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.