The Swim
....the cannon went off. It was actually very anti-climatic in the water when we all started. I didn't really hear the cannon from where I was in the water. My only clue that the swim had started was that everyone started moving forward.
I was remarkably calm at the start. The first 20 strokes were without incident - no kicking, bumping, flailing arms, NOTHING! I thought I had positioned myself well and just might have a clean swim. That dream was very short-lived. Within a minute, all the swimmers converged and it was chaos. There were bodies everywhere - arms, feet, legs, it was pure chaos. But, it was manageable chaos. As long as I didn't stop, I was fine. If I stopped, I was certainly going to get trampled. The only thing to do was to move forward and keep on swimming.
The lake was very calm, so despite all the splashing of the athletes I never had a problem breathing or swallowed too much water. The first lap flew by. It took all my energy just to focus on moving forward and trying to find a clean lane to swim in. Every corner was congested and we practically stopped moving. I found I was surrounded by mostly men and they were brutal. Several times I had someone try to pull me backwards and swim over me or I had someone kick violently when I accidentally touched their feet. At the end of the first loop I got punched in the nose. Ouch! I popped my head up with the intent to fire back, but really, I don't know who did and it wasn't intentional. So head down and move on to lap 2.
The second lap flew by. I weaved a bit. Sometimes I was on the buoy line, sometimes outside it, sometimes inside it...the whirlpool effect that I heard about definitely held true. I thought the second loop would be smoother and it sort of was, but there was still quite a bit of contact around the corners and closer to the buoy line. Before I knew it, I was headed towards shore. Just a few more minutes and the swim was done. I got up to the swim exit and looked at my watch. It read 00:00:00. I must not have pressed the start button hard enough. So, I looked up at the clock - 1:11:36. I was ecstatic to see that time! I thought for sure the swim took longer than that and didn't really think I was capable of hitting 1:11 considering all the congestion on the swim.
I ran over to the wet suit peelers, stripped off the top half and let the volunteers rip off my suit. In just moments, it was off and I was headed up the helix. It was exciting! I saw so many friends and family - Darla, Aggie, Jerry, Kate, Ryan, Jim, Ellen, Dad, Mom, Aunt Lisa...I will say though, running up the helix hurt! When I finally got into transition, my calves were so sore. I thought they were going to cramp up!
I ran in to grab my gear bag and headed for the change room. Each athlete has a personal attendant. My attendant was great. She helped me get all my gear out, got me water, put sunscreen on me and packed my swim gear up. The volunteers were fabulous! We could not have survived the day without them!
I ran out to the bike transition area and immediately saw Angie cheering loud and proud! What a rush! I had to run down quite aways to get my bike. When I finally got to my rack, the volunteers didn't have my bike out, but I grabbed it and continued toward the mount line. When I got there, Rachel and Jordan were there cheering loudly! How cool was this?! I was doing Ironman and many of the people that I know and care about were out there cheering loudly!
I tried to get clipped in and my cleats were slipping a bit. I finally got clipped in and started my descent down the helix...
Up Next: The Bike
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