hours 1-7

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. 
Edmund Hillary

Let me start out once more by thanking God, my family, and my TEAM. Without my team I could never have accomplished this. They are the inspiration to me. They never let me see their true concerns (well for the most part, some things you can’t hide), and they did a stellar job keeping me going, keeping my family informed and keeping me safe. Susan, Shelly, Ed, Ty, Jeff, Joey, Brady, Joie, W, Francis, Mandy, you all are the best. We ALL shared and were a part of a great thing Friday/Saturday. I will start at the beginning and may have to post in parts as it may be a long one.

The two weeks leading up to the swim were pretty much uneventful after Sunday March, 18th, the day of my last long “open water” swim. I learned that the only thing that this open swim had in common with my the Coast swim was that it occeurred in water. So does a bath. More on that later. After 7+ hours on the 18th my shoulders, which had so far remained pain free, were toast. I woke up on Monday the 19th and thought the whole swim was over. I was panicked and stressed completely. Shelly and I talked and she said not to worry, she would take care of me. She got me some Celebrex samples, got the dosage and gave me three days to rest. Then I would start tapering. My swims over the next two weeks sucked. I had no power, and though my shoulders did not hurt, it felt like the pain was just under the surface and would surface 1000 or 10000m into the actual swim. This was going to hurt and knowing that for 2 weeks was tough on my brain. I stuck to Shelly’s plan, did a few swims and tried to keep it out of my mind. I was going to swim, I was going to finish and it was going to hurt. Deal with it. I did my best.

On the week of the swim I spent zero time resting. I had one day where I got up at 4 a.m., swam, worked all day, drove to Mississippi for an interview and drove back. The next day I worked packed and drove back to Mississippi for the big swim. It felt like the world was flying by as logistics, emails, calls, and the like kept me going till late Thursday. I went to bed after some spaghetti. I slept well.

RACE DAY
For anyone who has raced before, you know the feeling you get on race day. I guess if you played sports in high school many of you may know it to. I woke up on Friday March 30th feeling like I was jacked up on mini-thins. I felt good, my shoulders were so so and all seemed okay. I had 3 interviews before 8 a.m., I still needed to mix my nutrition for the swim as well as a host of logistical items. I am not a planner, and thanks to Susan, Shelly and Francis I didn’t need to be. T be more to the point, I had not talked to Francis in person in over a month. He said he would be there and Susan talked to him so I was cool. No worries. I drove to Bay St. Louis and made sure there was a beach to walk up onto. The wind was screaming due east, the direction I needed. I was freakin giddy. I prayed for the wind to stay out of this direction and I knew from the dependable weather forcasters, that it would change to the ENE at around 10 or 11 blowing me out and away from Gulfport harbor and would change to east again for a downwind finish. Perfect.
My former employee and fantastic runner, Brady came in early Friday around lunch. We headed to the hotel to set up a base camp of sorts and to mix up nutrition etc. I drove him through what is left of my old neighborhood. He couldn’t believe it. I was swimming for a lot more causes than I let you all know, but perhaps you could all glean that from my blog. I wrote a couple of notes, and rested for 13 minutes, then the phone started again. I got up and at 3:00 we left to go pick up Joey Lee at work. 3:30 and we’re on our way to Ocean Springs. We arrive right on time and the crew is there and arriving. Shelly, Susan, Ed, Ty and Mandy are there as well as Michelle Mayer and her son Stephen. We scout out a nearby harbor so they can get on the boat without having to trudge through the water and I go back for a live TV shot. My family shows up and then a number of people from the coast that I have known but not seen for a long time show up. A nice littler old lady in a rascal rides up and says she used to swim the Bay St. Louis races and that she had to come see me off. I am again taken aback. I get my wetsuit on and head to the beach for the TV interview. TV is funny. Here I am about to take on the physical and mental challenge of a lifetime, and I am talking to the TV girl about my exit into the water. Seems surreal kind of. I meet with the kayak team of Abe Kinney, a friend from home, Jeff Beck, from the backpacker, and Tom Atkinson, a local who saw a post from Abe on a kayakers message board and wanted to join in. I said the more the merrier, but also explained that he would be going slow and my nutrition and sighting had to be the priority. I briefly explained to them their role and got ready for my interview/entrance. I do my interview, put on my goggles and start walking….nothing says dramatic swim entrance like 8 inches of water. I wade out another 50 yards and finally can take a stroke. Did I mention the wind was still blowing out of the southeast, oh and 15-20 mph.

