my first REAL open water swim

yesterday, i did my first real open water swim(thanks Dineen for the picture!). i say real because the few that i have done in years past, have been more of a baptized by fire experience. thinking back to the handful of tri's i did in the late 90's, like St. Anthony's twice, i can't believe i actually went out there as unprepared as i was. that was plain crazy but what did i know. my mindset was just survive the swim and i did but it was ugly, it was scary, and it made me not want to do triathlons anymore (or at least not for the next 12 years). i did do a sprint tri around 2005 but the swim was ridiculous. it was a much shorter swim distance than advertised (i was done in like 6 minutes), so any non-swimmer could get out there and look good. it was not a challenge to me at all.
i got to the courtney campbell causeway, the swim locale, a little early, so i parked in the shade, facing the water in order to look for sharks!

but instead of sharks, i saw one of these out in the distance. i didn't know that's what it was until coach bill was giving us some warnings tips about swimming in open water and mentioned seeing a manatee hanging out earlier and to not get too close to them because if you spook them, they could possible bump you or smack the crap out of you with their mermaid fin and kill you. no kidding! i always thought of them as slow pokes but if they get scared, they haul and you better not be in the way. coach bill also said, in all of his 7 years doing open water swims there, he hasn't seen any sharks.....(long pause) until last year when he saw 2 nurse sharks. not to worry he said. they are small and if they bite you, it isn't to big of a bite. in all seriousness, he did give us some good tips about shark behavior, what to do and what not to do if we see one and how to tell the difference between a shark fin and a dolphin fin. all stuff i never knew.

we also had to do the sting ray shuffle going out and coming back in. no big deal. been doing that for years having grown up in florida and spending many summer family vacations at the beach.

the workout yesterday as presented by coach Bill, aka: TriFloyd, was quarter mile swim followed by 1 mile run. i did it 3 times. was going to do it 4 times but i missed the turn around point on the 3rd run and ran about an extra half mile and then started feeling the blisters rubbing behind my heel from going sockless. note to self: put glide on the back of your heel and the part of your shoe that rubs. so i called it a day. a very successful day. more than anything, it was exciting to finally breakdown the huge mental barrier i had built up in my mind all these years about not being able to swim well or not being able to swim in open water. i've done many races that were very special achievements for me personally but yesterday, although not a race, ranks at the top of personal goals. most people wouldn't think it was that big of a deal but for me, it was beyond words. i got past a wall that was holding me back for so long. glad it's behind me now! i will be there again next wednesday. oh, and i almost forgot to mention that the water was ROUGH and soooo CHOPPY but it was warm, so no wetsuit needed. so starting off with the worst possible conditions was a plus.

had an awesome run this morning to get this fine thursday started. blisters that were created yesterday were not an issue. thank you bodyglide! hope everyone has a great day!

much love and peace out!