It was a pretty drive up Parley's Canyon this morning. It was raining at 6 am. It was like Mother Nature was telling me that I am totally right to be afraid of being killed by water. 
TB did a quick check up on my bike the night before. I told him that I had to park at the high school and ride a couple of miles to the race start at the reservoir. He said, "That will be good training."No joke. I have not ridden my road bike since...probably my last triathlon last year. I definitely haven't run since then.
Echo Reservoir is very low right now, so there was a long hike down the muddy beach to the water. The triangular swim course was marked with big orange buoys that you swim around. The second buoy became loose from its anchor, so we were all chasing it around the lake. That was kind of funny to me, because the water was about 4 feet deep, so I could save myself when started to freak out. Once I was around that buoy though, the water was too deep to touch and too murky to see my own hands doing strokes in front of me. So all of a sudden, I felt very small and insignificant in the middle of all these bobbing white swim caps. I just knew that no one would notice if I slipped under the surface and didn't come back up. So I freaked out and headed for a rescue kayak and just held onto it for a while. This is a bad idea, because I had nothing to do but say crazy things in my own head and listen to a bunch of old guys have panic/asthma attacks as they swam by. Eventually, I decided to just swim to the finish and ignore my imminent disappearance from the world. Swimming is a better way to get through the first leg of a triathlon than thinking, so I made it to shore in 20 minutes. That is a ridiculously long time for a sprint swim. There were not many bikes left in the transition area when I got mine. My bike and run were fine and my finishing time was pretty bad. Considering my total lack of training and my psychosis concerning all things water, it was an ok day.
Heidi, Coach Scott and me after the race.
1 comment:
you are the funniest. you crack me up every time. i am so glad to know that there is someone else as psychotic about water as i am!
xo,
cyr
ps i am glad you didn't disappear into the depths.
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