HOUR 1-3
Before we headed out I told the team I was going to go nice and slow across Biloxi Bay as I knew it was going to be a challenge. Although the wind was coming out the right direction, the starting point was directly into the wind so as to not add more miles to the swim. It was going to be a 1-2 mile crossing and then into the Biloxi channel for a couple of miles. I started out nice and easy. I did not want to expend too much energy this early. I was happy to be swimming and felt relatively good, no pain in either shoulder and all was well. I had told the kayakers, to not worry about me sighting off of them at this point and for them to get comfortable first and we could hone the method in the channel where it would be calm. At about 30 minutes in I see Abe capsize. My immediate reaction is to stop and help him. Joey says “Don’t worry about him, keep going.” 15 min later I see he has met up with the group. I have my first food stop, take in some h2o and keep heading for Point Cadet.

Point Cadet is the eastern point of Biloxi and is where many shrimp boats and most of the casinos are located. As we approached the waves started coming in the opposite direction and I was getting sloshed around. This was going to be something I had to deal with at every harbor along the way. It was like the waves came in and hit against the concrete and came sloshing back against the incoming waves. There was no undertow associated, just the top of the water was a complete mess. I kept cool and remembered that once I got around the Point it would smooth out for a while. Finally we get around and it is super smooth. I now have a direct tailwind and am working on getting into a rhythm with the waves and my stroke. I stop somewhere right after and eat half a cliff bar and some accelerade. I immediately put my head down and start throwing up part of it. The salt water is already taking a toll on my stomach and I have only been in the water for an hour or so. I am not happy about this, but, what can you do. I start swimming again and we are making pretty good time.
I cannot relax and swim though. Nausea, and the waves are working against me and my mind is racing. I can’t concentrate on anything. I would kill to have a song stuck in my head right now. I am constantly having to sight, forward and sideways and the kayaks are all over the place. I realize this is not kayaking weather. Joey is staying close and Tom and Jeff are doing pretty well beside me. I make a couple of stops and think to myself, “We are flying, we have got to be going 3 mph with this tailwind. I may finish in 12 hours after all.” I have had a goal of swimming this in under 13 hours the whole time, but that is in calm water. I thought I had a reasonable chance to do it IF I could have the right conditions. The conditions in the channel were perfect, 2 hours in and I had covered 5.47 miles. I told Joey sarcastically that there was a small craft advisory. I think I told Joey it felt like I was cheating it was so easy. This would not last long.

Somewhere out of the Biloxi channel, Abe and Tom opted out. I can’t blame them. By this time Joey had flipped, and I think Abe had again. I worried for all of them and kept going. The perfect conditions left once we got around the end of Deer Island, they weren’t awful, but they weren’t great either. As we were a half mile or so from what used to be the Broadwater Harbor. The same sloshing affect started well before the harbor and I realized this would happen at every harbor. I told Joey this as I needed the team to know how much these were taking out of me. The next one was going to be Gulfport harbor, but it was still 3 hours or so away.

HOURS 3-6
Somewhere after the Broadwater harbor, Joey and Jeff were done. The kayaks couldn’t handle the waves Joey had flipped for a second time and managed to save my body glide and some rope or something. Jeff flipped too and I was concerned. I could not sight off of them any more. This would mean I would have to get everything from the big boat, which was harder and more dangerous in these conditions.

Joey had told me on the way over that there would be a time when I would think that I would want to quit. He said it may feel like I couldn’t go on at all. He said when he it had happened to him, it lasted for 20 minutes or an hour and then he was good. I had a strange moment in Biloxi. Though I was making good time, I was wearing my mind out. I couldn’t get a good rhythm due to the waves, and I was completely nautious. I would take in a gel and throw up part of it. I did not dare tell Susan and the Team as I knew they would freak. I just tried to keep down as much as possible and keep rolling. It was around here I just thought, “This is too dangerous, it is not worth getting someone else hurt over. I keep throwing up, my mouth is torn up from the salt water, and I can’t relax.” This lasted about 5 minutes, but was a very strong feeling. My next thoughts were, “My shoulders feel fine, I feel strong. The nausea is here, forget about it, and the team will tell me if they want out.” It came and went and I was ever determined. Head down and swim.

