“the swim”

Message posted by: Linda H.

I have been meaning to right a RR for quite some time know…

Before I get to t1..

Training was awesome being able to train with my husband was priceless. I still can’t believe we’re married with all the bitchin’ I did on those long rides… my ass hurts, I m hungry, can we get a beer somewhere? Lol babe Anyways, I never had a problem mentally with completing the distance. I knew I could do it. The problem was the water.. It terrified me. For my first open-water swim I did a lake swim. Freaked out but got in the water. For the iron distance it was in the ocean!!! Made the lake laughable….Anyways I didn’t think about the swim until a couple of weeks before the race. This is where I started freaking out. Having terrible nightmares about getting eaten. How seals were swimming next to me and then a shark came and gobbled me up. I seemed to be able to calm myself down once I stopped going on the internet and reading about deadly sharks and telling myself the chances of that happening to me is highly unlikely. Even though I could calm myself, it onl
y took one thought of Jaws and I would start to freak out again. My husband even tried to help calm me down by contacting the race director to find out if there would be divers in the water. There would be a lot…figured they’d get eaten first.

The night before I actually slept pretty good. I never sleep before a race. Actually my first post on ontri was a question about sleeping the night before.. We woke up around 4.00 a.m, packed the car and had a bagel and protein drink for breakfast. Then we were off. The race was in Plymouth Mass where we are from so getting there was not a problem… We arrived way too early for my liking. I started freaking out. Not trying to show this too my husband who has had to listen to me for the past 2 weeks about the sharks. I just wanted him to have a great day without worrying about me.. We soon got talking to others and I started to calm my nerves. Before we knew it, it was time to get on the bus. We arrived at the start and went to jump in for a practice swim… this is when they told us we could not go in for a practice swim. So we lined up for the start. The pro’s and Aqua bike went off and then it was time for us to line up. We got down to the dock. My husband jumped in i
mmediately. I stood there and froze with my eyes filling up. I then began to tell my husband I couldn’t do it. He kept yelling put your goggles on and get in we only had a couple of minutes to swim to the start buoy!! I began crying and he just kept telling me to get it. I still can’t believe I jumped in. We started swimming to the buoy (doggie paddle) I was crying and telling my husband I was freaking out. We somehow made it to the start line where I started hyperventilating. A nice man told me to stay in the back and everything would be ok. The words didn’t come out of my mouth but I was like are you f—– kidding me there are sharks in here !!!. Hello…. Then bang gun went off and we started swimming. The guy that told me it would be o.k. I could tell he stayed with me for awhile to make sure I was o.k. My husband says he stayed with me too. I tell him he is full of sh–. He was 3rd out of the water.. Just kidding honey very proud.. Well I was off swimming and w
e were protected by the jetty for a while and actually felt quite safe. It was when you left the jetty to swim to the last turn around that things got scary. It was terrifying… the water was so choppy the waves were coming over you. I went on my back to try and calm down but the waves just made you feel like you were going to drown even more. I figured out to just swim head in the water freestyle and hope you’re on target to the buoy. To try and make a long story a little shorter… I finished the swim in 1 hr 22.min and was never so happy!! Maybe I can get a RR for the bike and run by next year.. Can’t wait to do another one!!! Definitely Lake Placid… That’s a lake right???

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