So I swam into a jellyfish....

After we both worked for awhile this morning, we came back home and had lunch - leftover steak sandwiches, yum. Then we went to Morningstar, where, you got it, I swam into a jellyfish. We had decided to swim 8 lengths of the beach (the hotel says it's between 1/4 and 1/2 of a mile, not super helpful in calculating our mileage, but before I asked them I'd guessed 1/3 mile, so I'm sticking with that.) On my 6th length, I was swimming freestyle and almost swam directly into a jellyfish. My fingertips poked it pretty hard, but, luckily, it didn't sting me. It caught me totally off guard - guess I don't watch where I'm swimming. I backed away from it pretty quickly and went towards the shore trying to make sure I hadn't gotten and wasn't going to get stung. Then I found Dave who was on his way back during his 7th length of the beach and told him to watch out. But since it was getting dark from ominous clouds and I'd heard someone say something about lightning, we decided it was just time to get out. So I think we swam about 2 miles each today. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, that way we can swim some more. I think one of the hardest parts about open water swimming is not getting scared about all the things that could be around. I'm hoping that for the race, I'll at least be near other swimmers for most of the time. The first two miles are what I am most nervous about because there is no land nearby. But there will be plenty of kayakers to keep an eye on us, so it should be okay!

Pictured above is a moon jelly. I think it might be what I saw. But I didn't stick around long enough to really find out. It just felt firm but gelatinous and was kind of shiny and somewhat see-through. I wouldn't mind if I don't see one again!