Sheila had an early meeting and so we met at the Albany Bulb for a 6:30 swim, which worked out well because it started raining this morning, and getting in early meant we were least likely to be swimming through runoff. But arriving at the parking lot in the dark with the rain splattering and the wind howling, we looked at each other like, why???

Still, we stripped our outer layers and ran across the beach in the rain like crazy people.

I thought the water might feel warm compared to the air, but no such luck. It was thrilling, though. The more unlikely the swimming conditions, the giddier I become at the prospect of getting in the water. 

We started out in the dark and swam as the sky slowly illuminated to a dull gray. The wind was wild and the waves were fun; bouncing us around like so much flotsam.

But the star of the show was the rain. I’ve been yearning to swim in the rain in the bay all year, but we haven’t had very much of it. Indeed, the persistence of this drought is more real (and worrying) to me than ever in this year of swimming; my daily recordings are a daily reminder of how little rain has fallen. The few times I’ve tried to catch the rain, I’ve just missed it (like this gorgeous swim with Colleen where the rain started as soon as we got in our cars; or this one with Arwen and Sheila where even our rain songs couldn’t summon the water from the heavy clouds). All told, I’ve only tagged eleven posts “rain” on my blog and a few of those were in Canada; the ones from here were mostly me hoping for rain. So it was pure joy to bob around in the bay while rain pelted my face.