Changing my Goggles for the First Time EVER

Yeah. I’m gross. I’ve been swimming since November or December of 2005, and I’ve been wearing the same pair of goggles for that entire time. They’ve been working fine, so I figured I should leave well-enough alone.

But since this past winter, I’ve noticed a fungus / parasite / “goggle cancer” growing inside my lenses. Here’s what’s been growing around the seal:

I’ve just been trying not to look at it as I put on my goggles. What you can’t see can’t hurt you, right?...

Being Liberty Tri is this weekend, I figured it was time to try out some new goggles. So I got out the goggles that Pro Triathlete Chris McDonald Big Sexy sent me.

If you don’t remember that story, here’s a refresher. Chris McDonald won IM WI 2008, so when Pharmie and I went out to volunteer in 2009, Chris was on the cover of all of the spectator guides:

We volunteered all day at IM WI 2009, and we started in the morning as “wetsuit strippers.” I stripped Chris, and he dropped his goggles before running off. I wore them around for the rest of the morning:

Sure, I wanted to keep them, but I figured the proper thing to do was to find his gear bag and place them with the rest of his stuff. So I kissed them for luck, and then put them back with his things:

Chris found out about all of this, and he actually sent me those goggles that he wore during IM WI last year! He also autographed a hat and sent that too!! How cool is that!! (Click here to read the post when I got his goggles in the mail.) Well, I figured it was time to “upgrade” my goggles, so I figured I’d try out Chris’s, and hope that he left some good juju in there.

I headed to the pool with his goggles, and went for a little swim to make sure they’d work. I’m not lying or exaggerating when I say that even though I did NOT have my contacts in, I could see BETTER than when I wear my contacts just because the lenses weren’t beat up from 4 years of training and racing!! REALLY! It was SOOO clear!

I was also turning out some REALLY FAST 100 splits! I figured that might be due to clearly seeing the clumps of hair, band-aids, and things that look like someone was trying to paint with a turd at the bottom of the pool - maybe being able to clearly see all that crap was pushing me to get in and out of the pool as quickly as possible! But then I realized it was because I had shaved my body a few days before. I think that really made a difference, because I felt like I was swimming around 1:40 pace, when really I turned in a swim with a 1:33.6 / 100 average. I’ve never done something like that before!!

Yesterday's swim

So between the new goggles filled with good juju from Chris McDonald Big Sexy and the freshly shorn body, I figure I’m ready to race on Saturday!! Check back tomorrow for a video and photos of me making my transformation from Sasquatch to 10-year-old boy! ;)