Lost near the Gaza strip and how I made friends with the waves
Today we did our long ride to the Zikim Beach, south of Ashkelon. I'm pretty sure I'd never been to Zikim before and even if I had, I had never actually driven (or ridden) there on my own. I knew the general direction and there was a car behind me for almost the entire ride. About 5 km before the end, though, the driver made sure we knew where to turn off the main road and then he drove ahead.
I did fine for most of the rest of the ride. I could see the rider in front of me and I read the signs. Just before the last turn, though, I lost sight of my teammate. I got to the end of the road and saw an arrow pointing left that read "Zikim". Of course, there were also arrows pointing left that read "Alei Sinai" and "Dugit", both of which are settlements in the Gaza Strip. I knew that Zikim wasn't far from the border, though, so this didn't concern me. So left I went.
I passed an army base and then I started to wonder. Why would the army base be right next to a public beach? Then I noticed that I couldn't actually see the beach anymore. Then I looked up and saw a soldier in a guard house above me. He had a gun, of course (big deal -- most soldiers carry guns and I see them all the time). Though the soldier didn't bother me, I did start to wonder if I'd made the correct turn. I stopped and turned around to see if I could spot the rider behind me. He was nowhere in sight. That's when I decided to call my coach. It turned out that I was supposed to have gone right at that junction. If I'd kept riding long enough (and it couldn't be all that far -- you can see Gaza City from the beach at Zikim), I'd have hit the border and hopefully there would have been someone there to turn me around and get me going back in the right direction. I don't think I really would have enjoyed riding around the Gaza Strip on my bike! When I got back to the junction where I'd gone wrong, I saw the other sign -- the one that pointed to the right and read "beach". I guess I need to practice my reading comprehension skills!
Got to the beach (finally!), got dressed and headed for the water. When I tried to put on my swim cap, I realized that I was still wearing my sunglasses. Duh. Took off the sunglasses, put on the swim cap, put on the goggles and I was set.
There were waves today. Not huge ones, but bigger ones than I've ever had to deal with. The kind that used to scare me. I saw the kids in the water and I decided that I was not going to give up this opportunity to prove to myself once and for all that I can do anything I want to do. I headed out. A wave knocked me over. I got up. A wave hit me in the face and I got salt water up my nose. I kept going. Next thing I knew, I was swimming. I was swimming under the waves and loving it.
I swam out a bit and then went back. Then one of my teammates told me to swim out to some bottle that was floating (anchored) in the water. It was fairly small and hardly visible from the beach. It was even harder to see from the water. That was the idea, actually, to try to spot it while swimming. So off I went again. As soon as I started swimming, the bottle disappeared. I kept stopping to look for it. The lifeguards probably thought I was drowning. LOL. Every once in a while, I would spot it and adjust my direction. My teammates later told me that I swam zigzag the whole way. No surprise there!
Finally, I could see it close up. Just as I reached the bottle, I heard the lifeguard calling out on the megaphone to come back to shore. Since there was no one else that far out, he must have been talking to me. I could barely hear him. I hadn't planned on going any further anyway, so back I went.
I went in one more time to try to deal with the bigger waves closer to shore. One of the coaches explained that rather than running, I should jump under them, kind of like a dolphin. I decided to give it a try. I wasn't terribly successful, but it was a whole lot of fun. I can't believe I used to be so afraid of waves! Going under them is such a great feeling! I was doing this with a couple of other people. We hung out a bit in the water and then headed back. On the way back, I caught a nice sized wave and body surfed a bit -- I felt like a little kid!
I could have stayed in the water all day long! I'm so glad that I've finally made my peace with the sea. This was one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome in order to become a "true" triathlete.
I did fine for most of the rest of the ride. I could see the rider in front of me and I read the signs. Just before the last turn, though, I lost sight of my teammate. I got to the end of the road and saw an arrow pointing left that read "Zikim". Of course, there were also arrows pointing left that read "Alei Sinai" and "Dugit", both of which are settlements in the Gaza Strip. I knew that Zikim wasn't far from the border, though, so this didn't concern me. So left I went.
I passed an army base and then I started to wonder. Why would the army base be right next to a public beach? Then I noticed that I couldn't actually see the beach anymore. Then I looked up and saw a soldier in a guard house above me. He had a gun, of course (big deal -- most soldiers carry guns and I see them all the time). Though the soldier didn't bother me, I did start to wonder if I'd made the correct turn. I stopped and turned around to see if I could spot the rider behind me. He was nowhere in sight. That's when I decided to call my coach. It turned out that I was supposed to have gone right at that junction. If I'd kept riding long enough (and it couldn't be all that far -- you can see Gaza City from the beach at Zikim), I'd have hit the border and hopefully there would have been someone there to turn me around and get me going back in the right direction. I don't think I really would have enjoyed riding around the Gaza Strip on my bike! When I got back to the junction where I'd gone wrong, I saw the other sign -- the one that pointed to the right and read "beach". I guess I need to practice my reading comprehension skills!
Got to the beach (finally!), got dressed and headed for the water. When I tried to put on my swim cap, I realized that I was still wearing my sunglasses. Duh. Took off the sunglasses, put on the swim cap, put on the goggles and I was set.
There were waves today. Not huge ones, but bigger ones than I've ever had to deal with. The kind that used to scare me. I saw the kids in the water and I decided that I was not going to give up this opportunity to prove to myself once and for all that I can do anything I want to do. I headed out. A wave knocked me over. I got up. A wave hit me in the face and I got salt water up my nose. I kept going. Next thing I knew, I was swimming. I was swimming under the waves and loving it.
I swam out a bit and then went back. Then one of my teammates told me to swim out to some bottle that was floating (anchored) in the water. It was fairly small and hardly visible from the beach. It was even harder to see from the water. That was the idea, actually, to try to spot it while swimming. So off I went again. As soon as I started swimming, the bottle disappeared. I kept stopping to look for it. The lifeguards probably thought I was drowning. LOL. Every once in a while, I would spot it and adjust my direction. My teammates later told me that I swam zigzag the whole way. No surprise there!
Finally, I could see it close up. Just as I reached the bottle, I heard the lifeguard calling out on the megaphone to come back to shore. Since there was no one else that far out, he must have been talking to me. I could barely hear him. I hadn't planned on going any further anyway, so back I went.
I went in one more time to try to deal with the bigger waves closer to shore. One of the coaches explained that rather than running, I should jump under them, kind of like a dolphin. I decided to give it a try. I wasn't terribly successful, but it was a whole lot of fun. I can't believe I used to be so afraid of waves! Going under them is such a great feeling! I was doing this with a couple of other people. We hung out a bit in the water and then headed back. On the way back, I caught a nice sized wave and body surfed a bit -- I felt like a little kid!
I could have stayed in the water all day long! I'm so glad that I've finally made my peace with the sea. This was one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome in order to become a "true" triathlete.
posted by bari | 12:38
3 Comments:
Yay! That's part of why I don't tri. (among other reasons) despite growing up less than 3K from the ocean I don't swim very well and the ocean (under-tow) frightens me lots. You are inspiring me to at least lace up my sneakers and go for a short (3-5 K) run one of these days...
Have a very sucessful training week! :)
oh my, striking out for an anchored bottle. I hope it was a big bottle!
That is pretty funny though the silly things we do to get a good workout in.
But as Murphy's law says, "If its stupid and it works, its not stupid."
Getting lost near the Gaza Strip sounds scary, but playing in the waves sounds like much more fun! All workout and no play makes anybody a dull athlete. Glad you could make your peace with the waves.
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