Team Goldfish Sunday Fundraising Update: Greater, Faster, Farther!

It's been a week of big milestones for Team Goldfish-in the water and outside of it.  I'm excited to share them with you!

Greater!  In the July 21 Team Goldfish Sunday Fundraising Update I announced that I was unofficially trying to double on my fundraising goal for the Swim Across America Baltimore Open Water Swim.  As you may remember, my initial goal was $1500, which Team Goldfish supporters helped me raise really quickly.  And with 43 days to go, we've already broken the $3000 goal and regained the fundraising lead for my category at the swim!  Thank you to the amazing members of Team Goldfish who made this possible!

If you haven't yet donated, don't worry, you can still support me and the important cancer research happening at Johns Hopkins Medical.  Unfortunately, I'm out of Team Goldfish swimcaps, but I do still have stickers for anyone who contributes!

Faster! Every month, I try and assess my progress by timing myself doing a 1000 or 1650 yard set.  Over the last couple of months, my times in the 1000 have plateaued as my focus had turned to building endurance and improving my form. 

But, as you well know from this blog, over the last month I've been training hard (between the pool, yoga, strength training and open water practice), and I finally feel like my mind and my body have internalized all the changes to my form that I've been working on all summer. 

On Saturday, I got up early, and committed to doing some significant swim: 4000 yards.  The bulk of this would be my main set where I set out to do 3x1000 with 2 minutes rest in between sets.  My hope was that I'd break my previous personal best 19:08 in the first set.  And I did.  Actually I smashed it, dropping 52 seconds off my personal best in the first set (18:16!) and swimming the other two 1000s in 18:30 and 18:38 respectively.  Saturday's swim was great validation of the work I've been putting in, and is keeping me motivated for September 22!

 
Farther! This week, I achieved the first major goal I set when I took up swimming last summer. After nearly 11 months, I completed my virtual swim from Sri Lanka to India.  Read all about it here!

My route from Sri Lanka to India!

Again, thank you to all the members of Team Goldfish for your support--both monetary and emotional.  This continues to be an amazing and exciting challenge, and I'm really honored to share it with all of you!