Swimming in the dark

All the preparation is coming together. The hard workouts are done. The practice races are complete. I'm organizing all the gear and putting it in piles ready to go in transition bags. My family is coming in the afternoon to support me, which is fantastic. There are only a few minor details left to be worked out, mainly due to the cooler weather. I am going to wear the arm warmers and shoe covers on the bike. There was one thing a teammate had advised me: put on a dry shirt for the bike. Normally I wear a tank top style tri top for all three events. During the Practiceman, I realized how cold it is at 60 degrees to be wet, with wet shirt on, and riding a bike. This isn't a problem when it's 90 degrees! And she said to just wear your sports bra and tri shorts under the wet suit. Well my sports bra is not a pretty stand alone kind. It's the super support kind. And I am not the type that is comfortable wearing it alone. It would be so much easier not to have to wrestle with taking off a wet shirt, and I am a little pressed for time here. But would it rub or chafe? I would have to test it before race day.

So that's why I was at Barton Springs at 6:30 this morning. It's still really dark then, and while I used to go swim with S in the winter evenings, they have lights on then. There are no bright lights on in the mornings, just the telephone pole lights. So it is really dark in the water. And there are weeds and rocks that look like sharks. So while I can rationalize there is nothing in there to get me, I barely made it half a lap before calling it quits! The sports bra only worked well though. But how do people swim in the dark? Sharks!