Take that, Kayak boy!

Hello from sunny Bermuda. It is so incredible here. Beautiful water, wonderful people, perfect weather (so far!).

As you probably know, the pretext for this trip is the annual Round the Sound Swim. It is a swim competition consisting of several distances: 10k, 7.25k, 4k, 2k, .8k. My friend Amanda, who is a swimmer but is tired of me calling her that, has wanted to participate in this event for years but things kept happening. Last winter we attended a travel expo together and she casually mentioned it. Without hestitaition I offered to accompany her. At the time I thought I would just make a vacation out of it and do the shortest swim option.

As luck would have it, much happened between then and now. Most importatntly, I completely lost my mind and signed up for IMFL. So when the time came to sign up for the event, imagine my joy in discovering that the 4k (2.4 miles) swim option happens to be the exact distance I will “get to” swim in just 3 short weeks.

Fast forward to two days ago. Amanda and I made our way to Bermuda by way of Miami. If you’ve looked at a map (not that I had, really) you’ll notice that Bermuda is basically off the coast of North Carolina. So, we took the long way. The really long way thanks to American Airlines, who made what should have been a 2-hour trip if we had a direct flight, into a 8-hour adventure fraught with radio issues and plane replacements. But alas, we made it here around midnight Friday and are totally in love with the islands and our lovely room in the Fairmont Princess Hamilton.

Yesterday we rode our fun little scooters over the mandatory pre-race meeting.  It was a pretty well run little shindig. After a good briefing we got to take a boat ride. At the time I was growing a little impatient as we waited over an hour for our turn on the boat. (Fortunately, the amazing event organizers had a whole spread of snack foods and beverages for us to enjoy while we waited.) I hinted to Amanda that we might want to skip it.  However,  I am so glad we didn't because it was really helpful  to see the course ahead of time.

My thoughts were: 1) holy crap this is far; 2) oh wow the first 1.2 miles is choppy; 3) oh my, this is a long boat ride and I have to swim this tomorrow. Did I mention that it looked really, really far? Well, it was. Oy.

Twenty hours and a lot of positive self-talking and calming myself later, it was time for me to get in the water. Everyone jumped in and as I let everyone go ahead of me I actually said out loud “I’m going to be the last one out of the water , I might as well be the last one in.”

Once I got in, sweet Amanda came to check on me and make sure I was okay. I was pretty calm. She made me laugh when she told me how she had completely torn the back of her swimsuit getting in the water. It was even funnier when I recalled that this is not the first time she’s done that. Ha!

And off they went. And I followed. I knew ahead of time that the water would be choppy for the first half. At first it was okay. My biggest concern was that I would get queasy, but that never happened. The real problem was that often when I would turn my head to breathe or look up to sight I would get pounded with salt water. Ick. Plus it was really making it difficult to swim straight and make much forward progress.

It didn’t take long before I had salt in my mouth, nose and throat. It was freakin’ awful. As I told kayak boy, I tried to pretend I was sucking on a pretzel. He added, “a soggy pretzel.” Well, yeah.

Apart from that funny comment by him, kayak boy (his real name is Daniel) was seriously lacking in both a sense of humor and any sense of encouragement. Great.

I didn’t see much of him during the first half. A couple of times he came by to check on me (I was last by a long shot. Not surprising since this is a purely swim event where swimmers, yes, real swimmers, go to compete. I was so totally out of my league.)

At one point I asked if I could hang on to the kayak for a bit. While I was there we had the following conversation.

Me:        How much further to the dock? [Note: there was a dock at the halfway point where we had to check in and could get Gatorade/water.]

KB:         About 300 yards. Is that your stopping point?

Me: No. Just halfway. But I heard that the water gets calmer from that point forward.

KB: You should consider stopping. You’re shaking.

Me: Nah. I can do this. I’ve been training really hard.

KB: [Disbelievingly] Really?...... Like, what kind of distances?

Me: [Blank, shut the @*&^ up stare.]……………….. I am going to keep going.

A little while later:

Me: Hey. Can I just hang on for a bit?

KB: Okay. [He paddles over. Then a real boat sees me and shouts that I can get on.]

Me: I don’t want to get on. I just need to rest a second [my goggles were really bugging me so I kept stopping to give my face a break].

KB: [Shouting to the boat] She doesn’t want to get on, she just wants to rest.

[Repeat the above conversation 3 times in a row, until I finally just swim off.]

A little while later, I request another break with KB and he suggested that he could take me to the boat. I am on the verge of tears at this point and my shaking is getting worse. I have no idea what that was about. So I agreed and told him to take me to the boat.

He got about two paddles strokes when I said, NO, wait, stop. I have to do this. I know I can do this. I have trained for this. He again asked me how I was training and again it pissed me off. It was like he didn’t believe me.

So I swam on and made it to the dock. The deal was you were supposed to tread water, get a wrist band to show that you had made the stop, check in, and drink what you wanted. I asked if there was a ladder and they directed me to the stairs. I made it up, shaking, and was in tears. I was working so hard. The 1.2 miles, which had taken me 52-55 minutes in my previous tri’s had taken me 1 hour and 24 minutes.

The volunteers were great. I guess I looked dehydrated, because they brought me Gatorade and water. Actually, 4 cups of Gatorade and 2 cups of water. Pretty funny.

My mouth was so salty though that the Gatorade had no taste. That salty mouth feeling was so disgusting. Yuck. I drank one cup each, finished crying, talked a bit to the volunteers about the course that remained, and decided to go on.

As I told the volunteers, I knew I would be really pissed at myself if I gave up. So I wouldn’t. I am Ironcat, dammit. I can do ANYTHING.

The total break was about 3 minutes and I know kayak boy, who was lingering around the dock looking after me, was pretty surprised to see me get back in the water. Take that, kayak boy.

Fortunately what I had been told was true, the second half was much calmer than the first.  Roughly an hour and five minutes later I reached the finish. Final time was roughly 2:34.

I just barely pulled myself out of the water. I saw Amanda and started crying. She and our new friend Jan, the nurse, consoled me.  In my tears however, I was able to appreciate what I had acoomplished. I did not give up. I swam 2.4 miles in choppy, really darn salty water.

Soooo…in 3 weeks I need to do it again. Needless to say, I am dreading it. DREADING it!

I was completely fried when I got out of the water. Doesn’t bode well for jumping on my bike and completing an Ironman.

The good news is that with any luck, Florida will not be choppy like the water was today. And I’ll have a wetsuit, which I didn’t today. Maybe the water in the Gulf will be less salty, too, which would be much nicer.

Plus, I have 3 weeks to get my endurance worked out. Amanda and Jan said I have a beautiful stroke. That might be, but as I pointed out, it doesn’t work.

So, a really, really tough day for Cat. But even though I could have given up. I could have quit, I didn’t. And that is why I am Ironcat.

I am truly hoping for the best at Florida. I will give it everything I’ve got and do what I need to. If I don’t make it, it is not the end of the world. But I doubt I will try again. I can’t stand any more Ironman training.

I guess I need to think of it like I did the bar exam. One of my law school professors had told me over lunch that when he was studying for the exam he told himself that he could rest then, or rest later, when he could be studying for the bar exam for the second time. His advice stayed with me that summer and I often reminded myself of that when I felt like I wanted to being doing something other than studying. Fortunately, I passed the Virginia bar exam the first time around.

So, I will give IMFL my all, and hope it is enough. Hope that I am lucky enough to have good conditions and no mechanical issues. But unlike the bar exam, I doubt there will be a second chance. I think I’d rather study for another bar exam that do this again.

Here’s to a restful and anxiety free 20 days and a fabulous race day on November 7.