Last Tuesday night I was sitting on the couch, cruising the interwebs, minding my own business, when I noticed an email come into my inbox. From the race director of my hands-down favorite marathon swim ever. At first I thought it might be a joke, or her telling me again thanks for speaking highly of her swim but there’s still no room for me at the inn.

You see, back on 20 August, Karah N., the race director for Swim the Suck, posted on the race FB:

Three slots open. First three to email me are in.

Dear reader, you must understand that this swim is so popular it fills up within minutes of registration opening. You literally have to sit by your computer with the info ready to go and when registration opens, fill in those blocks like the wind, and hope you’re one of the lucky 100-odd who get to swim 10 (plus?) miles down the Tennessee river. Registration opens over nine months prior to the swim!

Of course I emailed…and was number nine. Ugg.  If only I’d spent more time on FB (should say no one ever). I sighed, told her thanks for the opportunity and went on my way. I figured the Swim & Fin 5K last month was it for my season. I started thinking about 2019. Until last Tuesday.

She wasn’t emailing just for the hell of it, or to talk about next year’s race. Nothing of the kind. No, she emailed me to offer a spot. You see, more spots opened up, and since she already had a list of people interested from 20 August, she started down the list. And then came to me. “Holy shit!” I said to my wife. “I’m in.” She knows how much I love this swim. I swam it in 2012 and almost in 2013 (family event came up and I had to drop out). Been wanting to ever since but being so far overseas and not really knowing where we’ll be nine months out from mid-October has had me wishing I could register, but not doing it.

My next step was to email my uncle Tony, who kayaked for me in 2012 (see above picture) and just a few months ago has told me that kayaking for that swim was one of the most fun things he’d ever done kayaking. I sent him a simple email

Whatcha doing 12-14 October?

And I included the URL to the swim. His response?  “Hmmm…!”

Turns out, he and my aunt had already scheduled vacation for the week of 8 October, but had no idea where to go or what to do. I immediately told him that I understood if he couldn’t make it. A day later, he and my aunt decided to make Chattanooga and Nashville their vacations spots! Not only that, but they’re bringing their tandem kayak with them, so I don’t even have to pay for a kayak rental. And I’ve got two escorts!

So unexpectedly my 2018 season just got extended. I had already slowed down a bit on the swimming and started building up the weight-lifting. Unbeknownst to you dear readers, the wife and I signed up for a charity lifting competition at our local Y. The comp was yesterday. I only signed up for the deadlift (DL). My wife signed up for all three events: squat, bench and DL. What you don’t know because I haven’t been advertising it on here is that back in February I started lifting seriously. Three days a week following first StrongLifts, then Starting Strength and now an HLM sequence. Once summer started, I went to two days a week (Heavy and Light only). About six weeks ago when we signed up, I started hitting the DL hard. I hit my max of 315 back on 27 June. From then I started working to improve my DL by 15 September. And I did, lifting 325 for a new PR! Of course my awesome wife hit a PR in squat (160#) and got second place in bench press and third place in squat.

Anyway, the reason I started the lifting was to improve my swimming. Additionally, I thought the squatting and DL would help my lower back. As some of you loyal readers know, I’ve had issues with my back in the past. But since I started this lifting regime, I’ve had no issues. I hope that continues. I was going to go back to three days a week on 1 October, but now with me swimming in Swim the Suck, I’m going to postpone that until 1 November. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to DL 400# by next year?!

I can’t believe my luck. So glad I emailed back on 20 August. Now I get to swim my favorite marathon swim again. w00t!