Swimming with goggles. Amazing!

I bought my first pair of swimming goggles. I finally tried them out last Saturday. 

I know what it's like to swim without getting water in your eyes because Don and I scuba dive. But a mask and snorkle in the GREAT BIG OCEAN is different than goggles in the pool. 

So after being in the pool 5 seconds with my groovy new googles on I thought to myself, "Oh....my.....gosh.  Where have they been all my life?" I'm a dope!

Let me give you a little history.

My mom had all of us signed up for swim team going back about as far as I can remember. Every summer she would get us up at the crack of dawn (for years) and drop us off at the local pool for swim team. I don't remember her asking us if we wanted to be on the team. It was a mandatory in our house.  I HATED swim team. I know that's a strong word. But I was not a fast swimmer. I had a good stroke but I am not speedy. I never won. Or even came close. I am extremely competive so years of suffering losses was a major bummer for me.

I remember my brother and sister and I actually going to bed at night in our bathing suits - so we didn't have to change when we woke up in the morning. How crazy is that!? Doesn't really seem comfortable. But whatev. That was a long time ago.

Back to current day, we have a pool nearby and I enjoy swimming (at my own pace), it's great exercise, so I thought I would start swimming laps. The chlorine is so strong, you really need goggles.  I picked up a pair at REI and they are amazing. They are made for women. The TYR Femme T-72 Ellipse. Wow. They sound fast. 

Thinking back, I remember all the really fast kids on the swim team had goggles. I'm attributing that to my slowness - chlorine and water in the eyes could not have helped. I'm sure that was the issue.  I'm not looking for a do-over. But I sure wish I had some goggles back then. Especially for the team we were on in CT where we had to swim in a murky, roped off lake. Ick. You would think I would have swam really fast just to get out of the greenish/brown water.

Back to present day again, the summer of 2009,  it was so nice and peaceful in the water. I took this picture with my handy dandy iPhone. Pretty cool, huh? I'm looking forward to a lot more swims before summer is over and it's too cold to swim outside.

Don't worry. I'm not bitter about being on swim team. If I had four kids I probably would have done the same thing!