10Kmarathonswim

Winter Swimming World Championships

Someone over at the Outdoor Swimming Society helpfully uploaded a picture from the Winter Swimming World Championships. As I've blogged before, for some strange reason I want to take part in this insanity. Looking at this picture, I still want to. Again, no idea why.

Awesome, isn't it?!  Looks like a blast.

janet

Janet Evans, author of one of my favorite swimming books and possessor of one of the best smiles on the planet, last night swam fast enough to go to the Olympic Trials. For those of you who do not know who I am talking about, here is her performance 24 years ago.

 

That stroke of hers still trips me out all these years later. Any coach now would yell at you if you started swimming like that in practice. What is important to note, though, comes at 1:22. Check out her pull underwater! That is beautiful. Pure and absolute power pulling her body through the water. I'm jealous.

So, good luck to Janet Evans in Omaha in June.

 

Not really about swimming...

...but a great story. I'm glad we did this. Well, didn't expect anything less. For those of you without any military experience, or friends or family in the military, what you must understand is that the military of today is filled with some of the brightest and most capable people you'd ever meet. There is NO WAY a ship skipper would NOT rescue a ship is distress. Even an Iranian one. The carrier strike group commander put it succinctly when the press suggested that the U.S. was playing politics: "One of our obligations as mariners is to save lives at sea."  Love it!

If you haven't heard, the U.S. Navy rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who'd been held hostage by Somail pirates for more than a month. I've included here a wonderful picture from the rescue. Poor fisherman is probably being interrogated by his government right now! But still, the feeling between rescued and rescuer is clear.

2012 Race Schedule (tentative)

Alert readers would have noticed that I added a module to the left, my 2012 race schedule. It is pretty much tentative at this point, except for the 10-miler in Tennessee, which I've committed to. Much of all this is dependent upon my next assignment. I'm almost 100% positive it'll be Washington, DC, but one can never be sure. We'll see.

Even alert-er readers will have noted that I have two events list for 25 August. I need the long distance practice, so when dates are finalized everywhere, 10Ks will win. Then closeness will win. If the Potomac 10K is on the same date as those other two 25 August swims, Potomac will win. Again, if I'm in DC.

Hyper-alert readers will notice there are no European swims in this list. I am just afraid I'll plan a Euro-swim and then the Air Force will want to move me early and then my money is flushed. I will miss doing these swims. And I still haven't had a Russia swim. That'll be one of my regrets upon leaving here.

European marathon swim list being updated

Dear reader(s), I'm updating the European Marathon Swim List. You can see how it's looking currently by clicking on the link on the left.