14Sep11

Met with Gords at the GSL Marina at 1700.  He has another route he is doing which is a bit longer than the normal Gridley Straight so I wanted to do it.  We took off and headed toward a red buoy in the opposite direction of Blackrock.  The water felt nice and is still pretty warm.  Secretly I'm waiting for it to drop some more.
Once we were at the buoy, we chatted for about 20 seconds then headed back to the marina.  Gords had to wait for me since I keep "allowing" him to get ahead of me.  ***By "allow" I mean he's a lot faster than me and there's nothing I can do about it!!!***  :)
We then headed straight for Blackrock.  It felt nice to be swimming with my friend in the OW again as opposed to doing the solo swims I've had to do lately.  Having a friend there just makes the swim all the more enjoyable.  Got to Blackrock and drank a bit then chatted for a minute.  I'm not sure when but on the way back, I spotted a red buoy out in the distance that I know is near the marina entrance.  I fall for optical illusions easily and thought it was closer.  I decided to pick up the pace some.  I kept pulling harder and faster and soon I was moving very quickly and was swimming very fast.  I kept expecing to blow out and be physically wiped but it never came.  I was able to hold this fast pace for at least a half mile.  I felt fantastic and highly motivated when I got to the buoy.  Gords was there and I had him pace behind me to see if I was really moving that much faster or was lying to myself.  He said I was indeed moving a lot quicker than normal.  I need to find out how long I'm able to hold this pace.  I felt great for a half mile but who's to say I can't hold it for much longer?  I'd like to find out.  I've just been to apprehensive I guess before or not time or motivation. 
We got into the marina boat ramp with a distance of 3.25 miles.  I felt really good.

Just finished.

Gords and I have been talking about swimming in the GSL all winter since it never freezes.  The water temp gets below 32 and it sounds like a great polar bear swim activity for us.  He and I were planning on where each swim would be and how far we would go depending on the temp.  He wants to go at least once a week which seems pretty extreme considering how cold the water is going to be but.....I'M IN!!!