"I don't want to do this anymore!"

It is officially less than 2 weeks to go until the big Barb's Race. The Vineman 70.3 was on Saturday and I checked out the results on-line, to get a sense of where I may be. I won't utter any goal times out loud until after the race for fear of jinxing myself.

My training is becoming pretty intense. For the past week, my workouts have been lasting 1-3 hours! that is like watching the newest batman plus all the million previews! I am tired and sore, yet have a lot more energy than I have had before. Plus--- food has never tasted so good! Yesterday after the Catfish swim Dennis and I went to breakfast and it was such a party. I was taking bites of my omelet, slathering jam on toast, piercing my fork in Dennis' Benedict and told him: "I am having such a fun time!"

The Catfish was a swimming-only race where you can choose to swim a 1.2, 2.4 or 3.6 mile swim in the Stevens Creek Reservoir. I signed up for the 1.2 because I wanted to know what 1.2 in a lake setting felt like (plus, I need more practice getting in and out of my wetsuit.) in preparation for Barb's.

I decided to call it a practice swim and not a race, because my RACE is in two weeks and I have my enthusiasm on reserve. Plus, as noted previously, my workouts have been getting intense and I definitely didn't have nice fresh legs for a race.

Dennis and I left at 7:00 to head to the race. We biked from our townhouse to the start---about 5 miles. I was also wearing my tri-backpack filled with my wetsuit, goggles, swim cap and towel. As I got on my bike, I could only think one thing: "Ouch!" It was my 4th day in a row on a bike, and certain unmentionable body parts were protesting the torture. Oh, wait, I was thinking two things: "ouch" and "brrrr." Funny, I thought it was supposed to be warm in California in July. Not so much at 7 in the morning.

We arrived at the reservoir and I stumbled into my wetsuit. Note to self---wetsuits are hard to put on when slightly sweaty from biking. I kissed Dennis goodbye and headed to the start. He found a good spot where he could watch both the swimmers and the bikes.

It was a water start, which meant you get in the water first and just kind of bob around until they start the race. I surveyed the buoys to visualize the turns and the distance of the race. Funny, 1.2 miles in a lake doesn't look all that far. It must be an optical illusion.

Unlike triathlons---which start in age group waves---it was going to be a mass start. I bobbed to the back of the pack as I didn't want to get in anyones way. I was not there to win the gold.

Speaking of which---there was a girl in the race who will be competing in the Olympics this year! How cool is it that I was in the same water as a future Olympian? Her race at the Olympics is the 10k open water swim and she wants to do it in 2 hours. Yeah, that is 6.2 miles of swimming! Rock star.

Anyways, the race started and bam! Pure anarchy. I have always been somewhat cautious about the open water swim in triathlons because of all the appendages flying everywhere, but this was like no open water swim I have done before. They should have called it the Sardine swim because I felt like we were a bunch of sardines squeezed together swimming. I had people swimming on top of me, pushing me, pulling hair (ok, maybe not pulling hair as we were all wearing swim caps)...It felt like an extreme sports version of "Lord of the Flies." I saw these two women frozen in the water eying the insanity and one said to the other, "I don't want to do this anymore!"
Luckily, I did not panic. I did, however, have to chuck my personal space issues out of the reservoir. I am not really a hugging person, nor do I like close talking people---but I had no choice today. Eventually the group spread out and I was able to maintain a good pace. I didn't go fast, but I really concentrated on my stroke and breathing. About halfway through the race it got a little congested again. I had one guy swimming on my right and a woman on my left and they were both coming towards me at a fast pace. I slowed my pace and let them both pass me and I watched them crash right into each other. Ouch. That is going to leave a mark. I am actually surprised Open Water Swimming isn't a bigger spectator sport as football--there is kind of a lot of physical contact and (though unintentional) violence.

1.2 miles is a long time to swim in the open water---the furthest I had done was .9 in the Olympic distance triathlons. I finally made it to the finish and got out of the water, wondering what my time would be. The clock had a little over 42 minutes on it. I was pleasantly surprised, as my goal was to do it in under an hour. All in all, a great practice swim. Maybe next year I will do the 2.4 distance.

I have learned a couple things about open water swimming these past few months:
1) Don't drink lake water unless you want parasitic pets in your system. Mmmmm...gardia...deelish...
2) Find a discreet way to spit in your goggles to defog them
3) Breastroke kickers are scarier than sharks.