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I didn’t want to do this swim, mostly because I was worried I’d be either the first to quit or the last to finish. My husband was on the fence about me swimming and only once voiced his opinion (“I think you should”), leaving me to decide on my own if I’d get in the water. We got to the venue (which, btw, is gorgeous now, Tempe has done some work!) with twenty minutes to spare, leaving me time to feed the baby and decide that I’d sit out the swim. I watched the other swimmers donning wetsuits and looking very ready.

Then, with ten minutes to start time I got this wave of bravado and I quickly handed the baby to Kyle and in the space of three minutes got into my wetsuit (not sure how), got my number marked on me and headed into the water. Once in the water, I was very nervous, but it happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to get back out. I heard the start and off went the crowd (I think 391 swimmers).

I followed, and then felt like maybe I should get out; I went back and forth with myself on this for quite some time. But by then I’d already swam way past the ramp and the only way out was to either swim back through people or climb the wall – I looked at the wall and there was Kyle with all our kids waving to me and saying good job … well then! Off I went.

I swam for a very long time, mostly by myself (if you don’t count kayakers – it seemed like they were hovering near me again!), and had lots of time to think and work on breathing and get off course (hey, Jeff, I think I should work on sighting…). However, even though most people had already made it back to Casa Grande by the time I finished, I finished. I was ecstatic to finish, and as Elaine wonderfully pointed out, four minutes faster than my IMAZ time from last year. I swam 2.4 miles. In Open Water. On a Sunday. Voluntarily.

I don’t know how next weekend will turn out, but I know that my fellow Tucson Tri Girls are amazing- I had my own little cheering section and Elaine was genuinely happy for me- I took almost two hours to do something that took her one, and she was happy FOR ME. Amazing!!

Take away lesson – never quit and never worry about being last. I thought I was last the whole swim, but it just made me want to finish that much more- and in the end, I wasn’t the last person in the water. Also, I love Nineteen wetsuits!!

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Suh-Weet
written by Jeff Orr, April 08, 2008

And now that you know you can get the hard part out of the way, all you have to do is follow it up with 138.2 miles of biking and running. I can't wait to read that (successful) race report!

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