Two Hours One Minute Two Seconds

"You'll be fine." - Everyone I Talked To About Doing A Triathlon
"Thousands of people do them every weekend." - Me, Trying To Convince Myself Swimming A Half Mile In The Ocean Was No. Big. Deal.

I've been a cyclist for twenty years.
I've been a runner for about three years (and was a runner before I started cycling).
Swimming? No.

"You'll be fine."

Back in February, my old HS buddy called to inform me, I would be competing in the Malibu Triathlon with him in September. Sure. No problem. I can ride. I can run. Wait ... what?

"Thousands of people do them every weekend."

I waited too long, but I did it. I went to the local Aquatic Center and joined the Masters swimming program. It was a struggle at first. I had no real experience swimming. Twenty-five meters was a challenge. A half mile is eight hundred meters. 

Eight.

Hundred.

Meters.

"You'll be fine."

I kept at it. Coach Laurie knew what my goal was and stayed on my ass. "You're going to thank me when you're out in the middle of that swim." Yeah. Well. Yeah. I worked hard. Swimming is hard work. My confidence grew. Stamina .. well, it got better. But it was NOT going to be easy. Doable. But not easy. 

"Thousands of people do them every weekend."

One week to go and my buddy and I decide to take a swim in the ocean to check ourselves out. Oh my goodness. That was a slap in the face. Have you ever actually gone for a swim in the ocean? I don't mean splashing around in the waves. I mean heading out past the waves and putting your head down and SWIMMING! I never had. It was ... unusual. 150 yards out seems a very long way. You can't see the bottom. You can't see much of anything. Confidence is nowhere to be found. I've read that even strong and experienced swimmers often experience anxiety swimming in open water. And there I was.

"You'll be fine."

I wasn't fine. Nope. I had anxiety. I swam the course. But it was NOT fun. Never have I been so glad to get out of the water. We did it two days in a row and the second day was no better than the first. Shit.

I mean SHIT!

So YouTube to the rescue. I watched many (many many many many) open water swimming tips. Found a few I liked and committed them to memory. My first chance to try them would be ... race day. Yup. So there I was. Standing with a group of like-minded idiots. We paid good money to torture ourselves in this manner. I looked down at the tattoo. "rule no. 5: harden the fuck up" .. time to put up or shut up son.

The cannon went off. Into the water we go. Over one hundred participants in our wave. That's a lot of splashing around. Getting out that 150 yards involves mostly survival. There isn't a whole lot of pretty free-style going on. I mean, first you're jumping over waves, then your're dodging your neighbor. Then you're trying to stay out of the current that's doing it's best to sweep you beyond the buoy. Once you get past it, it's time to put your head down. Engage YouTube tips. 

Well. 
I'll be darned.

I was fine. I was more than fine. I kind of enjoyed it.
Sure, it was hard. I was in pain.
But it was the good kind of pain.
I was glad to be there.

Swim: 21:11
Bike:   54:53
Run:    36:40
Total: 2:01:02
(Diff is transition times)

P.S. Thanks Coach Laurie