What I think about on a long swim - part 1

Everyone always asks what I think about on a big swim. It really depends on the swim. That's part of why I like to do different swims, for the variety. On my Lake Ontario swims, I spent a lot of time thinking that I couldn't complain about how much I hurt because I wanted the legendary Cliff Lumsdon, who was in charge of my swims, to be proud of me. On the Lake Simcoe swim, at first, I thought about how frigid (54 deg F) the water was. When it finally warmed up, I thought about how grateful I was to all the members of my crew for volunteering to help me. When the going got tough, I told myself that I couldn't quit, because I had to inspire all the people I know who are facing big challenges in their lives. On the English Channel swim, I spent the first 3 or 4 hours in the dark thinking about how cold I was and how much I wanted to quit but it had been so much trouble and expense and such a huge sacrifice for my crew. I spent the rest of the swim thinking about whether I would finish before I got too cold. The Catalina channel was a beautiful deep blue and relatively warm and I enjoyed most of the crossing. Manhattan was a whole other story. There wasn't time to daydream because I had to stay on my toes to negotiate all the currents, plus I had time deadlines to worry about. On the Three Provinces swim, I thought about my wonderful crew, how great it was to be doing a Canadian swim again, how grey the sky was and when my mind wandered, the jelly fish stings brought me back to reality.

17 more workouts before we leave for New Zealand...