Word of the Weekend = Water

If there is a word to describe my weekend, it would probably have to be water.

Why?

Because I swam for the first time all summer on Friday. I have jumped into the lake for a post-run cool off, but I don't think that counts. Friday I actually got in because I was so warm! Finally, a nice, hot sunny day at the lake! I needed to do 30 minutes of cross training, so I decided to tread water for 30 minutes. My sister-in-law and her niece kept me company so those 30 minutes went fast.

I rarely swim, so I was pretty tuckered out when I got out of the water. I definitely used muscles that don't get used when running! The slight exhaustion I felt on Friday night was nothing compared to what was to come on Saturday...

Before I go into this story, you should know that I come from a pretty intense family. We are competitive, we do things just for 'pride.'

So when my brother texted my mom on Friday night and said he was going to swim across the lake, I knew I had to be a part of this. I didn't honestly think we could swim across the dang lake, but I decided to give it an honest effort.

This will give you a slight visual of how far it is across the lake.

See? Not a short distance. We are estimating it is around 1.5 to 1.75 miles. Aside from treading water the day before, I hadn't really swam for a decent amount of time since I was in college.

But, miraculously, we made it. My brother, my sister-in-law's 12 year old niece (who kicked our butts, btw), and I made it across the lake. Unfortunately the lake was NOT as calm as it was in this picture. It was quite rough - lots of big waves and it started to rain when we were around the half way point. But we did it. I guesstimated that it would take us 2 hours. I finished in about 1:40 and my brother was close behind me.

And boy was I exhausted when I got done! My dad, brother, and sister-in-law had followed along with us in the pontoon - they really didn't think we were actually going to get all the way to the other side, so they were quite impressed.

I think we are going to make it an annual event. We even have a few people who have already said they are going to join us next year. I'm thinking that I might do a little training for it next year. Jumping into the water with zero swimming conditioning might not have been the best approach, but I got the job done.

The rest of the weekend was a blast. We only saw the sun on Friday, so I am glad I took the day off from work. The rest of the weekend was pretty wet and miserable outdoors, but we still had a blast! I forgot my camera this weekend, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share!