Let's talk for a minute about the courage. Any idea how much courage it takes to put a wetsuit on in front of your family & friends? I would say the courage it takes to do that is equal to, if not greater than, committing to do something like a triathlon, especially when the commitment is made public by a serious attempt to get friends and family to participate with generous donations.
I do feel, in a way, that this quest has been a journey of ours together. Something I have been able to share with my friends and family. Everyone has been so supportive, positive and helpful during this quest. I always knew I was capable of doing it, but never did I imagine that so many people would play roles in this story of my mid-life crisis management.
I knew I had support. I knew I was loved. But coming home from the Triathlon Sunday afternoon finding message after message asking for updates shocked me. Never did I anticipate such a huge group of supporters. I am so proud of the fact that over 100 people joined forces to help ME raise such a huge amount of money for Cancer Programs in Maine.
A lot of the credit for my determination and honesty lies here in this silly little blog that has quickly come to mean a lot to me. I can kid myself, tell myself I'm doing all I can to train. But I am not going to set forth any falsities here. In order to write I had to train!! Lots of training sessions were spent thinking about (and trying to remember) witty titles and funny anecdotes. This alone forced me to open my eyes and look around and see people and things in a different way...
Stop...
I have found myself sitting in front of the TV at the Happiness Hotel watching Star Wars on VHS and typing aimlessly about everything except the swim.
The title says "Swimmers Take Your Mark" and my intent was to write about the first leg of the TRI. I'm wondering how different this post would have been if I had written in Sunday night. Or even Monday morning. I feel like the TRI was weeks ago. It's only been 4 days, but in a way it feels like forever ago. Trying to put myself back at SMCC at 2:00 pm on Sunday August 15th...
The swim....When you mention triathlon, EVERYONE talks about the swim, how intimidating it is, how scary it must be and a number of people have said to me, "I could not do what you're doing. I could not do it because of the swim." Come on PEOPLE, this is just plain horseshit. I met at least 4 women during this process who shared with me the fact that they had just learned to swim this year. One woman had never even put her face in the water until January. Not only did these women learn to swim - they did so well and made so much progress that they were able to swim 1/3 mile in the ocean. So PLEASE no one say to me, "I couldn't do that" or "I might be able to bike and run, but I couldn't do the swimming" because it's just plain untrue. If you have any desire to do this, you can. Just to re-cap my example, yes, I have been swimming for most of my life, but never have I taken a formal lesson or done any competitive swimming. I have built endurance, but more importantly my confidence, by practicing-training twice a week at the pool. I have increased my laps from 2 or 3 to 22 or 23. It can be done.
As for the TRI, we swam in waves - the SURVIVORS swam first followed by the U19 women 5 minutes later. We were grouped by age and because we could not see the water at this point, the race director was announcing for us a bit of a play-by-play description, "the survivors are getting in the water," and "the U19 group has 30 seconds until they start." The age groups at this point are starting to swim in waves that take off every 3 minutes. Each age group was distinguished with a different colored swim cap. My age group was RED. This didn't mean a lot to me until I realized that after me swam the lime greens and then blues, but I will come to that in a bit.....
My new friend Kate had shared with me her plan to stop and count to 10 when it was finally time for her to go. I'm not sure if I actually did that, but I know I did not rush into the water like a madman. I did not rush at all. I had decided to take it slow, and I must say I was a success. I put my face in the water and started. I do not believe I did any bilateral breathing. I was doing freestyle but only breathing to my right side. I did a multitude of things differently for this swim; namely, I put my wetsuit on correctly, put my goggles on correctly, kept my nerves in check and the biggest difference...I swam consistently the whole 1/3 mile. I did not stop at all. Why then, we can all take a moment here to ponder,...did I not cut any time off my swim?? No clue why it still took me 20 long minutes to do, but 20 minutes it was. I'm not too sure what I thought about during the swim...I believe it was a little like an out of body experience...I left and went somewhere else while my body was tortured with kicks to the face and salt water up my nose. I did backstroke a lot and I tried to stay in between 2 other swimmers so I could gage where I was and if I was going in the correct direction toward the buoys.
I spent the last half of the swim having a conversation with myself that sounded a little bit like this: "Beth, pee. NOW. PEE!! You will save so much time if you just PEE. You know you have to. This is your chance to cut 3 minutes you would otherwise spend in the nasty-ass porta potty." You see, I have discovered it is something of an impossibility, the art of peeing and swimming at the same time. It cannot be done. One must be EITHER swimming OR peeing. One cannot successfully do both at the same time.
Oh, and remember the colored swim caps mentioned above? The group after me wore some kickin' cool lime green swim caps. The group after them, a pretty blue.
About half way through my swim, between thoughts of wanting to pee and wondering where my family was stationed, I started seeing lime green heads coming at me incredibly fast. Passing me. I try telling myself to relax, that it's no big deal. Of course they are going to pass me, after all I swim like I run...slow like molasses! On I go, continuing to alternate my stroke between freestyle and backstroke. Then, horrified I realize there are now pretty blue heads coming at me. These women were 10 years older than me, left 6 minutes after I did and were kicking my sorry ass to the curb. What could I do? I certainly could not have been swimming any faster. I did what I could do and that was the best I had. I made it. I was done. I proceeded to get my wetsuit stripped by a handsome man who handed the suit back to me, patted me on the back and wished me well.
I tried, with just a little success, to jog to my mini transition station and OMG who do I see (really I heard them before I saw them because they were yelling my name!!)?? My precious Ben & Heidi. Soon to be married and if ever famous they will be a collective "BEIDI". These cool kats are cheering for me!! Someone in the crowd knows me and is even cheering for me!! This quickly becomes a definite highlight of the day! 2 familiar smiles cheering me on. Words here can't say how happy it made me.
So, I'm super pumped now. I finished the swim AND I have 2 fans in the crowd. I'm so beside myself with pride and happiness that I take off, leaving my $300 wetsuit on the ground for everyone to trample. The plan had been to carry my wetsuit to transition. Um, not sure what happened to the plan, but I took off heading for Transition with just my swim cap, goggles, a small towel and a bottle of water.
Wearing flip flops was strongly discouraged, but I did so nonetheless. As I was running up the hill to transition I set my eyes on my posse...Sis, Dad, Rich, Iz, Madi, Ali, Aud, Tony, Shanny...and a little further up the hill I spot my cousin Brian! This keeps me going and puts a big smile on my
face. I am continuing to be such the poser I always am, and was so intent on getting my picture taken that I ran right out of my flip flop and I had to turn around to grab it. (Notice them in my hand in the picture!).
Currently barefoot, I continue on. People are cheering. Lots of racers are running to their bikes as if they're being chased by Big Foot. I did some walking/jogging/walking/jogging. I knew I would eventually get to my bike. I was trying to take a minute to breathe and pat myself on the back for a job well done. What was the big rush? I had to stop at the porta potty and PEE anyway. After which I checked my hair in the little porta potty mirror and walked to my bike with a spring in my step big enough to carry me through the rest of the day.
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