Somewhere around here, I relaxed for about an hour. I don’t know when, but I had somehow just let my mind go a little. It was nice, I tried to enjoy how I had gotten here. The early mornings, swimming by myself, 90% of the time. All of this helped, and I tried to revel in the moment. Biloxi passed as did most of Gulfport. I looked up to see familiar “sights” and streets. This part of the coast was a little recognizable because I knew where the stoplights should be. I would tell I was still making okay time. I thought of my family and friends and hoped everyone on the boat was okay, especially Shelly as she is 20 weeks pregnant. I had finished about 12 miles or so I guess and told myself I had this. I was also at this time getting ready for Gulfport harbor because I knew it was going to be a huge challenge. Little did I know.

I knew I was swimming all over the place as I had to sight off the big boat. The waves would at times knock me 90 degrees in the wrong direction, and I would see the light flashing at me meaning one of two things, I either needed to eat or I needed to get back on track. In hindsight we did not do enough planning on signaling. It wolud have made it easier to know that one flash was for “wrong way” and another for “come eat”, but what you gonna do. Eating from the big boat was difficult because I would have to swim to chase it down, and then eat. While I was eating the boat would drift away and I would have to swim back to throw my bottle back on board. I started putting the bottle up under the back of my wetsuit and swimming with it until I got closer to the boat again. I would have a small dorsal fin for these periods and I wondered if it helped at all. Not really.

I keep looking at the stuff I am typing and I am leaving out a lot (unbelievably). I would like to take a second to talk about swimming this at night. I read up on long swims leading up to my swim and found that many of them were planned for the night as the sun just drains you, burns you, and usually the weather calms at night. This was a tactical decision that I do not regret. The actual swimming in the dark was not as big deal for me. Flourescent phytoplankton (or something like that) would stream over my goggles every stroke, so much so that I grew oblivious to it. It was cool to watch the moon move from a 7 o’clock to 2 o’clock. It was a little cloudy so there weren’t many stars. I would feel a small jelly fish (non stinging type) go through my fingers from time to time, and once a big fish hit my legs, making me speed up a bit and raised my heart rate, but other than that no real contact with sea creatures. I half wanted a porpoise to swim with me, but probably would have soiled my wetsuit had this happened, but thought it would have been cool to have flipper along. All in all the dark didn’t bother me. It did make it harder on the boat and seeing where we were with regards to the land.

HOUR 6
Somewhere around hour 5 Francis asked me if I was in the mood for sex. I thought “Huh,” but didn’t really know what to say so I said “Sure, I guess, but not from you.” He then chimed in 5 hours and 13. something miles. I figured out he was asking me if I wanted stats. I really didn’t. I did not want to know anything until after Gulfport harbor, but so be it. Now I knew how far long I was in with every feed stop. It was kind of nerve wracking. We were still a couple of miles from the harbor. I knew I was in for a huge challenge.

At least a mile from Gulfport harbor, I began to feel the affect of the wind and waves. I knew that Gulfport harbor was actually 3 harbors in one. It had the small craft then a freighter harbor where Dole has a large banana boat complex, and then one more commercial harbor, I don’t think the team knew this. The winds were out of the southeast still and as they hit the east side of the first harbor they began heading back out to sea and me. I had one more feed stop around here and knew that was it for the next hour or so because the harbor was at least a mile wide, possibly more. Combine this with the seas and I knew I was in for it. Again I just put my head down and kept going.

I had thought in the hours leading up to this point that we were out far enough to get around the harbor. I was very wrong. As I swam in he tumultuous waters, I noticed that I was drifting closer and closer in. I was half way through the first section of harbor and fighting hard. The waves in here were at least 5-7 feet high and the boat would completely disappear with each wave crest. I kept going and at some point heard the boat yelling that I was getting to close. I looked up and saw the light at the end of the small craft harbor. It was on top of a jetty made of broken concrete and rocks. I thought I was okay and took a couple of strokes of breaststroke to get my bearings. I wasn’t far enough at all, I slammed my left foot into a pile of debris putting what would turn out to be a 2 inch cut that probably could have used stitches. I had to head straight out at this point and fight to get south enough to not get my whole body slammed into this jetty. It was brutal for a short while as I headed directly into the wind an waves. I got around the first jetty and headed west again. The boat was telling me to head towards a set of lights and I did. What we failed to realize was that there was a concrete pier in between us and these lights. This was in the freighter part of the harbor and the waves and backsplash (wrong word) was at its height here. At one point my whole body was lifted completely out of the water. I was getting slammed from all directions. The team realized I had to go straight out again so I headed back straight out. It was crazy. I made it around this one and had a little ways to go before I was to be clear of the harbor. This was taking it out of me. I knew I would get a break in a while so I just kept going. There were two huge silo looking things and I knew if I got passed them I was almost done. The third harbor was set back a bit so I didn’t think I would have to go straight out again. The team I don’t think knew about this third harbor and as we finally got a little clearance they said come eat. I would have liked to, but I was now feeling the effects of getting slammed and drinking gallons of salt water. I stopped for a second and began violently throwing up, and I mean the body wrenching can’t stop to I have thrown it all up kind of barfing. I just lost all of the nutrition I had diligently been putting in my body. I had an extremely brief moment when I thought, “Well, that’s it I am done. I can’t believe I just threw up everything and cut the shit of my foot and I am done at 6 or 7 hours.” It lasted only for a second, because I all of a sudden felt great. My stomach was settled and I was calm. The boat called me to come eat, and I said after the last point. They thought I had lost my mind cause they couldn’t see another point as the last harbor was indeed farther inshore and not going to be an issue. I came in and ate and swam around the north side of the boat. I noticed that one of the kayaks we were towing was gone. I thoutght, “That is gonna cost me.” Jeff Beck from the Backpacker, who was ultimately responsible for them said to forget about it, that the boat had to stay with me. Unbeleiveable.

