I Heart Swimming & First Blog Raffle!

Ok, so maybe the title of this post isn't entirely true, however, sometimes swimming does have it's merits.  Thinking about the first time in my life that I truly enjoyed swimming takes me back to good old summer swim team.  Even though I had to get up early and ride my bike to practice at Parkway Pool and the water was usually cold, the memories of being on The Countryside Waves are by and large good ones.  Getting to hang out with friends, eating tons of junk food at swim meets (Skittles, Charleston chews, & donuts made up the bulk of my meet food), playing water polo on days after winning meets, oh, and winning the division year after year, made for hours of fun times.  I didn't swim year-round so was never the fastest swimmer, but always swam in the Saturday meets, albeit hardly ever in lane 3 or 4.  I swam all four strokes and occasionally the IM, but my best event was probably the 50 free.  I made it to Divisionals each year and participated because it was fun and I enjoyed the element of team camaraderie.  Yeah, summer swim team was the bomb and it's funny because, even though we did it, I can hardly remember doing any actual swimming. 


Waiting at Clerk of Course - Mid 1990's

The second enjoyable swimming experience for me was in high school, as a member of the Potomac Falls High School swim team.  Go Panthers!  This wasn't quite as much fun as The Waves because getting up before school to go to practice and having to shower, change, and get ready for school at the pool was kind of a pain.  But, the meets were still a blast because the whole team would ride the bus together to go to them and it was like one big hang out/party!  The events that I swam in these meets were more painful because the distances were longer than 50m.  I remember wanting to cry when the coach made me swim the 100 fly and the 200 IM in a meet, haha.  Overall though, I don't remember the swimming as much as the good times with friends and eating pizza on the bus rides home. 

First year on the Countryside Waves - 1992 - Me & Justin

Since then, I have never enjoyed swimming as much as I did when I was younger and I realize now that this probably has to do with the fact that I've been swimming alone in my older years.  Until now.  I'm really enjoying being a part of  Compass Elite's PACE master's team!  It's not the getting up early, the cold pool, or the killer workouts that I like; it's the people!  Everyone there is always in such a good mood and joking around.  It makes it a lot easier to get motivated to go to practice thinking about hanging out with these fun people, rather than thinking about being tired or how cold the water is going to be!  I haven't done a meet yet but I bet it would be fun times.  There's one coming up on Sunday that I was contemplating signing up for, but in the end a 6 hr bike ride won out. 

Team Shot - 1992

OK, so moving on to the raffle part of this blog :)  I've never done a blog raffle before but thought it would be a fun way to get the word out about one of my awesome sponsors, SBRSports.  SBRSports makes anti-chlorine shampoo, conditioner, body wash, & lotion, as well as anti-fog towelettes for goggles & sunglasses, and an anti-chaffing skin lubricant.  I passed out a bunch of samples of these products to my master's team and they LOVED them!  So I figured this would be a good way to give someone else a chance to try these products by winning a prize pack containing one of each of them.  First I'm going to describe each of the products and then tell you how to enter.

TriSwim Shampoo is an anti-chlorine shampoo that contains sequestering agents that attach to the chlorine molecules and wash them out of your hair.  It also removes the green tint that people with blonde hair sometimes get.  Another thing I have to mention about all TriSwim products is that they smell amazing!  I'd say the scent is similar to that of freshly cut grapefruit if I had to describe it.


What my hair looks like when I take off my
 swim cap now ;)

TriSwim Conditioner is an anti-chlorine conditioner.  It adds moisture to the hair and leaves it soft, shiny, and healthy, - see?

TriSwim Body Wash does the same thing for your skin that the shampoo does for your hair.  It removes the chlorine molecules and gently cleanses the skin.

TriSwim Body Lotion hydrates your skin, suppresses that chlorine odor, and also heals/soothes sunburned skin.  I can say from experience that it leaves your skin feeling soft and smelling delicious!

Foggle is an anti-fog/cleaning towelette that kills bacteria buildup on google or sunglasses lenses.  It does double duty by cleaning and de-fogging at the same time.  One towelette will give you up to 8 applications!

TriSlide is perhaps my favorite SBR Sports product!  TriSlide is an anti-chaffing continuous spray skin lubricant with soooo many uses.  I use TriSlide to prevent chafing around my neck when I wear a wetsuit.  I also spray TriSlide on the legs and arms of the outside of the wetsuit so that it comes off lightening fast in transition.  I have heard of some people using spray vegetable oils to get this effect, but over time those vegetable oils eat away at and damage the wetsuit.  TriSlide is made specifically for the wetsuit and will not cause any damage to it; it simply comes off with soap & water.  Another great use for TriSlide is to prevent chaffing of sensitive areas on the bike - super easy to apply too, just spray and you are good to go.  I love the fact that TriSlide is a spray, rather than a stick, because it is so much more hygienic.  You can share a can of TriSlide with people without having to put something directly on your body that has just been on somebody else's body.  Another thing I use TriSlide for is running.  You can spray your entire foot to prevent blistering; great if you are going to run without socks in a tri.  I also spray the stuff on areas where my heartrate monitor or sports bra sometimes rubs and causes chaffing.  I'm not kidding when I say that I love this product and pretty much use it on a daily basis!  It's also water proof, which means sweat proof.  And it's environmentally friendly.  One word of warning though - this stuff is so slippery that you need to be careful where you spray it - i.e. do not spray it on a tiled bathroom floor or you will likely bite it next time you go in there.  The slickness of TriSlide is similar to that scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where he rides the saucer sled down the hill!  I'd suggest placing a towel down first, or spraying it over a carpeted surface instead.  So, in a nutshell, TriSlide is by far the best anti-chaffing skin lubricant out there!  Company disclaimer:  external use only.

OK, so how can you win this awesome prize pack? 

You can get up to 10 entries into the raffle.  Each of the following earns you 1 entry:

1.  "Like" Revolution3 Triathlon on Facebook
2.  Follow me on twitter:  @taramartine
3.  Follow my new sports nutrition consulting company on twitter:  @W1Nutrition
4.  Follow me publicly on this blog. (Click "Join this site" under the "Followers" section of my blog, right below the "Blog Archive" section.)
5.  Post your favorite Chuck Norris joke in the comments section of this blog.

If you sign up for Rev3 Knoxville, you earn 5 entries. 

To complete your entry, post a comment stating which of the above that you did, give your first name + last initial, and what state you live in.  If you already "like" Rev3 on Facebook, are following me on twitter or blog, or are signed up for Knoxville, I'll still give you entries for it as long as you post the comment stating which ones you are doing.  One week from today I will put all the names into a hat and draw a winner to receive the awesome SBR Sports prize pack.  I will also award the best Chuck Norris joke with a box of the new PowerBar Performance Energy Blends made from real fruit!  I'll announce these winners in a blog and on twitter on Saturday, March 9th. 

Good luck and in the meantime, happy swimming to all and to all happy swimming!

Kurt crushing the 50 fly at Divisionals circa the late 1990's