I signed up for the Red Hills Tri too soon but the truth was I needed a real world goal. I needed a reason to be training. The RHT gave me a genuine sense of purpose and urgency. I even planned a victory trip to Paris to celebrate.
I ran a lot and swam. I swam a lot. I think swimming made me a better runner. I didn't bike so much. I don't mind biking but road biking, as a training paradigm, bores the ever lovin' shit out a me. I like trail biking. I like to see how much guts I have. I did that a lot. What I didn't do, at all, is an open water swim.
They say your first open water swim should never be the day of the event. The worst part is that I had three opportunities to do open water swims in the lake the tri swim would be happening in and I opted out. It was a training failure. It was my training failure.
The few days before the race, little things went wrong. First I lost my jammers and then I misplaced my compression shorts. I had to patch my bike tire. The morning of the race, which my wife refused to attend, was cold and like night as if the sun would never rise. I set up my gear and waited in the dark, slowly losing my grip on nerve, slowly losing the why of doing all of this.
They herded us down to the beach and we had wait as wave after wave bum rushed the lake water. My group, the geezers, was all that was left standing in our wet suits and yellow caps. I looked over and saw a guy with a snorkel and full face mask. They signaled us to go and even though I purposely trailed the herd, people ended up swimming over me and I got kicked in the face.
The dark green milky water was ice cold even with a wet suit. I had no visibility and 100 meters into the swim my body started vibrating and my chest felt like it was caving in. The kayak guy knew before I did because I looked up for a split second and saw him coming toward me.
He asked me if I wanted a tow in and I said no. I tried swimming three times and each time the terrible convulsions started. He towed me in and then once on the beach a race official immediately pulled my timing chip. I changed clothes and called my wife. And then I waited for my friends to finish.
I'm proud of the fact that I stayed. It hurt but my friends had worked hard for this. They had worked with me. They deserved congratulations. They deserved my support as much as I appreciated theirs.
I've been back in the pool this week and am remembering how much I like it. Steph offered to help me with my open water swim and I'm certain now that I have to take her up on the offer.
This time, I conquer the swim first and then I sign up for the tri. Maybe not Red Hills. Maybe Destin or Jax. Something to get the nerves to go fuck off. When I take the Red Hills to bed, it'll be to let her know who's house she sleeping in. I want this dirty bitch off my back.
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