I can't believe that the time has come for me to get ready to board the plane on another swimming adventure.  I'm 3 days away from hauling loads of gear to another country and hoping that the TSA agents don't wonder about all the carbo fuel, vitamins and other food items that I take with me.  Thankfully I don't think that I have to take my boat hook extender or my feeding basket, which I think cause the most questions from the security agents. 

These next few days will be spent finishing packing, rechecking packing, rechecking packing and did I say rechecking packing?  I think that this is when I become a little OCD.  I'm always afraid that I'll forget that one item that is important to my swim that of course I wouln't be able to find anywhere else.  Usually this doesn't happen as I'm not swimming in the middle of nowhere, but it seems to be my main concern.  Then after rechecking all my items I have to figure out how to get it to fit in the least amount of bags, but with the ability for me to still be able to lift them.  My goal this time is to pack in one large suitcase and perhaps 2 carry-ons.  I'll keep you posted on how it is all going.

Also I'm in research mode of twitter to see how this may work for people to get updates while the swim is going on.

I have a superstition.  It started before my first English Channel swim.  I can't exactly remember how it started, but it did and I actually have a lot of fun with it.  It is getting close for me to choose my fun toe nail polish.  I have a few options coming into play.  Two colors that I'm considering are "Summer Sea" and "Berry Fast", but I will check the store to see if there is another contender.  Now my superstition doesn't run along the lines of the the color of the nail polish.  It has to do with the name of the nail polish.  Granted this causes some very crazy looks when I'm at the nail salon as I pick up every single color, quickly turn it over and hope that the name speaks to me and what I have coming up in my swim.  Picking a color has taken upwards of 15 minutes and the pedicurists are stumped as to help me pick a color. 

So the next week, I'll be contemplating the toe color as that is a fun and crucial part of my swim.  If you happen to have any great ideas on nail polish colors for any of my upcoming seasons swims, please pass them along.

Two weeks to go and Cook Strait is right around the corner.  In fact I think it is a Ferrari that is trying to break the land speed record.  I can’t believe that there are only two weeks before I’m on a plane to New Zealand.  While I sit here shaking my head dumbfounded wondering where the time went, I realize that I’m ready for the next swimming adventure and the start of my 2010 swim season.

This adventure will be a little different.  Perhaps you remember me talking about Steve “Mr. C” Junk from the Lake Taupo Relay challenge.  Over the past year, he has become a great swimming friend.  Our relationship is based on a shared love of sarcasm, quick wit (mostly his) and water.  He has always wanted to swim Cook Strait, so we thought why don’t we take the opportunity to swim it together.  Now some believe that this would be considered an assisted swim, but I don’t believe that is the case.  Steve and I will be swimming in the same body of water at the same time, but we have to cut our own water and we will each experience our own challenges.  What will help is having someone there to wait tensely for the weather to cooperate and then to have a great celebration at the end of the swim. 

In addition to having Steve there in New Zealand, two of my most dear friends are coming down as well.  I know that they will be there to either see us off at the start of the swim or they will be there at the finish.  Either way it will be great to have friendly faces from Oregon there cheering us on.

Now for the facts of the swim:

Cook Strait is considered the English Channel of New Zealand or maybe the English Channel is the Cook Strait of England.  Either way it is another channel to swim with it’s own challenges.  It is 16 nautical miles, which equates to about 18.5 miles.  The wind and currents are supposed to be highly unpredictable, and the water temp can range from 12 – 17 degrees within a few hours as Steve likes to point out.  I get the impression that Steve likes to check the water temp, I prefer the blissful ignorance until I get there.  As for marine life, there are jellyfish, which I had a great introduction to while swimming in Monterey Bay.  Then there are the big fish with the big teeth.  One is 6 swims sees one of these fish.  I’m hoping to be one of the other 5.  Then if we happen to be one of the lucky swims, I hope that they are more interested in Steve as I think he could totally take the big fish.  On the Cook Strait website there is the helpful FAQ page.  I think my favorite question and answer is as follows: “What is the most difficult part of the swim?”  Answer: “Getting across Cook Strait and finishing”  Yep well that would be difficult.  Thus far only 74 swims by 64 swimmers from 8 countries have made the crossing successfully.  I would say that these numbers do point to the fact that “getting across and finishing” is very challenging. 

