Baby Jellyfish

Yesterday was a very exciting day for TNT triathlon trainees.  Finally, after months of training in the SUNY Purchase pool, we were unleashed into the open waters of the Long Island Sound (sure, we were on a beach, surrounded by jetties, so the water was more like a salty swimming pool than “open water”, but let’s not kill the excitement too soon).  It was our first group swim in the Sound and 30+ TNTers gathered at Rye Beach, right next to Rye Playland, ready to trade in chlorine for salt and the other naturally (and not so naturally) occurring chemicals that make up the LI Sound.

I need to break into my writing flow here because there is a lot to write about, so I am going to chop this blog post into two, to ensure that this will be a blog post and not a novella…

…now, back to the beach.

We all got into our hot pink swim caps, and black and silver “Team In Training” wetsuits – yeah, we looked awesomely bizarre... and, there were onlookers.  Rye Beach, Rye Playland and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (an awesome organization which you should support - and if you haven’t done so already and are reading this blog you SHOULD feel guilty about not supporting them and me, but you can click here to donate and support my triathlon training http://pages.teamintraining.org/wch/wchtri11/aspiraq31y), hooked the team up.  Rye Beach closes just after 6pm, but LLS arranged for us to have the water to ourselves from 6pm – 7pm.  So while families packed up from a beautiful day at the beach, we, the Pink & Black Invaders began to populate the beach, much to the amusement and photographing pleasure of beachgoers. 

In addition to the visual shock and awe that we provided viewers, we also provided viewers with high quality physical comedy.  Wetsuits are made of thick, tight-fitting material, and there is all sorts of pulling, yanking, grabbing, grunting and cursing that is involved in pulling on a wetsuit.  There are many amusing strategies that can be employed by individuals, including the shopping-bag-on-feet technique, the spray-Pam-all-over-your-body technique (yes, the cooking spray Pam), and the use of body glide (a lubricant) to help the process along.  If you are bored next Wednesday night and are looking for some physical comedy amusement, come on down to Rye Beach, then head over to Rye Playland for amusement park fun.

Another key to successful wetsuit-wearing is to use body glide on your neck, to reduce chafing.  So, as instructed I got body glide ALL over my lower neck… and I leaned that “the neck” means all the way your neck, up to your hairline.  I have a nice red rash to remind me just how high I need to get that body glide, next time. 

Eventually, we did get into the water, which is when I discovered my true love for my wetsuit.  Despite the difficulty of putting on a wetsuits, once you swim with one on, you will never want to swim without one because they act as a flotation device.  Simply go in to the water, dip your neckline under the water and fill up the wetsuit with water.  Just like that, you float on the water like you were in the Dead Sea.  No need to kick to keep your hips up in the water while swimming – your wetsuit does it for you!

The first order of business was to swim out to the first row of buoys in the water.  It was there where we were all informed that we shouldn’t worry about all the little jellyfish(!!!) that were in the water.  I hadn’t noticed them before, but there were lots and lots jellyfish, everywhere.  Good news, though!  It turns out that they are babyjellyfish and didn’t have stingers (yet)!  The truth is that they added a pretty cool dimension to the swim because every couple of stroke I would feel a jelly-like object bouncing off my hand or finger tips.  Should I feel guilty about knocking the heck out of these baby jellyfish?

I’ll pick up the rest of the swim in my next blog post, tomorrow (I hope!).