Hailstorms & Rainbows

Last Week’s Pluses and Minuses:

+ Summer Party on the High Line.  Beautiful sunset, cotton candy, river views, vintage moustaches and suspenders, games, a dunking booth, and tasty drinks.  They had Coach bags and sunglasses as prizes for the games – I think very highly of Coach for underwriting the event, but I have absolutely no interest in their merchandise.  We were having too much fun to go home so we went to a club/resto type thing called MPD that was kind of "Eyes Wide Shut" esque until way too late and then Fatty Crab for unnecessary and unhealthy malaysian food.  Plus a shot of whisky and another beer each with the late dinner…not needed.  I was just glad we didn’t have bootcamp the next morning, I would have died.  

– We did bootcamp the next day after that, and it was like 85 degrees and 90% humidity by 6:30am, so gross.

+ Too hot to cook so we had fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella for dinner every night. 

+ Annual Pride Run which was awesome as usual.  My first four miles were totally lame and then we had an awesome last mile.  They always have rainbow popsicles at the end of this event so you know we were sprinting for those popsicles.

+ I finished my swim.

– It was horrible.  The first fourteen miles were fine, then I got pulled due to lightning.  Usually once you get pulled (or even touch the boat) you are done for the day, which I assumed and was completely fine with.  Then they told me they were just waiting out the passing lightning storm and would put me back in after that!  I put my cap back on but was getting really cold between the rain and the wind and um, wearing only a swimsuit.  Usually I have a good tolerance for cold, but once it started hailing (!) I was freezing and started to freak out a little.  I noticed my nails were turning blue and I was trying not to shiver, which are both bad signs.  S was kayaking for me and I was really concerned about him, he’d pulled over onto the riverbank and was huddling in this little cave under the trees since he had no warm gear.  (And who expects a freezing hailstorm in late June?!)   After thirty minutes I was dying to get back in the water, and they luckily gave the okay just when I was really starting to have serious concerns about hypothermia.

The water felt amazing when I did get back in, and the next couple of miles felt all right, although I was worrying about not making the cut-off time.  The race organizers are awesome, so I figured they’d give me some leeway but the tides still turn when they turn.  And so I found myself fighting the current for over two hours.  It was basically horrible, I was making so little progress and was in complete despair.  I literally had to swim to the shallowest part of the riverbank where the current was a bit weaker, and edge along (slowly) that way.  Every landmark passed so slowly, and that darn last bridge, the one I had to reach, stared down at me, tormenting me. There were points where I was literally sobbing underwater, stopping only to breathe.  I was in a bad bad mental state.  Sometimes when I get into a rough spot in a long swim, I go to this dark place and it’s hard for me to snap out of it.  It’s like my mind quit on me, but luckily the body kept going.  Thanks reptile brain!  Finally I finished, and everyone was ridiculously nice and congratulatory, but I felt like the biggest heel coming in dead last by such a wide margin and making everyone wait.  To make matters worse this very nice woman was hell-bent on interviewing me for a documentary she was filming, but all I wanted to do was sit in a shower and cry.  I hate being photographed/filmed and am pretty much the most awkward person possible even on a good day, so this was particularly hard, as raw as I still was, and still covered with patchy zinc and various dirt.  One of the questions she asked was around why I do this.  I stammered through some hopefully acceptable response but at the time I was truly questioning it myself.  

+ After we said goodbye to everyone we decided to take a drive to my parents’ house since we had the rental car anyway.  I took a shower (was feeling better mentally by then so no crying necessary) with all my sister’s nice bath products and felt much much more human again.  We ate pizza and drank a beer and I was feeling a lot better.  Then we drove home and saw a beautiful rainbow on the way.  Hopefully a good omen!

 
 
– Bootcamp sucked the next morning, but I would have been shocked if it didn’t.

+ Yesterday I was in a horrible mood all day (looking back it was definitely because I didn’t eat enough food) but then S made me a mozzarella/basil/tomato panini for dinner, I had new library books to read, and we watched an episode of True Blood together.  Lots of reviving cuddles, then early to bed.  Up early this morning for a nice short swim, just to loosen up and test some new goggles for next week.  When we got home I made myself an omelette then went back to sleep for another hour!