ROUND CHRISTIANSBORG 2008

2000 M (varied crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and a little dash of Butterfly)
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50:48 (Number 120 out of 151 women)

Despite my lack of training, I decided to swim Round Christiansborg again this year. It was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to register on race day.

Anyway here I am, greased up ready to go!

At the start:



One of the guys in the heat (but not pictured) asked an official what the water temperature was. On hearing it was 18.5 he said, "Boy maybe I shouldn't wear my wetsuit after all" The official said - "You've got one minute to decide" and I said "Wetsuits are for wimps..." and he kept his wepsuit on.

The heat I was placed in was really fast, and I immediately lagged behind, freezing and wondering why in the world I entered this race again. No photos from the harbor front as I had agreed with my family that it was OK for them to just take photos in the canals - as keeping a 3 year old happy for a long race wasn't going to be so easy.

Here's my oldest son in the foreground, the buoy in the middle is the 1 km mark, and I think I'm near it. Look for the green swimcap, because it's all on it's own. Everyone else from my heat is far ahead of me.

Finally somebody I can actually pass in this race! Holmens Kirke in the background.

Just as I'm enjoying the sweetness of actually passing somebody, I've got somebody on my tail.

With the Danish parliament(Christiansborg) in the background, I decide to take it easy for a while and swim a little backstroke to use my muscles in a different direction. It had the added adventage that I could look up at my family and wave.



I discovered it was actually more pleasant swimming backstroke under the bridges. Easier to follow your progress and not as dark and claustrophobic as while swimming crawl.

Rounded the bend - that's Christiansborg Slotskirke in the background (no seperation of church and state here)

Swimming along Gammel Strand.

Lifeguards. Thorvaldsen's Museum and Nikolaj Kirke (which is no longer a church but a gallery) in the background.

Swimming under "Strombroen". Time for some breaststroke.

The "Marble Bridge" in the background. I'm pretty tired here, and there's only about 300 meters to go.

Photo taken from the last bridge.

A beautiful day for a swim - Finish line in sight!

Nearing the finish - note the guy in the green cap in the foreground - he looks like he's been standing there for a while.

Finally the medley is completed with a little bit of butterfly - just to show off.

More showing off.

Obligatory head scan at finish!

Success!

LIMP WRIST

Took my son to Bagsværd Svømmehal and when I went down the slide after him to enter the pool, I slipped and fell as I was about to go down. Landed on my ass and my wrist. I could immediately tell the wrist was borked by stayed in the water for about 30 minutes so my son could have some fun in the water.

Now following the RICE protocol (Rest, Ice, Compresssion, Elevation) when I'm not typing, taking care of the kids etc.

I had been considering swimming in Amager Open Water and Christiansborg Rundt, but this injury definitely finalizes the decision I made last night that I wouldn't be competing because of too much stress as I wait to see if I'll be going to school or working this fall.

OLDSKOOL ANTI-DEPRESSANT

Physical activity!

Our son has a case of the blues and is having a hard time falling asleep at night. Swimming is a great way of getting him to do physical activity, so I took him to the pool after dinner to see if I couldn't wear him out.

We had great fun going down the slide and swimming in the current pool.

We even invented our "Jesus"-trick where he stands on my thighs and I walk so it looks a bit like he's walking on water. It amuses us anyway.

MORE FAMILY FUN

150M (100M Free, 50M Breast)
Fun time break
2 x 150M (100M Free, 50M Breast)
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time it takes for father and son to change clothes both to get in and out of the pool.

Another day of family fun at the pool.

08-08-08

Took my son to Bagsværd Svømmehal today.

We used the family/handicapped changing rooms and it worked perfectly for us. Ever since our son turned 8, I haven't been able to take him into the ladies changing room with me. Since he's not ready to go through the men's changing room alone, it's only been his father who's been taking him to lessons. Nice that I can take him swimming now to.

NEW POOL

200M (100M free, 50 back, 50 crawl)
100M free
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300M (the time it took for my husband and kids to get showered and changed)

Værløse Svømmehal is closed for summer vacation, so we decided to try out Bagsværd Swimming Pool. It's got beautiful architecture and great facilities for kids, but there 25M pool could sure use some ropes to seperate the lanes. They've seperated it with one rope - 3 lanes for play, 3 lanes for laps. There are no lane lines on the bottom of the pool - only 5 meters from the wall, so it is utter chaos to try to swim laps like that.

Luckily there was only one other woman swimming laps when I arrived, so it wasn't a problem, but about 35 minutes later when we left it was really crowded. Even a gorgeous view of trees outside the window doesn't make up for that. :-)

The best part of the outing was when my 9-year old son overcame his fear of the water slide and went down it 5 times!