1. The swim is the easy part. The hard part? The cold (even though the water was about 70 degrees+/-). The dark (we started at 10:42pm and got to shore at 8:48am). And the sea-life (you know what I am referring to…..). It is a HUGE. HUGE MENTAL GAME. 🦈
2. Key word: RELAY. Officially, you can choose to do this as a solo mission (holy SH&*T!!!) or a group of 6 (no more no less). A dear friend of mine lost her father💚 days before she was to take the plunge, so she asked me if I could swim in her place. How can one possibly say no to that (even if I threw up in my mouth a few times just thinking about it!). Honored.👯♀️🙏
3. There are A LOT. OF. RULES. You have to swim an entire 60 minutes. You have 5 minutes to tag the next swimmer. You can’t touch the kayak. You can pace another swimmer, but only for an hour. You have to stay in the same order the entire swim.
4. And, of course, you can’t wear a wetsuit. Because, I quote (from someone OTHER THAN ME), “real swimmers don’t wear wetsuits”. Ocean swimmers just don’t do it. It’s not cool. It’s not challenging enough. Either way, this rule only contributed to my anxious nerves (having experienced hypothermia before). Brrrrrrrrrr (sidenote: we had GREAT conditions and got very lucky with water temp!)
5. When your boat is going 2 miles an hour (to be alongside the swimmer), it can make for a very very sickly trip. 🤢 As nervous as I was to take the plunge, the motion sickness gave me the desire to jump in that water QUICKLY. Swimming in the water has to feel better then the boat, right?!
6. Even if something isn’t necessarily on your “bucket list” doesn’t mean it wasn’t meant to happen.
7. Swimming with dolphins is absolutely amazing, but swimming with dolphins at night is not near as dramatic. You don’t know if those shadows are dolphins or….. 🦈🐬🤷🏼♀️
7. Swimming in the dark is totally cool for about 20 minutes. Then the mind starts messing with you. Is the water cold? What just stung me? How long has it been? What are the kayakers talking about? What are those shadows? When is the sun coming up?
8. Like most things, you have to TRUST. Trust your teammates, trust the captain, the kayakers, the officials. Our crew was. Amazing. I full-on-truly-100% believed they would keep me safe. Thank you. Thank you. My mom especially thanks you. 🙂
9. Like all things, smile and have fun. We giggled a lot. We discussed tactics. We laughed. We tried to sleep. Yet we were all (mainly me) very nervous.
10. Pretty sure our boat was the best the officials had been on since their time officiating (I am not making that up! They told us!). That comment alone is almost as good as the achievement! #strivetobefun
Last time I went to Catalina I looked at those waters and never imagined I would be swimming in the middle of the Pacific with no views of land around me…. Now I can say I DID IT! The unknown can scare people away. It can keep people from reaching their goals. I had a big nudge and just went for it (thank you team!!). And SOOOO happy I did! I checked the bucket list before it was even on the list!! I joined forces with the most amazing group of women and we just simply made it happen. So grateful to experience out of the comfort zone. Still soaking it all in…..Experience of a lifetime!!!
