So Lily being the cocky daughter she is, she decided a few weeks earlier, that it would be fun to race another 3km Sunday, the day after. Not being one to back down from a challenge, we registered for the 3000m OW swim in Stenungsunds about a three hour drive from home.

I wake up at 0600, I am sore all over, slightly dehydrated and sort of hoping that Lily will wake up and say, can we just stay home.  But nope, she rolls about of bed at 0700, we have breakfast and head northwest.  It was a long quiet trip, Lily read her book and I tried to stretch my back and shoulders while driving.

We stop for burgers with about 45 minutes left to the race.  As we get the the lake, it starts to rain. We have to park about 500m from the starting area, but the long walk was just what I needed after driving so long.

We register, get our caps and shirts, and speak with the meet director about the layout and what is going on around the area.  We had just missed the kids 200m race, but were able to see the start of the 1000m race.

During that race, all the 3000m swimmers are getting on their wetsuits.  I am really sore now, and really not looking forward to having Lily beat me two days in a row.  So I decided to push it at the start and make a window between me and Lily.  With about 15 minutes left to the start, I walk over to the starting area, check-in and warm up a few 100m or so.  Nothing feels 100%, but the water temperature was perfect for me.

The start signal goes, and I rush off with the fist 3-5 swimmers.  the buoys are shaped like a diamond with about 350-400m between.  As we get to the first buoy I imagine that there are 2-3 people ahead of me, but because of the rain I can not see them.  around 550-600m I feel someone swimming on my feet, and start to think about all the times Pär touched me the day before on our 21km swim. The swimmer behind me stays behind me.  At the end of the first lap, I know I can not hold this pace, so I slow down slightly and focus on swimming well and as straight as I could.  During the 1500-1900m section I start to notice another swimmer off to my right.  At first I think it was the swimmer behind me, and thought crap I am swimming off course.  Then I get touched on the foot again, When I look up I feel I am swimming online.  From about 1900-2300m it became more and more obvious, this new swimmer was swimming straight and catching up to us.  as we rounded the farthest buoy with about 700m left he passed us.  I did my best to stay on his feet, but with 350-400m left I had to slow down.  the swimmer on my feet left to attempt to swim up to the next swimmer.  Turns out that I was in 3rd place through about 75-80% of the race,  and finished 5th with 43:44.  Lily swims in at 46:39 only 52s from 3rd place.

After the race, since it is still raining, we just quickly change into dry clothes, wait for the prize ceremony, cheer on the winners and then head back to the car knowing that we both did the best we could after racing so hard the day before.

The drive home was no fun.  we got stuck in traffic that caused us to be in the car nearly 90 minutes longer than on the drive up.  We get home in time for dinner, and both are extremely exhausted.