First Open Water Swim of 2010!!

Last week, I FINALLY got the e-mail I was waiting for: Julia was ready to hit Square Lake for an open water swim!! Steve H had tested the water the week before, and it was in the lower 60s. When we got out there on Wednesday morning, the water temp had risen to 72 degrees! That’s GREAT swimming weather!

At the park, Julia remarked that her suit still tasted salty from her ocean swim at the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas a few weeks back:

If you’re asking “why,” you’re not the only one. ;)

Marit was in town, and she brought Vasoline. I THINK this was in case we needed to smear it on our face to keep us warm in cold water, but with her expression, one can never be sure:

Here’s the gang getting ready to hop in:

Steve T, Julia, Marit, Steve H, and Pharmie

(Steve T’s not getting changed because he had to defend his “polar bear” title from last year when he was the first one in our group to go wetsuit-free. So he just swam in his Speedo. His title’s safe for another year.)

The plan was to swim around the lake. We went buoy-to-buoy starting here and working counter-clockwise:

What a beautiful swim!! Pharmie kept telling us to go ahead without her (she’s not fast but she can go forever [*wink wink*]), so we kept an eye on her and swam on. We finished in about an hour. When we got done, I ran up to my camera to get a photo of Pharmie coming out of the water just behind us:

And then I got a photo of Steve H without any pants on:

You simply can NOT trust me with a camera. ;)

Thanks for the great swim everyone!