1 Mile Swim ~~~

8 am ..

The bull horn sounds and about 30 of us dive into the waist deep 70 degree H2O. The sun filters through the water which gives me limited visibility, the first 25 yards I am swimming through green lake weed until it disappears into the murky depths. Its kind of creepy to have all these weeds touching your legs until you finally realized what it is.

Sighting the first orange bouye is much easier this time, the water is pretty calm w/ little waves and I take a strong lead among the first ten. As I make the turn around the first of two larger white bouyes, I realize that the sun is right on the horizon and its hard for me to sight the next bouye, I rely on the shore line as a guide till I get close enough to see the next marker as I break away from the field behind.

I settle into my swim pace and concentrate on my stroke trying to reach out and pull through strong as I rotate my body to take a breath. As I come around the last white bouye I accidently swing wide and I have to make up the extra distance to the finish line. The swim finish is marked by a large blow up red bull archway on the beach. I feel pretty good energy wise and the last 100 yds I try to sprint to shore and try to catch the guy in front of me who is about 25 yds ahead. But, to no avail, I keep an even distance and finish strong. As I reach the shore and stand up I pull out my time tag which is recorded for my swim split and hand it to a volunteer, I shout out my race # "222".

As I exit the water and climb the sandy bank, I am surprised to see my friends there on the sidelines to cheer me on. Thank You Syd, Jerry, Peter, Julie, Todd & Tracy, and Josh for coming all the way out, It really means alot to me to drive so far and get up so early just to see me compete.

I praise God for your prayer, encouragement, and friendship. I am truely blessed to have brothers & sisters in christ like you : )

-> 24 Mile Bike ~ @x@