meeting Martin Strel~the Big River Man

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Martin Strel aka the Big River Man.
He did a presentation for a small group of us about some of his adventures, which include swimming the entire length of some of the longest rivers in the world (Danube, Mississippi, Yangtze and the Amazon)  He has swum in some very dirty waters to raise awareness of the water quality or the need for some more quality in these cases.  I feel I share some common interests with the man and was very excited to meet him.   

The Big River Man movie makes him come off as a bit crazy and eccentric but meeting him, he came across more 'normal' then I anticipated.  He said himself he is in a different mind set when he is doing his swims; and of course movie directors want to drive-up the interest in the movie, so just goes to show you don't believe everything you see in the movies, even documentary style ones...  Regardless, the movie is really good and even if you aren't a swimmer, I'd suggest it!  And then getting to meet him added another level to what you gain from the movie.

Just so you get more of an idea of Martin's accomplishments, his longest swim, the Amazon River is over 5000 kilometers and was 66 days of swimming (he does stop to sleep, he also wears a wetsuit due to dangers in the water (he showed us his piranha scar on his back))  His longest non-stop swim is 84 hours (how do you even stay awake that long?) when he swam 504k in Danube.  Incredible perseverance!

Mel & Martin Strel

A few of us (Rob, Miguel, Bud, Bill and I) even went out for drinks after with him.  He is a very personable guy.  Funny too.

Check out his site: http://www.strel-swimming.com/
He does swim camps/vacations which look nice too.

in the company of some great OW swimmers:
Miguel (Lake O), Madhu (EC), Me (Lake O),
Martin Strel (Amazon),
Rob (Manhattan Island), Bill (Ironman), Bud (10k champ)

what a family of fish does for family day weekend

What does a family of fish do for family day weekend?  Go to the indoor waterpark of course!
We had some great family fun in the water!  Dahlia even went down some big water slides.  And even when she was purple we still had to drag her away...
Some pictures from our fun family weekend:

my golden girl

Cadence was the golden girl at Western Regional (SC) Championships the other weekend (beginning of February).  Winning gold in 800, 400, 200  and 100 free!  The 800 free was an amazing start to the weekend.  She took the early lead and was holding a great and steady pace but 2 of the other girls started to hunt her down and did catch up before the end.  Cadence would swim faster but the other girls turned faster.  The last 50 Cadence came off the turn behind, but wasn't about to let the race slip away from her, she turned it on and did the final 50 faster then the 1st 50 and won by over 2 seconds.  All 3 girls made their provincial times!  It was so exciting to watch the race, my voice was killed!

The 100 and 200 were closer races where she managed to pull out the wins again.  

The 400 she dominated, winning by over 10 seconds.  She also swam the 50 free and got 4th, which was still a best time and great as she went in seated 8th.

The final race of the weekend was also very exciting, it was the 4 x 50 free relay, Cadence was the final leg and got the team up a couple spots into 2nd, the place was going wild for this race and I was too!

I love watching swimming!  and although it is somewhat stressful watching your kid race, I really shouldn't be, this golden girl of mine knows how to do it!


This is where it all started - Cadence in the tub!



Results:

1st - 800m Free 10:23.85 PB

1st - 200m Free 2:24.10 PB

4th - 50m Free 31.24 PB

1st - 100m Free 1:06.40 PB

1st - 400m Free 5:02.08 PB 

Good start to the New Year

I can't believe January 2012 has come and gone.  It was a great month, I took it for what it was, the beginning of a new year!