At the Beach

  I have been down in Port Aransas for some R and R with the  parents for the past few days but I did bring my goggles, running shoes and Oskar. I also brought other clothes and Oskar food and you know what, let us not turn this blog into an itemized account of my comings and goings.
  So my plan was to get 3 days worth of beach running and open water swim practice. I actually got one nice 5 mile beach sunrise run on on Monday morning with Oskar. It was the kind of run where you did not see a soul, you do not take the ipod and you cool off at the end with a dip in the tepid Gulf of Mexico water. It was fantastic. The swim on the other hand was quite educational. My mother escorted me to the water and promised she would come in and save me if I started drowning but just to be on the safe side I swam in between the breaking waves where I knew I could touch. I thought it would be best to swim perpendicular to the beach as opposed to an out and back route. I did an easy 10 minute pace and stopped for some water to rinse the brine out of my mouth. Love the Gulf waters. Between the salt water, crashing waves, and the exfoliating seaweed I learned a valuable lesson for open water swimming. I began to understand the power to ignore. Ignore the current but stay on track. Ignore the salinity level of the water but don't swallow it. Ignore the seaweed when you run into it at as long as it's just seaweed. Right before I jumped in my mom assured me that she had baking soda in the R.V. if I encountered any Jellyfish. Thank you mother. After my easy 10 minutes I went back out for some sprint repeats, tired myself out and called it a day.

  Oskar loved the beach also. All of the dry seaweed, fish bones, and fetid material that washes up on shore is his favorite. But he does pose nicely for pictures.