Well, I can swim one lap.

Well the swim is over and I did it. It was way easier than I thought it would be. I was really nervous before it started but after the first few hundred yards I knew i could make it. I think they might have been wrong about the currents. They said that at first the current would go from north to south and then would change and go south to north. So I started out by hugging the north span of the bridge. I felt like I kept getting pushed north so I moved more to the middle and kinda stayed there. When the race first started I freaked out a little. I felt my chest start to tighten up and I couldn't breath but worked at calming down and my breathing felt great the rest of the race. I started out by hanging to the back and trying to get away from the pack. i did things I never would have done in a triathlon. I let people swim past me and hung back to try and get my own piece for real estate. Usually I would try and pass people to get free, but this time I let them pass me. I swam really conservatively. I didn't know how I would feel after a few miles so I swam slow to save everything I could. The chop was almost non existent. The first mile seemed to go really fast. I couldn't believe I had already gone a mile when I passed the marker. The second mile was right after the main shipping channel and it had a food boat. I thought the main channel would be the worst and it wasn't that easy, but not as bad as I thought. I felt so small as I was going through. The bridges were so big and the swells were large and I was so open and unprotected. There were no bridge supports to make me feel at least a little safe. I was a tiny little orange golf ball out in the middle of this huge bay. It was a cool feeling. I saw the food boat with all these other little orange golf balls hanging on it and decided to keep on swimming. I thought that once I got through the channel the rest would be easy. Well, it was and it wasn't. the swimming part wasn't that bad, but my mind had already started counting down to the finish and once my mind sees the finish my body starts giving up a little. The third mile seemed to take forever. As soon as I hit mile 2 i thought "well, it just an ironman swim from here." , turns out an ironman swim is long. I could see the mile 3 marker, but it just didn't seem to get any closer. the food boat was supposed to be there, but it was actually at mile 3.5. About then, something in my wetsuit unhooked and it started rubbing. I have a great wetsuit hickey to show off now! I think the hardest part current wise was getting back out from under the bridge. I had to fight really hard to do it. After that, I could see the finish and it was such an amazing feeling. I had come so far and wanted to do this for so long. I didn't sprint the finish but tried to enjoy the feeling of the last few strokes in the bay. That lasted for a bit and then I just wanted to get it done and I sped up a bit :) As i was about to finish I saw the woman in front of me stand up and collapse. the volunteers at the finish carried her over the finish to the medical tent. It was neat to watch but I was glad it wasn't me. Overall it was a fun race. It was so different than a triathlon as it was so quite and internal. There was no one cheering for you on the course. I had hoped I would at least hear a "way to go!" from the kayaks, but no luck. The volunteers at the finish didn't offer their hands and help you out. It was all so much more subdued than the tris I've done. But feeling so small around something so big was amazing. Feeling knocked around by something like the Bay was great. I am a little upset at my time and the fact that it was so "easy". When I finished everyone was saying it was the easiest year ever. I felt like what I had done didn't really count. On top of that, my time was one of the worst in my age group. the more I think about it though, I really swam conservatively and came out with a lot left. I didn't even need to take a nap that afternoon. There was nothing I could have done about the conditions or how "easy" this year was so I just have to be glad I made it because it would have been REALLY embarrassing if I hadn't made it this year. I know that even if it had been worse I still could have made it, particularly with how good I felt at the end. The chocolate donuts were also nice:) It was a little hard to deal with the fact that something I had been working so hard for and thinking so much about was over. What next? How can I top this? Well the answer to that is a half ironman. More about that later. When I got out I just wanted to get rid of the smell of bay water and I'm not sure I want to smell that smell for a long time. I thought that now that I have done this I am happy and don't really want to do it again. But the more I sit thinking about this, the more I am not sure..... My mom came from Indy to watch and wish me luck at the start. I was just so excited that she would come all that way for this. It really meant so much to me. We went to Cantlers for dinner which is always tasty. they didn't have steamers, which would be my food of choice if stranded on a desert island, but the soft shell crab sandwich was almost as good. So it was a great day, I made it, all the worry was for nothing, it was less than half as bad as I had made it out to be, and now I have post big race let down. After a few more days of bragging, showing off my wetsuit wounds and feeling pretty pleased with myself while sitting on the couch watching TV, I'm going to start training to get faster. Off to eat something bad for me!