Bay Swim...BFD

JK.

Actually it was a BFD. And I'm glad it's over.

Race Report:

I knew I needed a lot of food on Saturday night and a good night's sleep. Check. Done.

Sunday morning, I had my favorite pre-race breakfast. Gluten free bagel with butter and 2 eggs. Stopped at Starbucks, got a large coffee and drove across the bridge.

I was seriously terrified but trying to be cool about it. I stood next to 2 old men who had done the race 18 years in a row or something and eavesdropped on them giving people advice. I parked at the park and ride across the bridge and took the shuttle bus back across. Found Gary and Sandi and sat around for an hour and a half, getting nervous. I put sunscreen all over my face and neck and ears but really didn't think about anywhere else because I was wearing a full sleeve wetsuit. Bad idea. I thought I hit up the Body Glide enough, but obviously didn't.

So, the swim start. You can start anywhere along the beach, so the mass start was really a non-issue. You can enter the bridge anywhere you want once you get past the jetty. I caught a good draft off a girl and made it to the bridge pretty fast. Swimming under the bridge and coming up in the middle is so amazing. Sighting the bridges is just so cool and swimming underneath those bridges that I've driven across hundreds of times is so surreal. The weather was way too hot, so there were seriously hot patches of water and then if you got in the shade, the water was cool.

I made it to the first buoy with no problem in about 35 minutes. I was drafting as much as possible. And thanking Joe the whole time for the major draft practice that we did. The current really picked up in the second mile. I had a good draft going off this man but I kept hitting his feet. He finally turned around and yelled something and I backed off. Then we passed the 2 mile buoy and came up the first aid boat. I swam to the other side of the boat and hid because that dude was pissed about the drafting and I was afraid he was going to punch me in the face. The aid boats had water, pieces of banana, saltines and vanilla wafers. So basically, I was screwed. I ate a piece of a banana and had 2 cups of water and went on. I wish there was gatorade or gus. My second mile was so slow that when I got the buoy, I thought maybe I missed the second one and I was actually at the 3rd. Ha. No. It was about 50 minutes.

Third mile, I started counting the bridge pile-ons and trying to talk myself into swimming pile-on to pile-on. I was really starting to lose my mind and feel extremely tired. I don't think I thought one positive thought at Nanticoke and it really affected my performance so I really tried to keep my mind in check. I was repeating all my swim techniques in my mind and trying to do them. I think the 3rd mile was around 40-45 minutes. We were supposed to get a slack tide in the middle of the swim, but I never really felt the current let up. It was fight the whole time pretty much.

The 4th mile and last .4 were completely mind over body. I really struggled. I knew I wasn't going fast but I knew I was going to finish. All I really wanted out of the day was to finish and not come in last place or get pulled. Check.

A few things I learned from the Bay Swim:

1. I can swim. I've proven it. But, I am not a fast swimmer or a strong swimmer. I think the 2.4 Ironman swim is about my limit to be able to make any sort of decent time.
2. I've never been the biggest fan of water. My earliest swimming memory is my mom begging me to jump off the diving board at Worthington Valley Swim Club. I said hell no for pretty much the whole summer until she offered a Jem and the Rockers Barbie for jumping off it. I threw myself off that shit, swam to the side, everyone was cheering and I said, "get my shoes, we're going to Toys R Us." My mom said, "don't you want to do it again? Wasn't it fun?" I said, "yeah, yeah, fun, whatever. I'll jump again tomorrow. I want that Barbie." I went to Toys R Us wrapped in a towel, dripping wet. That sort of sums up how I feel about swimming. Get it done to get what I want.

The event was totally organized though. And it had maybe the best race shirt ever. I've done a lot of OWS where I felt like I could die out there and no one would see for hours. But this event was so organized, you were never alone, there was tons of kayakers and boats everywhere. The whole thing was very cool.

But, I'm never doing it again.