Angie Swims

Today was a special/exciting/anxious/marvelous day. It started at 5:30 in the morning when Tater Tot woke me up for breakfast. I had hoped to sleep I'm until 6 on my national board certification exam day, but no luck. Instead I had an early cup of coffee and watched the last of the rain before leaving for the testing center. It was an uneventful drive and an uneventful test. Hard, yes, but doing hard things is something I do voluntarily on a regular basis. Was it harder than an ice swim or a marathon swim, absolutely! Did I walk out with confidence, maybe a little bit. We'll see in a week of I passed, but overall I feel about as good about it as I did any of my practice tests.  After the exam I grabbed a cup of coffee (okay, an almond milk latte - I felt like I deserved a treat!) and headed to Sellwood to meet up with some Yetis and Cold Huggers for a post boards swim. As expected, it was fantastic and revitalizing. Walking out of the exam I felt exhausted,but after...

Fall swimming is in the air in Portland, but not in the Gorge!  The past two weekends I've made the short trek out to Hood River to swim 5 miles from Mosher to the Best Western in Hood River. It is such a gorgeous swim and the water remains a balmy 68 Fahrenheit while the rivers in Portland continue to cool down to the mid to low 60s.  On both weekends there was a moderate current assist, but the locals insisted "there's not any current right now."  Well, I know my 500 m splits and sub-7 minutes is not  my usual pace in open water. Regardless, the water and scenery are lovely and the company wasn't bad either 😉. The first weekend was a bit rough for me, I hadn't been sleeping well and was feeling burned out from studying. The swim was fine  the scenery was beautiful, but I was tired before I got in and so it was less enjoyable than a swim in the Gorge usually is. BUT! Week 2, wow. It was GREAT. I was better rested, Sue from Corvallis joined us, Brianna came, ...