Flowers 1 Mile Sea Swim

JP and I took part in Cayman’s biggest open water swim event, the Flowers 1Mile Sea Swim. It was my 3rd Flowers Sea Swim and JP's 2nd. This year they limited the number of entrants to 800 swimmers so JP and I made sure that we registered online early to join in the fun of the day (and they have hundreds of lucky draw prizes too... from flights to blackberry's, restaurant vouchers and sunset cruises). 

At the start

Because of my Big Belly (end of my 7th month of pregnancy) I decided to take it easy this year and not let my competitive streak take over as it had the previous two years. When I entered the water in 2008 and 2009 something snapped in my brain and I couldn't stop myself from swimming flat out the whole way... I pushed so hard as I wanted to beat everyone I knew and didn't enjoy the swim at all! I felt nauseous and light headed at the end... but finished with a really great time.. and of course enjoyed watching my friends and their hubbies come in behind me!!  But... this year was different, I held back for obvious reasons and decided not to be stuck in the thick of things with hundreds of kicking feet, arms pulling/pushing, people swimming over each other etc., I wanted my precious belly far far away from all of that, so JP and I just hung out right at the back and entered the water at 776th and 777th position. We waited about 5 minutes after the start gun went off so that the swimmers dispersed and set off at a happy pace with at least 3 meters between us and the people around us.  

We had so much fun swimming together and had a lot of laughs! I took our waterproof camera along and snapped some great shots of us in the warm crystal clear water, also got some cool video clips of JP doing underwater acrobatics and inventing new swim styles (eg the jellyfish), but unfortunately after downloading

the photos to our computer and deleting them from the camera card our hard drive crashed and we lost them all!!!  Luckily I found some photos of us finishing the race on the Flowers Sea Swim website and then also got a few photos from friends. Even in all of the fun, we managed to pass over 100 swimmers by the time we got to the finish line!  =)

My belly, my medal and I

I now have an all important decision to make before next year's swim: 

Fun ... or ... Bragging Rights!