My First Open Water Swim...

Sunday was a big day in the sport of triathlon.  There were events internationally and domestically with an Ironman competition in Switzerland and another in Lake Placid, New York.  The latter is a long term goal  for myself, in the sport, so I followed it from the time I woke up at 4:30 AM.  

Why on God's green earth would I wake up that early on a Sunday?  As the title of the post suggests, it was my first open water swim.  My alarm was set for 5 AM but my youngest had other plans...

Anywho, I wasn't too nervous for my first swim.  One could say I was comfortable with the idea.  With tweets like this going out at 5 in the morning, what triathlete wouldn't be excited to go out for a swim?

Starting the morning in transition at #IMLP pic.twitter.com/TXEPFE7fRa
— IRONMAN Triathlon (@IronmanTri) July 28, 2013

Before we get too far into Sunday I need to backtrack a bit to share how our Saturday run turned out.  Lack of a better word, it was great!  Ran a little over a half marathon and felt pretty good about it.  The weather was rainy and in the high 60s/low 70s.  Aside from a little sogginess, it was just about perfect.

Back to Sunday!

I made my way to Bryce's house to carpool to the site of the Portage Lakes Olympic tri in September.  The new Sunday morning swim team consisted of Bryce, James, Adam, and myself.  It was exactly a week from our triumphant North Canton Sprint Tri and excitement was on high.  Along with the excited feeling we were also a little cold.  Summer lasted a week in Ohio this year and it was back in the low 60s on swim morning.  Still looks nice in the pictures though:

Disclaimer: Conditions may be colder than they appear...

What you don't see in this pic are all the fishermen who were around that morning.  Some of them pretty close to the shore.  Walking down the hill to the water I could feel all of their bucket hat laden heads shifting their attention to us.  Almost as if it was like a scene in a movie where a group of people walk in a line in slow motion (usually out of a cloud of smoke, holding rifles).  Although I'm sure they weren't looking at us in awe.  If I were a betting man I'd say they were a bit upset that their calm fishing waters would be disrupted by a few swimming schlubs.

Bryce brought me a swim cap and Adam was gracious enough to offer me his extra wet-suit.  I'm a fan of training in race conditions so I opted out of the suit, thinking I wouldn't be using one on race day.  Once I got the cap suctioned on my head (and almost ripping off my eyebrows) we made our way into the lake.  The water was warmer than the out of water conditions.  It was nice.  The lake bottom felt like I was walking in mud which beats the alternative of walking on rocks.  

After receiving our briefing on the course from Adam I was off.  I'm not sure how much a swim cap helps but I felt like I was cutting through the water.  It was one of those days when you just feel good about your training.  With a little under two months till race-day this open water swimming stuff felt right.  For at least that first couple minutes...

This is when I made a mistake.  You can't see the ground through the mucky lake but I thought I was in relatively shallow water.  Curiosity took over and I stopped to stand.  (There are certain moments in life where you can feel drastic emotion changes.  This was one of them.)  I couldn't touch.  Excitement and effort turned into panic.  James asked if I was ok.  My initial response was "no" (which probably sounded like "blubublubNObublub").  After what felt like a couple days of struggle (less than 10 seconds) I started swimming towards shore.  A few seconds later I stood up.  

I'm about to give a hint to what I said when I stood up only because I'd like to stay transparent.  I'm not proud, or even excited, to share this but I was saying some stuff that would cause a bar of soap to go into my mouth if I had said it 20 years ago...  

After that brief moment I tried to swim a few more times but paranoia set in.  I'd swim a few strokes and I would stop to stand, with a mini panic attack happening prior to each abrupt stop in progress.  This went on for 15 to 20 minutes and I was done.  Tail between my legs, I walked back up to where we placed our equipment.  Panic turned into anger and I sat and sulked. 

Thanks to my friends for giving me a different perspective that snapped me out of my pity party.  It was simple really: I swam back to where I could stand.  January 1st I couldn't swim a few meters.  Today I have done 2 sprint tris and swim a couple thousand meters a week.  When I get panicked I need to remember that I can swim.  Not extremely fast or graceful, but I can swim.  I think I'm going to use that wet-suit though...

We'll be back out there on Sunday.  

Today I checked out the registration for the 2014 Lake Placid Ironman so I knew what info I'd need to register next year.(you need to sign up the day after the race if you hope to get a spot for the next year).  Pretty basic, aside from one spot:

Health insurance carrier and insurance policy number...

Gulp...