The Swim: 1.32.06
At the beginning of this journey to Ironman, I thought the swim would be the toughest discipline. I have this ridiculous fear of open water. The deep, dark, depths of murky water . Who knows what is underneath? And it turns out that it really is the deep, dark, depths that freak me out. Give me clear blue water where you can see through the water and what is going on underneath and I’m better.
I was a bit of a mess at the beginning of the swim. Emotions had run high on the walk to the start line. The tears were flowing freely and I was scared beyond belief. The enormity of the day, rules & regulations and the cutoff’s had finally hit home and I was buckling. This day’s outcome depended solely on me. No matter how much the people around me believed, it came down to how much I believed in me. It was a tough moment.
Based on advice and other peoples experiences of the washing machine affect of the mass start, I made the decision to be one of the last people in the water and chose my position on the beach based on the direction of the current. One good & one bad decision. The cannon went off and people dashed into the water. I took one last look around, thought ‘it’s now or never’ and meandered into the water. I ducked into the water a couple of times and moved some water between me and the wetsuit. Gave the goggles one final ‘spit & clean’ and realized I couldn’t put it off any longer....
I started swimming and within seconds was bumping into someone. Stop, tread, look for open water, point in that direction and stroke...breathe, stroke...bang another body. Seriously? Stop, tread, look for open water, point in that direction and stroke...breathe, stroke...bang. Stop, tread, actually took a moment to look around and was startled by the number of ‘deer caught in headlights’ or ‘sheer panic’ looks that people were wearing. It turns out, I’m a strong swimmer. I was passing all the folks who surged in at the beginning and were now dealing with their own demons, whatever they might have been. I probably lost about 6 minutes trying to deek around bodies to find a sweet spot of open water. I finally caught up with a gentleman who was swimming at a decent pace. I hung onto to his feet for dear life (not literally, that wouldn’t have been nice!). By doing so, I reaped the benefits of catching a nice draft, him clearing the way and finally being able to get some decent strokes in. Unfortunately, he only lasted about 10 minutes before made a beeline to a buoy to catch his breath. I kept going. I had open water for a bit, and then caught up to another pack of swimmers, banged my way through by breathing every one stroke (not the most efficient but a necessity), back to open water and managing to stretch out the stokes and breathing. It was weird how there were pockets; open spaces and bodies. It was finally time to turn around and start heading back. But there was a 100 feet of water that separated the two lanes. I remember thinking many times during the swim that it was one big cluster fuck. BUT this 100 feet was the biggest cluster fuck off all. We were reduced to treading water and pushing through. It was insane. The swell of the waves and the glare of the sun were both directly in your face. The smell of diesel from the boats and sea doo’s was so intense. Yah. Not much fun. But finally, we were turning to head back to shore. Relief! And really? The rest of the 1st lap of the swim was exactly like the first portion. Open water, long strokes and breathing, hit a pack of swimmers.
At shore, we had to exit the water, walk over a timing mat and re-enter the water for a second lap. Yeaaaaah. Let’s do that all over again. . The only problem was that when you leave the water, the wetsuit drains and is dragged down. About halfway through the swim out, I knew I was in trouble. The neck line of the suit was rubbing at my hairline and I could feel the chafing as I swam. Due to an increased volume of rescue boats pulling swimmers out of the water, the swell of the waves had increased dramatically on this leg and made treading water and adjusting the suit extremely difficult. I made the decision to not spend anymore time re-arranging and get the swim over with as quickly as possible. I’d deal with the repercussions of the chaffing issue later....
1.32.06 minutes in later, I exited the water and headed to transition...