I am going to get a tetnus shot. Hopefully i will complete this afternoon.
rb

33.9

i will post tomorrow so set a side some time, there is a lot to tell.

i finished 33.9 miles (possibly more, i explain later).
15:50:00

i am sore and tired but in great spirits.

thanks to my TEAM without whom i would not have been able to complete.
thanks to ou for all your prayers and support.

rocketboy

32

i wear a shirt with the number 32 on it. it is my new number. when i was young i wore 13 and 17. now 32. just like all the 32's that have gone before me, i strive for greatness. to conquer what i haven't before. to set an example for others. to be. my 32 is different from others. it is a number that may define a chapter of my life. it is a number that may haunt me till the next time. or it just might be a number. nothing more nothing less. 99.9% of the people on the coast will go to bed and wake up to see that nothing has changed in their world. my world will change tonight. it may not be earth shattering, but it will change.
i would like to take a second to thank you all for following my journey. know this is not the end. i will attack something else. the money has not been raised in a way that i am satisfied with so i am using the swim as a start, not an end. i am so thankful for my loving wife, kids and parents. Jeanne, Paige, Ian, Mom and Dad, i could not even attempt this without you. you will be in my mind and heart the whole night. thanks to my coach shelly, who volunteered for this task. thanks for my business partner Susan for her details. i would probably have me and a friend in a boat if it weren't for her making sure i had what i needed. thanks to Francis, whom i know not well, but who has so generously brought his boat time family and energy to this event. again i couldn't attempt without him. thanks to joey lee for setting up interviews and coming along for part of the ride. i will rope him into the next swim. thanks to ed and brady for coming over and supporting me. thanks to mandy for coming over to swim and for the time she put in in the pool with me. thanks to nan and all the masters at crawfish aquatics. thanks to billy coach ripple and the kids of crawfish as well, the tuesdays and thursday workouts helped get me here. thanks to Adam and Paul for manning the FRESH ship while i am away, ya'lls hard work has given me the time to train.

thanks to God for giving me the all the blessings i have and for the courage and life to swim 32 (and for the east wind i prayed for!)

going to take a nap and start swimming.

rocketboy

SEE 32 is Significant

In mathematics

32 is the smallest number n with exactly 7 solutions to the equation φ(x) = n. It is also the sum of the totient function for the first ten integers.
The fifth power of two, 32 is also a Leyland number since 24 + 42 = 32.
As with all power of two 32 has an aliquot sum one less than itself; the prime 31. 32 is the first member of the 31-aliquot tree.

In science

The atomic number of germanium
The freezing point of water at sea level in degrees Fahrenheit

Astronomy
Messier object M32, a magnitude 10.0 galaxy in the constellation Andromeda which is a companion to M31.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 32, a star in the constellation Pegasus
The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on September 24, 1957 BC and ended on March 10, 460 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1496.5 years, and it contained 84 solar eclipses.
The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on June 11, 1691 BC and ended on August 9, 375 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1316.2 years, and it contained 74 lunar eclipses.

In music

The number of variations in Bach's Goldberg variations
The number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven
In the title and lyrics of the song 32 Footsteps by They Might Be Giants
In Regina Spektor's Oedipus, it's sung "32 is still a god damn number" several times.

