An Accidental Parade

I was in a parade this weekend.  It wasn't intentional.  But, you'll have to read on to get the details…


On Saturday, Katie and I ventured out to Hudson, Wisconsin.  Katie is doing the St. Croix Valley triathlon in 2 weeks, so she wanted to swim in the river a bit, then ride the bike course.  I offered to swim with her, and while she rode the bike course, I would get my 12 mile run in.

As we arrived at the park, we realized that we were at exchange #22 of the RAGNAR Relay*.  It seemed like the thing to do was to do the relay exchange, then walk down to the beach and look at the river.  We were actually going to swim in the river though.

The river was cold—surprisingly so since Katie said it was warm when she did Croixathlon in June just a mile downriver.  It was a good thing we had wetsuits, but we did warm up once we swam a bit.  The best way to describe the quality of the river is that it's like Root Beer, but without the fizz.

Katie swimming in the river.


Me swimming in the river.

I only did a little bit of swimming, and Katie did a bit more.  We decided to take a photo when we were done swimming:

Katie has a knack for getting unflattering photos of me.  Here are some examples from earlier events:

Swimming at Cleary Lake: "I can't hear you!"


Angry face while moving downward at the Red, White, and Boom!


Putting my wetsuit on at my first open water swim.

None of these compare to the one she got of me this weekend:

Yup, I look awful here.  Closed eyes and squinty face.

And, because that picture wasn't bad enough, she took one of me getting my wetsuit off:

Thanks Katie.

We changed out of our swimming gear, then got ready for the next activities:

I look like a dork cool person with my water belt.

Katie took off on the bike course.  I decided I would just run north on the main road through town for 6 miles, turn around, then come back.  (I don't use a GPS or anything, so I mapped it out beforehand and knew I had to turn around at a cemetery along the highway).  As I started running, I realized that I would be running along the RAGNAR course.  In some ways, this was cool—if I died along the course, I'm sure the RAGNAR people would have called the morgue or something.  But, it was also not cool because I was a little embarrassed when the water stop volunteers started cheering for me.  I told them I was just out for my morning run, and since they were just nice people, they still offered me water.

Heading up the road, I went through the town of North Hudson.  It looked like they were setting up for some street festival or something, and it was a little challenging to dodge the people.  I hoped this wouldn't be a problem on the way back...

When I got to the next RAGNAR exchange point, one girl (probably 14-15 years old), was excited to ask me how the run was.  I told her I wasn't in the relay, and she responded with a "Really??  Aw man…"  (Later, on my way back, this same girl would tell me with a smile to "have a great run!", so she was actually a really nice person.)

I reached the turnaround (it was a little early because I mistook a family graveyard for the cemetery I was supposed to turn around at, but alas…).  When I got back to North Hudson, a parade was in full swing.  Not just any parade, though.  It was the

North Hudson Pepper Festival Parade!!


Oh boy.  I successfully weaved through the millions thousands hundreds lining the sidewalks.  All was going well, and I though I was near the end of the parade, and all of a sudden…

I was IN the parade.


The parade route turned, and I ended up right in the middle of the parade.  I just wanted to cross the street, but the curb was lined with people, and there just wasn't a gap.  So, I ran in the parade for about 50 meters until I could find some lawn chairs to squeeze in-between.  At this point, I ended up in someone's backyard, and quickly got out of there to find my way back to the road.  Let's just say that I'm going to avoid the Pepper Festival in the future…

*The RAGNAR Relay is a 193 mile relay race from Winona, MN to Minneapolis.  Teams of 12 complete the legs over a period of about 2 days.  It looks like a blast, and I may consider doing it next year.

Last Saturday's Course Preview At Cleary Lake

With the triathlon now just over a month away, it's getting to be that time where things get serious.  Katie and I had planned on going down to the course last Saturday to check out the park and the lake.  Our excursion almost didn't happen because of Katie's bike crash encounter with a 12 foot grizzly bear.  But, by Saturday, she was feeling well enough to get back on the bike, but decided she would avoid the water.  Mike, a friend of Katie's who is also doing the triathlon, and his wife Katie (yes, this will be confusing), also came.

