Funny thing about the drive down on Friday night - us girls stopped in Florence, SC for dinner. We settled on Ruby Tuesday, which was jam packed and they quoted us a 1 hour wait for a table, to which we said, hell no, let's just sit at the bar. So we're eating our dinners, enjoying normal conversation, when this older man interrupts us somehow and starts asking about where we're from, where're you going...etc. So we tell him that we're swimmers and we're doing a open water race in Beaufort, and he's super interested in us, you know, being kind of flirty, in a dirty old man kind of way.
He's sitting next to Heidi, and he grabs her arm and says "Oh my! You're strong" and so Heidi feeds some more oxygen to his fire by flexing and smiling, and explaining that she's been a swimmer since she was 10 years old. By now, the old guy is practically drooling over Heidi, and Karen and I are enjoying the show. Heidi tells the old guy, "Hey, maybe you shouldn't be flirting with me, your wife is gonna get mad." The old guys replies, "Wife?
Okay, so this guy is full of crap, and he's just having fun flirting with Heidi, so we decide to play along. When he asks us what our names are, we give him fake names (I said I was Elizabeth - do I look like I could be an Elizabeth?) We kept chatting with this guy for the remainder of our dinner, which wasn't long, but it was still funny. Back on the freeway, speeding down I-95 along with all the others...really, no one does the speed limit here. I was pushing 78 the whole way and getting passed like Ricky Bobby on his first lap after his accident.
For dessert, we munched on some homemade chocolate chip cookies that Heidi's hubby, Jeff (he's so good, he's like the male equivalent of Rachel Ray), made for us. By the time we roll up on Beaufort and start reading our Yahoo Map directions to our hotel in Port Royal, it's around 11pm. We're tired, the sugar in the cookies is wearing off, we want to go to sleep, we just wanna find the hotel. So while Heidi's reading the directions to me, I drive past a Port Royal policeman who the immediately flipped a U'ie, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Crap! I look at my speedometer and I'm doing 45. I have no idea what the speed limit was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 45.
So I pull over and respectfully follow the officer's commands and answer his questions. From the looks of it, he can tell we're from outta town. Heidi still has the Yahoo Maps directions in her hands, Karen is in the backseat half-asleep. We tell him that we didn't know what the speed limit was, and that we were looking for our hotel. I apologize to him, and smile (ahh, that dang blasted smile of mine, I know it softened him up!) He takes my reg/insurance/DL back to his cruiser and scans my driving history. He likely sees that I've only had 1 speeding ticket in my life, and that I'm an upstanding, law-abiding citizen of Durham. So he walks back to my truck, hands me my stuff and says "slow down, have a good night!" and hands me a ticket, which makes my heart sink. But upon further inspection, the ticket wasn't a ticket at all, it was just one of those warning tickets! Of course this makes me smile and let out a big sigh!
2 minutes later, driving at the correct speed of 30mph, we find our hotel, check in and hop in bed. I think we all fall asleep pretty quickly, and I remember sleeping like a bear in hibernation.
Up in the morning, register for the race, take a few pictures...you know, the usual pre-race excitement. Here's a pic of me and Heidi after we'd been numbered. Good Lord, I look really tan!
Soon after, Derek and Doranne come strolling up to register, put on sunscreen, and chat about the looks of the competition. Here we all are, ready to race.
We get on the shuttle that takes us to Port Royal for the start. At the pre-race meeting, we learned that for those doing the 4 mile swim, they'd be finishing in Beaufort, whereas those doing the 2 mile, would finish at the dock near the hospital. They said, just keep the buoys on your left, and for those doing the 2 mile, just look for an extra orange buoy that will signify where you're supposed to cut left towards your finish.
Water temp was nice, maybe 80 degrees, not too hot. Water was kind of salty - and the visibility was average (I could see my arm pulling in the first half of my pull, unlike swimming in Falls Lake, where you can barely see a fish that swims an inch past your nose).
I was feeling pretty good - the current was nice. I found that I could do breaststroke and really emphasize a decent glide like I would in the 200 Brst, and I was keeping up with those around me, who were all doing Free.
So I never saw that extra buoy I was supposed to see at the 2 mile cutoff. I ended up swimming past it, then stopping and asking a kayaker/volunteer "where is the 2 mile finish?" and they said, "Right here, go straight that way!" Oh crap! So I have to beat out this current to swim to the finish, and oh man that was tough! I had a burst of energy, and this helped push my through the current, towards the hospital dock where I'd finish. But it only lasted a minute, then my arms were just toast. And as someone who never trains for swimming, I'm not used to swimming through that pain - some lactate tolerance sets would be nice...for myself, if I swam, that is!
So I finally finish! I barely have enough strength to use my arms to climb up the ladder on the dock. I really thought I was one of the last ones to finish the 2 mile race. But since it was my first real open water race, and I don't ever train, no worries, who cares if I didn't rank well among the competition.
I took a shuttle back to the 4 mile finish and waited only a minute of 2 for Heidi and then Derek to finish. We pose for a picture, all sweaty and gross, covered in salt water slime:
When they announced the winners for the 2 mile, female age group 19-39, they said, "In 1st place, Danielle Newton from Durham, NC" and I just about crapped my pants. I was so shocked! I went up to shake hands with the promoter and pose for pictures and accept my prize.
Heidi also won 1st place in the women's 4 mile 19-39 age group, so here's a pic of both of us, showing off our prize money.
Here's a pic of us 3 being funny after the race - resting on some horse & carriage rest area.
After we got cleaned up and checked out of the hotel, we went to lunch at this place in downtown Beaufort. I don't remember what it was called, but it was in an old, renovated pharmacy, you could see the old Rx painted on the wall. The food was good. I bought the first round of drinks with my prize money, and then Heidi bought the 2nd round. We were done after that. Here we are at lunch:
After lunch, we walked along the river, which was a city park, complete with these cool swinging benches.
Then we decided to be big time dorks and videotape ourselves swinging really high on the swing, and then jumping off. This is either going to make you laugh, or make you wrinkle up your face and think, "man, they're nerds!" But I don't care what you think. I had fun doing the swim and hanging out with Heidi and her friend Karen on the 4 hour drive down there. I look forward to next year's race - I know I wasn't the only 2 mile finisher who didn't see the extra buoy on the finish.
Enjoy the video.
Bye for now, more blogging later, on all the fun I've been having.
No comments:
Post a Comment