They are so boring and mind- numbing! This car trip did, however, give me plenty of time to work on some of my summer homework. It also gave me plenty of time to study my driver's handbook, which I am going to memorize cover to cover. I really want to learn how to drive!
When we arrived at the hotel (it was a Hyatt) I was extremely suprised about how nice it looked. Everything about this suite-type hotel was extremly modern looking. This included the TV!
A neat screen saver type-design was flasing across the TV. I must have stared at this design a good 5 minutes after I walked in the room. I never saw anything like it before! The next thing I did after arriving in the hotel was to immediately fall asleeep.
After I woke up the following day and ate breakfast, me and my parents had to begin another hour long drive; this time we drove from the hotel to the place where the swim meet was located (the closest hotel my mom could find was an hour away from the swim meet).
After arriving at the meet and checking in, the first thing I did was to test the water and see how cold it was. I knew it was not going to be very warm, after hearing someone say that "it was the coldest water we've had in a long time" but I was still curious about the exact temperature.
Oh my gosh! The water was freezing! It felt like ice from the deepest parts of the freezer! It felt like Antartica in the winter! It felt like being barefoot in the snow!
Did I mention it was cold?
I spent the entire hour long warm-up trying to get used to the water. I stuck my feet in first. This was followed by my legs, followed by my waist, followed by my face. This warm-up (a.k.a. "freeze up") did not happen all at once. Every time I dipped a new part of my body into the water, I would have to run back out to dry land for a minute to warm up.
The only reason I was doing this "freeze up" in the first place was to prevent myself from hypervenilating when the actual swim race started. I also did not want the shock of stepping into cold water for the first time; I wanted to get used to the water gradually.
By the time "freeze-ups" were over, parts of my body were turning blue. I was also shaking like a leaf. The last thing I wanted to do was to get back in the Antartic waters.
I had to step back in eventually, though. The race director was calling for my wave to start!
While waiting to start, I was extremely nervous. I was also still shaking like a leaf. By this point, I would have rather gotten my head cut off then to go back in that frigid water.
By the time the horn blew to begin the race, I had to put all these doubts aside and just enter the water!
Oh my gosh! The water was frigid! I waited for the longest time to put my face into the water. By the time I mustered up enough courage to do so, the entire pack of swimmers was already long gone. For the rest of the swim, I was on my own.
By this time, I was not concered with swimming fast. My goals were just to survive the race, not freeze to death, and not get lost. With no pack of swimmers in front to guide me, I had no idea where I was going.
Eventually, I got so lost that a lifeguard pointed out the rest of the course for me. I followed her instructions while still freezing myself, but not yet ready to quit.
As I kept swimming, the water would continue to get deeper. This added depth brought extra coldness. Oh my gosh! It felt like the coldest day recorded at the North Pole, minus about a million degrees.
As I rounded the buoy where we were supposed to turn, I kept getting increasingly cold. I started woundering about quitting. I could not take these freezing temperatures any longer.
How should I do it, I woundered. Should I just swim to the shorelone about 100 yards away, or wait untill I finish this first lap (out of 3) and just stop and not do any more laps.
Thankfully, I did not have to think through this puzzle much longer. I started swimming with my head up. It must have been an instinct thing, with my body trying to conserve its little remaining heat.
Another lifeguard came to me and asked me if I was okay. I told him that the water was freezing and that I wanted to quit. He called down a boat to pick me up. By the time the boat arrived, two other swimmers also decided to quit. Apparently I wasn't the only one that found the water freezing!
The boat arrived, but we had to swim what felt like a mile in order to reach it (and was probably only about 25 yards). By this time, I could barely move my arms and legs because they were so cold and stiff. After doing an intresting compination of arm and leg dragging, doggie paddle, and breaststroke, I finally reached the boat.
A lifeguard had to literally drag me on to the boat. Like I said, I could barely move my arms and legs (making climbing on a boat impossible).
When I arrived on the boat, me and the two other people that had to quit all looked freezing. One boy's cheeks were bright red. My mom later said my cheeks were tomato-red as well (she also said my nose was blue).
When I arrived on the boat, I huddled myself in a ball, shaking like a leaf. I was also covered in goosebumps. I was overjoyed to be out of that freezing cold water! After an awesome 5 minute boat ride across the lake, it was time to offically quit. I gave the race director my number and walked off the boat. We had to walk across some knee-deep water in order to get off the boat, and to shore. I ran through this water as fast as I could!
When I arrived back on shore, I huddled myself in a towel for several minutes. I also later took a hot shower and changed into some warm clothes. I felt really bad about quitting, but knew I couldn't have physically went any farther- even if I had wanted to.
I remained shaking and freezing cold for about half an hour. I was still a little chikled even after the shower! I was only in the water for a total of about ten minutes during the race. No telling what would have happened had I decided to go farter.
After another long car trip, I was glad to be home. I had a fun time during this trip. It was nice seeing a new side of my state that I have never visited before, and despite the frigidness, the lake I swam on was a beautiful lake.
I was so glad to get home though!