The Course

The bike course started in Cleary Lake Park.  We all saddled up and headed out on the 13.5 mile journey.  This was a pretty easy trek for the other 3, but it was more of a challenge to me because (a) I just don't have the cycling fitness that they do, and (b) I've got a mountain bike whereas they all had nice road bikes.

The course itself traveled through rural farmland, and had some gentle rolling hills to start.  And, by gentle rolling hills, I mean Mount Everest.  Not really, but they seemed that way to pokey old me.  The difficulty I ran into was that I needed to conserve as much momentum as possible (engineers: I know momentum is always conserved—just go with it).  I wanted to keep my speed up on the downhills so I didn't die on the next uphill.  However, the others could take it nice and casual on the downhills.  Therefore, I looked like the jerk who passes people just to get passed a few seconds later.

I didn't die, but there were some treacherous rumble strips to look out for.  They're actually quite jarring on the bike, but I guess I have an advantage with the suspension on my trusty old mountain bike.  Sorry roadies…

We got back, and Katie did pretty well.  Her shoulder was sore, but it's feeling better now.  The three of us that weren't in a bike crash attacked by Sasquatch decided to swim.  Up to this point, my recent open water swimming experience has been limited to Square Lake—a very, very clear and clean lake.  Cleary Lake is not clear at all.  Pretend you're looking through the glass that beer bottle are made of—yeah, the water was like that.  And, even though the lake is small and shallow, the lake was pretty cold.

We were discussing the ethics of ignoring the beach rules

I think Katie's goal in life is to take awkward pictures of me

You can see the blue "beach curtain" in this photo

We ended up doing very little swimming.  The weeds and the beach curtain made it pretty much impossible for us to get beyond the swim area, so we stayed within the small swim area.  They'll be opening the curtain for the triathlon, but it would have been nice to swim out into the lake to work on sighting.  I also realized that I looked kinda dorky wearing my wetsuit in the swim area.  The goal was to go beyond the swim area, but by the time we realized we couldn't, I already had it most of the way on.  So, I looked a little silly, but I was warm and buoyant.  (You don't hear people calling themselves "warm and buoyant" everyday, do you?)

After about 100 meters of swimming, we called it a day.  Katie then got distracted by a puppy.  It was morning, evening, 4 days later… Katie left the puppy alone.  We're hoping to come back and ride the course one more time, and maybe swim again so Katie can get used to the water.  We'll probably need to enter at the boat ramp, though, to avoid the curtain.

Katie is still on the mend, but she's pretty sure she'll be doing the Croixathlon this weekend.  Look for more coverage on that later.

My First Open Water Swim

In truth, I have done open water swimming before.  I have swam in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico numerous time.  However, on those occasions, I just splashed around and rode the waves in on the raft.  There was only one time I have swam in open water with the purpose of locomotion.  Here is that story…

In the summer of 2003, I went to camp at Stony Lake Camp in New Era, MI.  Upon my arrival, they told us that if we wanted to swim in the lake, we had to do a swim test.  No problem, I thought.  So, I grabbed my trunks and meandered down to the lake.  The goal was simple: swim back and forth across the swim area once on your front, then once on your back.  I started out on my front, and while I probably didn't do the front crawl, I made it the full distance.  Then it was time to do the lap on my back.  If you've ever done backstroke, you know it's tough to keep going in a specific direction.  Well, take a look at this photo:

If you can imagine, the blue line is the desired back-and-forth route that I was supposed to swim.  The red line is what I actually swam (this is not an exaggeration!).  What would happen is that I would swim too far out and the lifeguard would whistle at me and tell me to turn.  So I did.  Then I would swim so close to the shore that I would hit bottom and have to turn again.  I then repeated this a number of times.  So, my first open water swim with the purpose of locomotion was not a success.  As it turns out, I didn't swim for the rest of my time at camp…

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

If you remember, Katie and I bought wetsuits a few weeks ago, so we we're eager to try them out.  We decided that Memorial Day weekend would be the first time out.  We looked at lakes, and decided to go to Square Lake just north of Stillwater.  This lake is well-known for being a very clear lake.  This was a plus (particularly for Katie).