In other fields

Thirty-two is also:
The number of teeth of a full set of teeth in an adult human, including wisdom teeth
The size of a databus in bits: 32-bit
The size, in bits, of certain integer data types, used in computer representations of numbers
The winning car number of Ray Harroun in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911
ASCII and Unicode code point for space
In chess, the total number of black squares on the board, the total number of white squares, and the total number of pieces (black and white) at the beginning of the game
The code for international direct dial phone calls to Belgium
Retired number of L.A. Lakers Magic Johnson's jersey
Retired number of baseball pitchers Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton
Retired number of Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns running back
O.J. Simpson's uniform number
In the title Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, starring Colm Feore
Article 32 of the UCMJ concerns pre-trial investigations. Such a hearing is often called an "article 32 hearing"
Sometimes considered to be the occult opposite of number 23 (see 23 (numerology))
The (supposed) age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified
One of the Nissan Skyline versions
Pump water up an open tube and it can be raised to 32 feet - at that point cohesion is lost and the water column will break or cavitate. Pumping may not be necessary under the sole action of capillary action
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of places in the United States with the word "eagle" in their name.
Carlos Alberto Tevez uniform number in West Ham United
The short form of ThirtyTwo, a producer of snowboard footwear
A traditional (soccer) football is made up by 32 panels of leather.

22 hours

i am in ms gettting ready. factually i have benn chasing kids and my dog around my parents house, and finally it is calming down a little. i was here yesterday for an interview and then back to BR. i woke up today and have been going ever since. someone asked me today, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" all i could do was laugh. i am glad i didn't have to workout this week much as i have had zero time to do so. anyway whah whah whah. no complaining.
my shoulders will hurt. i have been coming to realize this more by the day. it is all part of it. i tweaked something in both on my last long swim and through the power of celebrex i have been pain free, but as i have told shelly, it is just beneath the surface, 1000, 10000, 18000 m in. again, no complaining.
it is a night of some irony as there is zero wind tonight, flat and an almost full moon. tomorrow nights forecast when we push off is 15 mph winds out of the south east. luckily we are going east so i should gain some benefit from this. during the night they will switch and i will get some dead downwind swimming which will be awesome. i am going to want to hammer at this point but know better. no hammering this swim. it is a patience, slow game. this is not my style. i am a 90 to nothing type of racer. though this is not technically a "race". it feels like it. same aprehensive feelings, check, double check, got my goggles, looking for my race belt and remember this is not a tri. finish it finish it finish it. slow down slow down slow down.

rocketboy

reality

i like one word titles. more dramatic. also if you use a long titles you do't have anything left to write about. if the title was, my shoulder is fried, 32 miles is forever, i have some siblings, and ohh crap you would know it all and there would be nothing left to say. i have one week left and things have been tough.
as i said in my last blog i swam for 7 hours last sunday. it started off fine and steadily got worse. i did great with nutrition, but my shoulders were feeling the last two weeks of workouts. the last hour, my left shoulder was toast. i finished the last of 70 400's and probably couldn't have done another one. i had to get my freinds Mitch and Joe to put the kayak on top of the truck as i couldn't lift my arms over my head. i loaded up on ibuprofen and iced them off and on all day, but on monday morning i still couldn't lift my arm over my head. i usually sleep on my stomach with my arms over my head. sunday night i slept with my left arm by my side. on monday it was darn near locked up. i could not have swum one length. my coach and now good freind Shelly said she would take care of it for me and got me in touch with a doctor to get some strong stuff. it worked and by monday evening i was feeling more confident. i took monday and tuesday off. on wednesday i went to the pool to do an interview for a local tv station. i ended up swimming a bit and did not feel too bad. the shoulder was what i would like to call "tentative", it didn't hurt, but i could tell that the pain was within my reach if i pushed too much. i swam an easy hour wednesday without incident. no snap in my arms but i wasn't hurting so it was positive. i swam 18 miles or so that sunday, 32 miles is going to be forever if my shoulder hurts that bad next week.
fund raising has been okay so far. i have finally seen why people have development jobs. it is a full time job. i am looking forward to haveing some time after the swim to continue what we are doing and to raise more money and awareness.
a lot of friends and family are turning out to help out with the swim. one in particular really means a lot. i grew up for all intents and purposes an only child. my dad was married prior to marrying my mom and had three kids, Susan, Bill and Craig. Craig is 10 years older than i am and Billy 2-3 older than him and Susan 2 older than Billy. we never lived in the same house and only when i was very young did we live in the same town. i cannot imagine what their world must have been like growing up. divorce is hard on every party involved. mostly on the kids. my half brothers and sister were always good to me and besides craig calling my "brat" for the first 6 years of my life, we have always had a loving and good, although distant relationship. i have always wanted more, but besides a decade between us, we all live between 1000 and 3000 miles apart. its tough. we talk from time to time and see each other every 2-3 years and it is what it is. last week my brother bill called and told me to call him when i got a shot. i talked to him thursday and he said he is going to try and make it down for the swim. he lives in kingston ontario, canada (america jr.) which is 2 hours north of syracuse, ny. i was shocked (in a good way). he may not be able to work it out, but the fact that he would come down for it meant the world to me. he wants to get in and swim with me. how awesome is that.