I’m not exactly sure if or how I will post updates of the swim, if the weather cooperates, as my usual crew will not be joining me on this trip.  They have some of their own amazing adventures planned this year and you can bet I’ll be cheering them on as they have helped me.  However, IF I find a way to update this site or twitter or some other technology that I’ll have to learn, I’ll definitely keep everyone posted.

Now I suppose I should get down to the business of PACKING! Yikes.   

Three years ago I would have never imagined that I'd be using my swimming to raise money for breast cancer research.  Then of course in my typical type A personality trait, I had to set myself a fundraising goal.  I first considered $10,000.  I thought it sounded like a good round number and one that was definitely in reach.  However, part of setting goals is to push yourself beyond what you think your limit may be.  $10,000 was a nice goal, but I don't think it really pushed me outside my comfort goal.  What number really seemed audacious, one that I wasn't sure that I could reach…$50,000.  Yes, that seemed way out there for me. 

After I set this number, I started talking with my parents about it.  Did they think I could do it?  They thought it was a tough challenge and they really wanted me to think about whether I could really focus on fundraising, swimming, work and friends.  I thought about it and mainly I thought well this will be a challenge and isn't this is what it is about.  Besides this was for a really good cause and my mom had just been diagnosed.  My grandmother had passed away from the disease.  My aunt had successfully fought the disease and I spent a year as a lab technician doing breast cancer research.  I knew countless of other strong women, families and friends that had been touched by this disease.  Yep, this is what I wanted.  And I wanted to partner with the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota.  This was where I worked as a lab technician doing breast cancer research.  I knew first hand the care they provided their patients and the tenacity that they had to find a cure.  Plus, they had another patient that was dear to me, my mother. 

Then became the challenge of actually fundraising.  I thought about a swim-a-thon, but that seemed out of my reach for now.  I began to focus on the fact that maybe people would donate to breast cancer research if I continued my swimming goals.  My mom thought this was a good idea, so we started planning.  Let's start with a letter to all the people we know.  Thus the 1st annual Macyswim was born.  That first year together with the help of so many generous people, we raised $5000.  Hmm, a good amount and I started to realize that it may take me 10 years to reach the $50,000 goal, but 10 years of swimming didn't seem so bad to me.

The 2nd annual Macyswim included my goal of the triple English Channel attempt.  Now the 2nd annual Macyswim for a Cure didn't quite go as planned, as you've read in previous posts.  However, the fundraising took a major move forward.  At the end of the swim year, we had raised the total to $20,000. 

When I began to think about the 3rd annual Macyswim for a Cure, I thought that maybe just maybe this was too much for me to take on.  Maybe my goal was too high.  Besides I was trying to figure out how to fundraise without the help of my mom.  My dad assured me that if I wanted to take a break from fundraising that everyone would still support me.  Heck raising $20k pretty much alone was an amazing thing and I should be proud of that and that my mom would be proud of it too.  But I had set a goal, I had to sit down and see if I was ready to put it on hold and focus more internally.  Ultimately I thought about my aunts, my mom's sisters, they don't get to take a break and decide whether they wanted to fight cancer.  There wasn't an option for me and they had the courage to continue on.  If they can do it, then so can I.  I started with the 3rd annual Macyswim for a Cure letter.  Again I've sent it out to all the people my family, my mom, friends.  Pretty much any one that I had a snail mail address.  Now rather than my mom helping me write the letter, stuff envelopes, and all the fundraising help.  I enlisted the help of my father.  He spent a whole Sunday stuffing envelopes.  He didn't even watch one football game.  YEA DAD!

Thank you to all that have donated so far.  And I've found that people have been doing some amazing things for me in the process.  First there are the monetary donations, which in these economic times mean so much to me.  Even the small $5 donations are helping move us closer to the $50k mark.  Secondly, people have become so creative.  I've received wonderful motivational messages returned to me in the envelope provided.  These notes help me to realize that I did make the right decision to continue fundraising.  And lastly, I had a friend who received my letter and she showed up at my house with a cooler food of homemade single serving meals.  She knew that my mother constantly traveled to Portland to spend a weekend cooking and ensuring that I had good nutrition to help achieve my goals.  My friend stuffed my freezer.  And I have to say that her chicken pot pie is delicious.  God I love butter! 

If you didn't receive a letter don't worry, you can still donate.  Just visit my donation page and it is all set up for you.  I intend to continue swimming until $50k is raised, so we are in this together and we are almost halfway to our goal.