The nose knows.

Ok, I'm waiting for my camera battery to charge so I can post photo evidence, but the incident in the pool today was real. Here's the story. Alix had us doing a set of descending 100's. We were doing them on the 1:25. This is a fairly fast pace and I was holding my gum in my lip for that minty freshness. After the turn at the 75, I was taking a gasping breath trying to catch Alix. Suddenly my gum flew out of my mouth, I did not swallow it, I had the sensation that I had sucked it up my nose. After I told my friends, and a lot of concern/hysterics, we decided to swim on. Nell wanted me to get her roomates "something pot" which sounded like some sort of nasal enema, and Alix just couldn't stop laughing. I spent the next hour aggressively exhaling and convincing myself that I couldn't really have gum up my nose. After all if there was indeed gum up my nose, how could I breathe? Or was it in my brain, or lung. Nothing seemed good except to assume I had swallowed it so quickly it just felt like it was in my nose. We finished the swim, Alix and I had coffee. I was a bit uncomfortable, but I could drink coffee and eat bagels so I must be ok. Several hours later, I'm on the couch with my popcorn when suddenly, a little choke.... and viola... out pops the gum! I did have gum up my nose and lived to tell the story. So I guess here's the lesson. If you think you have gum up your nose, you probably do, or gum and the pool don't mix.