We headed out to the lake and set up camp on a picnic table near the water.  Here we are in front of the lake on a beautiful Minnesota morning:

Yeah, I wasn't so good at taking photos this morning.

When we got there, there were maybe 3 or 4 boats on the lake, and a few fisherpeople on the dock, but for the most part the lake was empty.  We then began the process of getting our wetsuits on.  I ran into an issue right away—I ran out of Body Glide!  I managed to get most of my ankles and some on my neck, so I hoped that would be enough (it was).  Katie got hers on first, and struggled a bit getting everything adjusted.

See the pink flowers on the ankles?

Success!

Katie got hers on, but it wasn't quite right, so she went into the water to get everything adjusted properly.

While she was doing this, I was trying to get into my wetsuit.  Katie was not as generous as I was, and took some less than flattering pictures of me during the ordeal.  Here are a few of them:

Working the legs up.

What am I doing here?  I don't know, but probably grimacing because I'm so pale.  I apologize for my paleness—that's just how I am after the winter in Minnesota.

Fiddling with the pull tab.



I'm in.



Returning from the water after getting my suit adjusted properly.


Looking like a dork with my Creamsicle colored swim cap (the color is supposed to be unnatural so boats don't run you over, or Katie just wanted me to look silly).


Both of us, ready to go!  (Yes, another bad picture.  Blame it on the self-timer)

With our wetsuits on, we headed into the water.  Typically, at this time of year, lakes in Minnesota are rather chilly.  Because of the unseasonably warm weather we've had since, well, March, the lake was not cold at all.  Another swimmer told me the lake was already at 72°!  In May!  Not quite pool warmth, but there was not danger of being too cold.

Wearing a wetsuit in the water is rather odd initially because you notice the added buoyancy right away.  I was so light in the water.  It's also a little alarming when you get deep enough so the water reaches the zipper, and a cool water flows in rather quickly.  We swam a bit just to get used to the water and the wetsuits, and ventured outside the swim area a bit.

My suit has arms, but I didn't feel any restriction in my shoulders, so I'm confident in my suit purchase.  I also enjoyed being able to flip to my back and float when I got tired.  The buoyancy of the suit helps out tremendously.

As I already mentioned, the lake is very clear.  This is helpful for Katie because she isn't a fan of open water swimming.  The combination of not seeing things, and the weeds, and the fish make her uneasy.  Since this lake is so clear, she can see what's under the water, and she felt much better than in her other swims.  Go Katie!

There were also a few other swimmers there.  One guy got in the water when we did, then swam around the whole lake.  I don't know how far that is, but I'll guess he went almost 2 miles in the water.  2 other guys showed up and stayed pretty much right by us.  It was their first time in wetsuits too, so we all got to experience the new things together.

Unlike a pool, the lake isn't marked for distance.  We swam back and forth just inside the ropes 2 times, and halfway once.  I also created a triangular lap between 3 buoys just outside the ropes and did that twice.

My swimming actually went quite well (no doubt assisted by the wetsuit).  The wetsuit acts a lot like a pull buoy (in fact, my suit has a feature called a "virtual pull buoy",  which means it has thicker material around my thighs).  I thought it worked better than a pull buoy because I got the buoyancy effect, but could still kick.  With the ability to kick, I could work on that a bit, without having to always try and keep my lower half high in the water.  I was able to slow my kick down a lot and just work on form.  It was great.

Overall, I had a great time swimming in the lake.  I enjoyed it 10 times better than swimming in the pool, and didn't really want to stop swimming.  There's something about being in nature on a beautiful day that just draws me in (much like the difference between running on a treadmill and running outdoors).  If I could do every swim in the lake, I would.

We did quit at some point, though, and headed out of the water.  Katie stripped her suit off right away, and had a little trouble on the beach doing a fancy dance.  I didn't get a picture of this, but here she is rinsing her suit off:

We snapped another photo:

Katie's swim cap turned from pink to green in the water.  (Not really, but wouldn't that be cool?)

I showered with my suit on first to get any grime off the outside, then I stripped and rinsed some more:

Seriously, I look awkward in so many of these pictures.  It looks like I'm talking to my suit in a very stern voice.

We packed up, then hopped in the car and headed back to St. Paul.  Great swim, and I hope we do it again soon!