To kick off the New Year, I accepted a challenge, or peer pressure as it may have been, to complete 100x100 with my friend’s Master’s Swim Group. This would be by far the longest distance that I had swam in a single session either pool or open water. With a little less than a month from when the decision was made to swim day, it was go time.
The preparation. I am fortunate to swim with a great swim group every Sunday. We swim long-course (a 50M pool) and typically swim about 3500M. Our workouts typically focus on endurance and aerobic fitness. I stuck to these workouts and continued with my typical strength, cycling, running and recovery schedule. I also recruited some of my Sunday swim mates to join in the fun and help with the accountability piece.
On Saturday before the big swim, I made the following post to Facebook:
Tomorrow is my first official "unofficial" event of 2016. I am scheduled to swim 100x100M. My longest swim workout or event to date. I am fortunate to have many great friends jumping in the pool with me and going after the same goal. Peer pressure makes us do crazy things!! So while I am swimming away, I am looking for people to claim 100 sets so I can think about you for the set and take my mind off of the circles. Comment below and pick up number. If you would like to support my official cause - TeamEdith and the Edith Sanford Foundation, follow the link below and put your pick in the comments with your donation. I would love to get 100 $10 donors to kickstart 2016. All donations are tax deductible and support a great cause. I tri because I can and for the many out there who can't. Their journey is much harder than mine. One Day...One Step. Courage to Start. Strength to Endure. Resolve to Finish. Thank you for your continued support. #TeamEdith #RunKimRun #eNRGperformance #ThisStuffWorks
Many of my amazing friends jumped on this post and I ended up with many 100 sponsors all picking numbers with significance to them, many generous donations to Team Edith and lots of fun messages and encouragement.
I set off a little before 6 a.m. Arrived at the pool in the dark and cold - let in the back door since the Rec Center wasn’t open to the public yet. Joined by Barb, Heather, Susan, Gay-Lynn, Candy and Joan we set off. I had gathered 100 plastic feet to help me keep track as the 100’s passed. One bowl full to the brim at the start and one completely empty. It seemed like a long way to go.
We jumped in and got started. Last Sunday we did a warm up swim. We broke the 100s into sets of 5. 100 Kick, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Pull, 100 Free. I managed to swim 5000M - at that point my longest to date so figured I would set off on this plan. I didn’t like the 100 Breast last week so replaced that with Free. After a bit I got bored with this so switched to sets of 500 instead.
It was fun to reflect, as the laps passed, on the friends that had claimed the various sets and their reason why. I thought about places we had been together, training we had done together, events we had completed together. When I got to the 70s, 80’s and 90’s, I reflected on the year I was born, houses and states that I had lived in, friends that I met in various places. Milestones for our family - high school graduations, college, Great Gram, age 98 today and celebrating 99 this year. She got two sets as 98 years is a long time to live!! Happy memories and maybe why I sped up the last five, Heather! Finished 100 reflecting on my new friend Laurie from Ohio that claimed 100 - we met on the Ironman AZ 70.3 course in October and finished together. I gained an awesome friend and great support that day and am so happy that we are still in touch. These crazy journeys bring people together!
I waited 25M from the end for Heather - she took cool down seriously - I wasn’t faster than her - and we swam the last few strokes in sync and touched the wall together. A milestone for both of us. First 10K!! A big high five!
It was fun to see all of my friends there today reach new milestones. Everyone reached a new record distance and all had smiles to celebrate. Many fun pictures, lots of stories and smiles and a great time had by all. Happy Milestone Birthday, Susan! A huge day in more ways than one. Thanks for sharing a great day!
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