Broughton Mornings, Blessed by St Barbara

Standing on the beach at Broughton at 6:15 sun is already well above the horizon and the Delta jets overhead are flying north west, probably to Seattle. Yesterday was the first hot day of the season, it reached 85 here in the afternoon. the beach is evidenced to the late afternoon and evening revelers. Like every year, I simultaneously look forward to and dread warmer water and warmer weather. The return of warmer conditions means more dumped/left trash on the beach, clogged toilets at the boat ramp, and likely higher bacterial counts in the water. This morning while picking up trash I found Santa Barbara on the beach among an odd sacrament of shot glasses and discarded clothing. (Turns out she is the patron saint of armourers, mathematicians, and the Italian Navy, I'd like to think there were a bunch of hot Italians on the beach last night, but unlikely. She was gracious enough to hang out overnight and bless our swim this morning.) 

At this point I do not have any long swims planned for the season other than Anacapa Channel and the Portland Bridge Swim. I'm primarily trying to train for the English Channel which means increased frequency of cold water swimming during the summer and that I'm going to try to attempt a 6-hour qualifier swim here and the next month or so before the Columbia warms up too much, not particularly looking forward to it, but it'll be good practice to at least get in and see how long I can swim sub-60 F. 

I remember swimming age group and I was always too slow to meet the intervals, and my coach put me in the slower lane which meant swimming with the younger children. I felt like a pariah isolated from my same age peers and swimming with people 2 to 4 years younger than me; looking back the fast lane all went on to swim at Division I schools and several went to Olympic qualifiers- so I was probably too hard on myself. 

I had another coach, Coach Leslie, and during an outdoor practice one day when I was not making intervals but I was continuing to swim at pace for the entire 2 hour long practice my coach looked at me and said "You should swim distance,"I think I was probably 11 or 12. After that I noticed that that particular coach would stop me every half hour or so and tell me to rest and then let me keep swimming. She didn't force me to do kick sets, she didn't force me to do a lot of the drills the other kids did. She focused on building my stamina and my confidence telling me I could do things even if they were hard showing me that while my peers could swim faster they had to stop very frequently to keep going. I did not have to stop I just kept swimming. She's also the first person I ever confided in that I felt isolated and ostracized from my peers. I found my people and the cold open waters of Portland, Oregon thousands of miles from home. 

As I walk the beach picking up trash before my swim I realize that she had the right of it all along. I've been struggling with my Catalina DNF for months now and have come to realize that Coach Leslie was right, I can keep going I just need to pause sometimes.