i can't follow that with anything clever or otherwise, this swim is bigger than me.
rocketboy

one week

i am dreaming about my swim. this means one of two things. i am excited about it, or i am stressing about it. i think it is the latter. for the first time since i started this idea i am actually confronted with the magnirude of it. 32 miles is a long way. i can't run 32 miles right now. i could ride 32 miles but it would be a lot slower than i would be used to and i would feel it the next day. that is a funny thought.
part of my concern comes from last weeks 7 hour + swim at the lake. i was tired all last week from the 57k the week before. i had trouble getting any snap back in my arms all week. i told my friend chuck at the beginning of my swim sunday that i was apprehensive about the swim that day. i got in and things went well for the first 3-4 hours. somewhere around 4 hours my shoulders started hurting. around hour 6 they were bad and by the end i did not think i could take another stroke. on monday i couldn't lift my left arm over my head and i could not have swum 25 m let alone 32 miles. i have been eating anti inflamatories for 5 days now and got in the pool a coupld of times over the past two days to loosen up. it is feeling better, but not 100%. in addition i am still tired. i will rest a lot for the next week.
did an interview for baton rouge tv wednesday. it was on last night. nice.
more to come...
rocketboy

57000m

i laugh to think about my old swimming routine. back 3 years or so ago, i was in pretty good triathlon shape. i was placing in my age group and even in top 3 in a race or two. i felt fast in the water. i swam twice a week 3500-4000m per workout. 8000 a week tops. i am almost laughing aloud at the thought of 8000m a week. to put it in perspective i swam 24000 on sunday alone, and 57000 for the week. i swim 8000m or more workouts 2-3 times a week. i was talking to shelly the other day and i said that i did not know what i was going to do with myself after the swim. i dont know if i can go back to 8000m a week. i will proabably come up with another hairbrained idea (i already have one or to cooking). i am going to let my wife and kids get some time with me, work on putting on some races and race some short stuff....maybe. and by maybe i mean it may be short.
i swam in the lake in prairieville sunday. the aforementioned 24000m workout. i felt good until the last hour. then my arms were hurting. nutrition was pretty good. i fed every hour. i never got week, so i guess this will work. i will probably go every 45 minutes or so just to be safe. i had a lot of good support from Ed, Tom, Brandon and Heather. it was nice to see people from time to time. i actually got sunburned on my face from breathing. i was out there for 6 hours so i guess you get more sun than you think. funny.
i am a pace slave. i am obsessed with keeping my pace for this thing. i know that i should not care about how fast i do it, just as long as i complete it. i know this, yet i am a clock watcher and i will push to make sure i keep up. i am obsessed with 1:30 pace for this swim. i don't know why this is so significant a number, but i keep it in the front of my mind. IF i can keep this pace i will finish in the 13hour range IF i don't swim too side to side. i would love to finish under 13 hours, but don't know if it is attainable. i certainly want to finish in less than 16 as i think that may be the upper end of my endurance. not really sure though because i've never gone swimming for 16 hours. 18 days and counting.
going to the coast to shoot a spot for their news this weekend. another marathon trip. leave baton rouge at 3 there from 5-7 eat with my parents. drive back to btr.
big week for my daugther paige's athletic career. she had a bike a thon for st. jude on friday. i told her in the morning that "it is not a competition, so just find out from the teacher who has done the most laps, and then do one more than them so you win." she is four. my wife was unstoked. it appears paige did not need to find out who did the most as she was 3 laps ahead of the rest of her group anyhow. woohoo! then on saturday she had her third soccer game. they do not keep score for these games, but my wife did and our team the Cougars, got beat 8-1. paige scored the only goal for her team. pride baby pride.

keepin the dream alive,
rocketboy