Catching up [Iron Mike's Marathon Swims » Iron Mike's Marathon Swims --]

Since we last talked, dear reader(s), I’ve had some fun swim moments.

I managed to fit in another open water swim here, again in the Gulf of Aden. This time I had my own GPS watch on my wrist. Ended up with 5880m in a bit over two hours. Even got some pictures and a short video on my GoPro.

Got back to my room, and dammit if the watch didn’t record a map. There is a gpx file, but no map is showing up on my Garmin Connect account. I emailed the Garmin people and they sent me instructions on how to “delete old folders and files in the GPS” part of the watch. My inquiry on how I could have old folders in a new watch went unanswered.

I followed their instructions and then did a test run (walk really) around base and when I got back, I had a map! Hoping this success continues when I next swim in open water.

I’ve also done another timed swim at the base pool. I’m now on the board three times, adding the 200m now, in 3:12. I can go faster.

Finally, yesterday morning I only needed 50 laps (2000m) to hit 50 miles and get the free t-shirt. (Loyal readers know I’m a sucker for a free shirt.) For only the second time in 40 visits to the pool, they had to kick me out of my lane at the end of my 30 minutes. All three swimmers signed up for the next time slot actually showed up! Ten laps short!

So this morning I told Upul I only need 10 laps for the 50 miles, then jumped in. Did 50 laps (so 51 miles complete now) and when I got out, Upul had already placed my shirt on the table with all my things!

Not so bad for 40 sessions of about 35 minutes on average to get to 50 miles (actually 51). If I hadn’t taken 11 days off for that horrible leg gash I had, I would have had this shirt around Halloween!