The Scariest Adventure Yet!

So, I decided to switch things up a bit this week. Instead of going somewhere new for my adventure I decided to try something new. As you read this blog you will understand why there are no accompanying pictures.

I tried to couple my quest with getting to know people with my desire to stay fit and went out for the swim team. The adventure began with the drive. Swim practice is at Camp Foster, a Marine base. This was by far the longest, most traffic-filled drive I've done since we got to the island and I had to do it in reverse in the dark on the way home. I'm definitely getting more comfortable with the driving.

Now back to the swimming. Luckily, there are no tryouts to get on this team. You just come out and you're on the team. Now, the website says you can come out for competition, to meet people, or just have fun. Doesn't that sound good? I can now say that I didn't really get to meet anybody. There was one lady running the practice and the only other participants were 4 young, male, enlisted Marines. They were nice enough, but I'm pretty sure we're not going to be hanging out.

I can also report that there wasn't really a whole lot of fun involved, but it was an incredible work out and I walked out of the pool feeing pretty proud and accomplished. You warm up from 5-5:30. This alone scared me since when Chris and I go swim laps we're in the pool for under 40 minutes for our entire workout. At 5:30 the real pain begins. There are 3 levels - blue=fastest, white=medium, and red=slowest. Everyone is swimming for the same amount of time, but for different distances. For example, everyone might get 10 minutes, but the blue have to swim 700m, white swims 500m, and red swims 300m. Well, I could do about half the medium drills and had to drop to the red level for the other half. Including warm up, I swam over a mile and a half last night!

The team practices 4 times a week, but I'm only planning on 2 times a week so I can keep up my other activities. Chris and I are both planning on doing some triathlons and I really think this will help. Who knows - maybe there will be another woman there next week!