Alumni and SERC Tri!

Hey all-

I know it's been awhile, but last weekend I was away at Grinnell College Swimming and Diving Alumni weekend! It was great to see all my buddies and meet some of the new team as well.

Charles Benson Bear called me up because he missed all of us!

The Randall Relays went swimmingly, complete with some silly relays and dives. Fellow alum Cy Mistry '11 held down the fort for Alums everywhere, narrowly touching out a current team-member in a 50 breaststroke swim-off. Grace Gallagher '14 wowed us all with her amazing no google-no cap leg of an 8x25 relay. I also heard that Erin Hurley learned how to make it rain. 

I came home with a sweet sweater!

The highlight of the evening was winning the sweater pictured above, during the auction. There were tons of great items, including a pillow stuffed with hair collected from the men's locker room shower drains (icky). 

Getting fancy with my prospie spawn Maddy Pesch '16 for the alumni dinner and auction. 

Our prospie family! Emily Twedell '15 (to my immediate left) was my first prospie ever!!

View of Main Hall (my first-yr dorm) from the Fairgrounds

Grace, Sara, Sam, Kristina and I after a nice brunch at Choung Garden (haha). 

After the conclusion of alumni weekend, I headed back up to Chicago with some friends to catch my flight back home. We had a nice drive, but were sure to stop by Ben's house in IA city to say hello.

The following weekend...On October 25th, I had the opportunity to represent for the South End Rowing Club and compete in the annual SE vs Dolphin Club Triathlon.

As you can see, the Dolphin Club and South End (right) are very close to eachother. 

This competition is a hotly anticipated event during the year, and each club tries to bring out as many members as possible.

Advertisement for the big day!

I was a little nervous because I had never done that exact swim and I was hoping to place in the top 20 (in order to get more points)

 The swim from Coughlin Beach to the Club is a little technical, because you want to be able to grab the current to push you faster, but you also want angle into the shore at the appropriate time so that you are not having to fight the tide on your finish (which will slow ya down).  The tricker part of the swim sighting-wise is from Fort Mason to the opening of Aquatic Park, but luckily I have done that route many times, so it wasn't too difficult.

We had a beach start, which can be intimidating for a number of reasons, but on our start the surf was dumping right on the beach and jostling the support boats around. After breaking past the surf it was a battle to find your space in the crowd. I like to break away as quickly as possible, and might have gone out a little further than necessary, but I like to have as much open water to myself! I think my line was pretty good and was able to stroll past a few DC girls on my way to the finish line. I managed to nag 16th place, which I was pretty happy about. I am not sure how long it took me, but I was racing hard from start to finish.

In the end, it turned out that we lost the plaque this year...:( so there were a multitude of feelings, but I was most happy about being able to participate. It was really great to find myself back in the midst of a spirited, dedicated, supportive team (especially after my weekend of visiting with past teammates). I am so excited to see what the next year brings with my time at SERC.

I am going to leave you with a mental health fact from Mental Heath. gov to keep in mind for this week....

Myth: Mental health problems don't affect me.

Fact: Mental health problems are actually very common. In 2011, about:

• One in five American adults experienced a mental health issue
• One in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression
• One in 20 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It accounts for the loss of more than 38,000 American lives each year, more than double the number of lives lost to homicide. 

Have a great week! More soon...

Also, right before our jump time I met a guy who had been bitten by a seal. He showed me his scars. It was freaky. Im still not sure if he was just trying psych me out, either way, it didnt work. 

National Day Without Stigma

Happy National Day Without Stigma!

NDWS was actually celebrated on Monday (Oct 6), but we should strive to include these practices in our everyday lives! So I am going to give a quick summary about what NDWS is all about...Active Minds is the organization that sponsors the outreach. This organization was started to help change the way that mental health is talked about on campus in order to reduce stigma about mental health.  They have various chapters in colleges around the US,  including at Grinnell. Here are some tips  from their website on how to Fight Stigma Today!

1. Watch your language: Phrases such as "that's so crazy!" or "he's crazy" attach folks with mental health disorders to all things unbelievable, ridiculous, negative and sometimes dangerous. Remember that a person is not defined by their mental health disorder, so always put that person first. Instead of saying "Suzy is bipolar" try to reframe your language by stating "Suzy has bipolar disorder".

Shameless shark!

2. Show your support by posting/tweeting/blogging/writing (whatever works for you really!) positive and encouraging messages about mental health.

3. Reach out! Are you or someone you know struggling with a mental health disorder? Point your friend (or yourself) towards the nearest local provider by either calling 1-800-273-TALK or doing a quick google search.


I think these three points are useful to keep in mind when working towards shifting our discourse about mental health awareness. I definitely have to be honest here and say that I am constantly working towards staying true to the first point (being aware of the type of language that I am using). I am guilty of calling events/people "crazy", even when talking about myself. I want to work to be more intentional about how I speak about situations that are ridiculous or out of control. As a rule of thumb I trying to remember to speak to myself the way that I would speak to best friend...positive self talk team!! Again, I encourage you to check out the Active Minds webpage to learn more.

As a friendly reminder, in addition to raising money to help me pay for training/other costs associated with me swimming the channel, I am raising money for the National Alliance on Mental Illnes-SF. One of my other goals is to help bring positive awareness about Mental Health Disorders, so look out for posts that aren't just swimming themed. Thank you so much for all the support so far!!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile back in Delia's Swimming World~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Wednesday, October 1st, I started the new month out right by attending my first ever sunriser swim at the SERC. It is such a great privilege to be a member of a club that is full of other people that love doing what you do! I met some other great swimmers, a special shout-out to Jane, who found me bewildered in the women's locker room at 6 am and introduced me to Fran and Amy.  Amy and I did a roundtrip gas-house swim (which is the third pier at Fort Mason). I have since been back one other time. I need to get lighter googles and dig out my lights so that I will stay safe while swimming in the wee hours of the morning. Strangely enough, the water has been feeling warmer when I have been swimming in the morning.

On October 4th, I participated in Bob Roper's Annual GG Bridge Swim. It was a quick 43mins and 03 seconds from Fort Point to Horseshoe Cove Boat Dock. We had to time it just right between the arrival of two large tankers, which provided a little early morning suspense.

Bob briefing us on the details of the swim. 

Once we had a good window we were ushered off the boat and swam over to Fort Point. The tide was so high at that point that there was just a sliver of sand as "the beach". Looking up towards the bridge was a  humbling experience. Its looming presence was a great reminder of how important it is to have respect for those things that are so much bigger than you (like the ocean..). A horn started us off and away we went. The first 10-15 mins were straight through a potato patch (cool-kid slang for really choppy water), but everything calmed down after that. It was great to look up at the bridge when taking a breath. I wasn't quite sure where we were landing...so I just kind of made it up as I went, but still was able to come in as the first female finisher (of course Bob said it wasn't a race, but he was still glad that "i kicked people's assess". I learned that he isn't afraid to curse in front of me haha!).

A detail of the amazing diagram of the swim course that Bob illustrated. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any actual pictures from the boat ride out to the boat, but, as always, it was magical. There are many things that are different about this Channel Attempt, but perhaps the key difference is my membership status. Now that I am a SERC member I have already been on so many more cool swims than I had last time around!