On my way...

So last night my friend Martha and I participated in a race called the "Stroke and Stride," a 750m (1/2 mile) open water swim and 5K run, in preparation for our upcoming triathlon. Basically, it was everything our triathlon is going to be, minus the biking. I really wanted to do this because I have never 'swum' in open water and I have never worn a wetsuit, so I wanted to practice before the big day.

So here's a recap of the event:

• Get there early, register, wait around for 45 minutes for the start.
• 20 minutes before the start, squeeze my rump into the wetsuit and go down to the open swim part of the reservoir to warm up.
• During the warm-up people were swimming in all different directions, the water was murky green, and I COULDN'T SEE A THING! I went into this expecting to have a hard time with the run, but I wasn't prepared to freak out during the swim! Yes, the wetsuit did give me some extra buoyancy, but if I tried to stop and tread water (which I kept doing to see where I was going) it felt tighter around my neck, which made me then start to panic!! I was about halfway through the warm-up area when I noticed them calling everyone to the start! Full-on panic set in then. Fortunately, they were calling the swimmers for the 1500m, not my group, so I had some time to get to the start and CALM DOWN!
• My friend Martha (or, Martin, as her name is listed in the results!) is a superb person to start a race with. I have to say, she did a kick-a$$ job last night. Running is her strength, like swimming is my strength, so she was nervous about the swim. While I'm standing there quietly freaking out to myself, she's all smiley and saying "WooHoo!!! This is exciting!!" I tried to keep my freaking out to myself so not to upset her, and her positive energy definitely helped me through those few minute!!!
• I definitely found my rhythm once the race started and really settled in and felt comfortable about halfway though the swim. (It helped that everyone was swimming in the same direction and I didn't have to worry about a head-on collision) I did start to lose focus a few times, and I felt that panic creeping back, but I was able to fight it away. Martha said that someone next to her had a panic attack and had to be pulled out by the boat. Yikes. I can totally see how that happened though. When you're used to seeing a neat tiled line at the bottom of the pool it's a big shock to swim through the green bog and see NOTHING. Don't get me wrong, this is a very clean reservoir, so it wasn't dirty, just green.
  
• I did the swim in 16 minutes and the run in 35 minutes. I haven't been training as I should for the run, but last night was the first time I have ever run the ENTIRE distance in 5K. Woohoo!!!

The event I did last night is held for 10 Thursdays through the summer. I can totally see why people do these things, too. Afterwards, there was this junk food smorgasbord extravaganza. It's like they called me up and said, "Hey, what's your favorite food you never buy because you'd eat it all in one sitting?" They had oreos, famous amos cookies, pudding, oatmeal raisin cookies, animal crackers... oh and bananas and yogurt also. I was kinda upset, because the only thing that tasted good after all that was bananas. Go figure. Normally they'd have pizza (yum!) afterwards, but with the threat of rain and the race being cancelled, the guy bringing the food said he didn't want to be stuck taking 70 pizzas home.

I think I might do this race again next week with my Dad while he's in town!!!