Keystone State Park

Afternoon at the park

Creative writing, my last class of the day on Friday, ended at 2:50pm. I hightailed it home and Jimmy came over. It was a sunny afternoon so we headed out to Keystone State Park and walked Lola + basked in the sunshine!

Keystone is the same park that I’ve ran a 5k costume race in the past two years…

2010—> Hannah is on the right as a swimmer and I’m on the left as batman..er woman?

2011—> Hannah and I were both ballerinas!

Keystone is also the same park that I swam my first 5k race in.

 It was weird to be in the park in April because no one was camping (except one family), not many people were walking around or running, and definitely no was was swimming! I can’t wait until it is warm enough to swim outdoors 🙂

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! 

Do you have a favorite park?

My first open water race

On Saturday I competed my first open water race!

It was a 5k swim in Keystone State Park’s lake. The course was a large 1k loop around buoys; 5 laps = 5k. My dad also decided to swim the race with me!! Registration was from 8:15AM-10:15AM

(Ignore my sleepy state of dress and my sloppy whiteish hair)

My dad and I decided to do this race the day before it was held. We were really excited because it was The Children’s Hospital’s first annual charity open water swim! We had to raise $100 dollars (each) and pay a $75 entry fee. LUCKILY my dad’s company sponsored us! SCORE!

We all had to get a number on our arm and wear a certain color swim cap. Green caps for individual swimmers and orange for relay teams.

I am very proud that my dad can swim 3 miles! It must have been all of that swimming in the Navy 😉

We warmed up about 50 minutes before the race. I was so happy the water was warm! It was so strange to not be able to see the bottom of the lake but I got used to it quickly.

The race director was the 833 person to swim the English Channel! I talked to him for a bit and he was so humble and excited about this charity event. Guess who else was there?! Jimmy!!! My boyfriend is so awesome for always coming to see me race 🙂

Love. Him.

After some safety briefings, all of the swimmers entered the water for a floating start because the lake bed is filled with rocks. Some people were intimidating because they had full wet suits on but when I race, I focus on competing with myself. The race director blew a whistle and we were off!

Yes, their was some kicking and roughness but thankfully it calmed down after everyone spread out.

Open water swimming is a lot harder than swimming in a pool but I enjoyed it! I had a hard time sighting all of the buoys because the sun was in my eyes. I didn’t stop once and I didn’t swim any stroke but freestyle. I saw a few glimpses of my dad along the way when I lapped him (lol!) and he always yelled “Hi!!”.

I swam the 5k in 1 hour and 23 minutes. I placed 5th overall and second in my age group. 

(We had to slap the buoy and call out our race # when we were done)

My dad hadn’t swam in a while-he finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes. He came in last place but he didn’t give up!! He also placed 3rd in has age group. Go dad!

I’m so glad we were able to do this race together and for a good cause! Wahooo!!!