We woke up on day four in Chicago with all of my belongings (aka everything that I own) still safely in my Subaru. This was a great start to the day, considering that the last time my brother (Brian) was in Chicago, his van was broken into twice! After celebrating our good fortune, we drove to Lake Michigan for a swim.
Let me lay this on out for you… this was my second time swimming freestyle, and my first time using a wetsuit. The wetsuit is a staple when doing triathlons in water below 70 degrees. The first exciting thing about this swim was putting on the wetsuit for the first time. This thing is TIGHT and you have to make sure that it’s pulled on all the way before you can zip up the back. It took me a good 5 minutes of pulling and stretching to get the wetsuit ready to be zipped on. The zipping had to be done by my brother, and I’m not sure how I would do it myself. The next fun part is getting used to the compressed feeling of wearing a wetsuit. Not being familiar with swimming in the first place, this was very uncomfortable for me. I was already having problems getting comfortable taking deep breaths when I stuck my head (WAY) out of the water, and now this suit was making my lungs feel compressed! Not fun!
On the positive side, the wetsuit does make you much more buoyant than without. This for me was a plus because I could focus on how I couldn’t breathe without having to worry about sinking. I think that I struggled through about a quarter mile of almost drowning before making it back to the shore and starting to work on taking the wetsuit off (fyi: taking the wetsuit off is just about as hard as putting it on). I left Lake Michigan a little better swimmer than before, but with a lot of improvement still needing to be done before the big triathlon that was getting closer and closer.
After a fantastic breakfast of eggs, whole wheat pancakes, and fruit, we hit Trader Joe’s to refuel our nut reserves and pointed the car in the direction of Omaha, Nebraska.
Just to keep everyone up to date, this was the 3rd of July, and my brother Brian is a true 4th of July fanatic! There’s not much to say about the drive to Omaha (just lots of corn fields). The fun started the minute that we pulled into Omaha! Our fabulous host, Abby, had huge Omaha steaks and fresh corn on the table when we arrived. (On a side note, Abby Knight might be the fastest distance runner in Nebraska! If anyone is looking for a good, fast person to sponsor, message me. She’s legit!) After our amazing dinner, Brian and Abby were convinced that the 4th of July celebrations should start immediately, so we drove to the local firework stand and bought fireworks at a steal of a deal: buy one, get 3 free! After one round of lighting off fireworks the kids (Brian and Abby) decided that they needed more fireworks (I guess the first round was just to see which were the best), so we drove back to the fireworks stand to purchase the 4th of July celebration on the 3rd of July, round 2. We finished the night without losing any fingers or hair and chalked it up as a successful 4th of July celebration on the 3rd of July.
Day 5 coming soon!
