Free goggles anyone? (And Sept. Splash report)

Well, actually, I should explain: if you want the free goggles--used but good quality Barracuda goggles w/ aqua lenses--they're yours.... if you're willing to take a few well-placed dives in the bay off Wildwood Crest (Sunset Lake) in the vicinity of the Bayview Inn. Or they may be floating on the surface and may eventually wash ashore somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard.... But hey, think of the search for them as open water practice! Okay, I'll back up a little--backing up being perhaps how I was unintentionally swimming the September Splash one miler. Finishing last has its charms. You get the kayak and boat patrols all to yourself, for one, and everyone who's already finished is there to cheer for you when you finish (unless they've long ago showered, changed, and flown to San Francisco or some such). Yes, this is a first since my childhood when I finished last much more regularly and became quite skilled at doing so. I got out of practice since and finally seem to have found my way again to the back of the pack. My ambition, a very humble one today, was fulfilled: I swam the race, and got open water practice. Although I'd been swimming pretty regularly through the summer, even reaching 3400 yards in one session, my times were slower than I'd have liked. I was away from the master's group I usually swim with, due to schedule incompatibility, so I think that my swims were easier paced than they would be with a coach watching. Back to masters' swimming next Sat.!!! But meanwhile, I wanted, despite my lack of speed, to get one open water race in while the warm weather held out. Next year I am planning on a longer swim--won't get into that now, but I felt I needed at least some exposure to the outdoor stuff with no line on the bottom to guide me to the other side. I wanted to see some point about a quarter mile away and think it was a hundred miles from me. I wanted to know how it was to be slapped around and rocked back and forth like a toy paper boat. And survive. And even enjoy the experience. And despite the slow pace and the fact that I'd grown too used to a pool, I had a ball! This was water with a mind of its own, water you have to learn to dance with. My "dance steps" were like the "before" in that Fred Astaire movie where ___ (is it Jeannette McDonald?) sings that song, "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again." But still, this was real--the water swinging me from side to side, pushing me one way when I tried to go another, playing with me. And as I went along, I found that I was enjoying the game. There was one swimmer very close in front of me, but he pulled away when both my swim caps, as well as the aforementioned goggles came off (wore the race cap over my silicone one for more warmth in the sixtysomething degree water... no wetsuit). The loss of the goggles was the consequence of my noticing soon after the start that I could see better without them--so I pushed them up so they were on my head, not on my eyes as goggles should be. This made it possible to see better where I was (slowly) going. When the caps slipped off, so did the goggles and having already begun to see a gap between me and the next to last swimmer, I wasn't about to try to look for them--just get the caps on. I might even have abandoned the caps to the care of the guy on the jetski who was letting me hold on a moment and helping me with the cap. But swimming with hair in my face would not, I decided, improve my vision, so I resolved to keep the caps on--also, as mentioned, not having a wetsuit made me want to have the warmth the caps offered. After this cap incident, the rest of the swim went pretty smoothly, if slowly. I noticed a little queasiness in the last two hundred yards or so, but since the finish line now looked only fifty miles away instead of the prior hundred miles, I decided I'd manage no matter. Pushed myself as best I could, although I noticed the right leg (the one with the problem knee) tightening up so that I was doing a lot of one-legged kicking. Soon enough, I felt sand and rocks, and stood, and waded into the finish in 54 minutes and change. Heard the noon whistle on my way in, and since the race had started--late--at several mins. past eleven, I didn't view that as a good sign. But nothing I could do, except tell the kayak guys to turn that blasted thing off. Which I didn't. Didn't see any of my forum friends--tho might not have recognized you if you were there. Did see a couple people from my masters' swim group. BF and I enjoyed lunch afterward in the sponsoring restaurant--along with what I really most needed: hot coffee! Interestingly, I never felt cold after the initial shock of entering water a good bit colder than the pool. When I noticed how cold it felt, I just reminded myself "take a deep breath, relax, don't overreact." And as I'd been in water that cold in the past, I grew more and more comfortable, not at all cold. Maybe the two swim caps helped. Nor was I cold when I first left the water... not until I had warm stuff on and was in the restaurant--but fortunately, by then I'd already received my coffee and was remedying the problem. (This paradoxical relationship with cold was something my mom noticed years back. I'd be out running with just tights and a windbreaker and a tech shirt under that on a shivery day and feel fine... then come indoors and start shivering. Go figure.) So that's my open water swim for this year. Not distinguished by any speed but still good to be out there!