Open Water Swim

Today the team did an open water swim. It was in the bay. All I could think about beforehand was every time PJ goes swimming in the bay, its followed by a vet bill for antibiotics.

I rented a triathlon wetsuit from Sports Basement. Waiting for the rental, the girl in front of me was another TnT teammate. I hadn't really talked to her since one of the first runs. She was complaining about trying on the wetsuit. I knew exactly what she meant because every suit I've had to put on for diving was a challenge.

When it was my turn I got sized for a suit and went to try it on. This suit fit me like a glove, not too tight, easy to get on and off. That was the easiest wetsuit I've ever put on. It was also probably the thinnest, my dive suit takes about 25-30 lbs to get my head under the water.

I met the team at Redwood Shores. We all put on our suits. The instructors gave a little how-to but again, my suit was super easy to get on. I started to wonder if something was wrong with my suit, but it felt perfect.

We jumped into the water. YIKES ITS COLD!

This water was gross. It is the bay, kinda. It looked to me like a big canal. We did a warmup swim across the canal/lake/bay, whatever, to the instructor in the kayak and back. The instructors gave us some tips like "you should put your head in the water." Gross!

I did it. I had my goggles on but you definitely couldn't see anything in this water. It was just green with some yellow wash from the swimmer ahead of you. I decided to not think about it and just try and swim the triangle. The goal was to keep form and learn to spot your markers. I liked having swimmers on the side of me. I had to breath every stroke and always on my left side because that is where I'm most comfortable. Argh, I swallowed some water. GROSS!!

I made it back to the dock but I swallowed some more of that water. I would get it in my mouth, try and cough and end up swallowing it. This was not going very well. The coaches told us to swim the loop again, they were busy with rescues. Some people had to be rescued, nothing serious just some freak-outs.

I kicked off again. I know we aren't going to have wetsuits in Hawaii and this worried me a little. The suit was really helping me float. I noticed I was not kicking a few times but still keeping up with the swimmer to my left, maybe I need to the flotation help.

We got out and had to quickly change and then take off on a run. We ran around the office park, through Redwood Shores neighborhood and then back to the dock. Elisabeth passed me and she was really running great. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks but she was definitely a new person. Before I could out run her, which is a little sad, but now she was kicking butt. I was really impressed and even more committed that I had to continue to run even by myself.

After the first loop I was glad to be done, then disappointed when I found out I wasn't. I was committed to not stopping. I really want to finish this triathlon successfully and have to push myself just a little further. We passed some geese on the run, which means we had to try and avoid the geese poop. I noticed it was green and the same color as the water. That was a really unpleasant thought. I finished strong.

Everyone was going to "Hang with the Gang" but just the thought of eating before a shower was too much for me. Besides, I love Saturday mornings with the kids and it was only 10:30. I went straight home.