For the record – 54 degrees water temp is cold, even in a wetsuit. That being said, I completed my first ever aquathon last night. I have previously done sprint triathlons, the last one in August of 2009. This year I convinced myself I can do a half ironman – I’m not sure why, but I did – so I used last night’s aquathon as a training exercise and to try out my new wetsuit (courtesy of best mom EVER).
It wasn’t until about 5 pm that it hit me – People are going to see me in some state of undress! I quickly thanked my subconscious shopping from months ago when I bought a matching Nike bra and compression shorts. I slipped both on and threw on some sweats to walk over to Warner Beach. I live about a mile away so I figured I would walk over there. Hubs came with the dog who recently came home from dog training where they said we need to take her out as much as possible.
When I picked up my chip, volunteers let me know they shortened the swim by about 500 m. I wasn’t too worried, until I heard that they were allowing people to DQ the swim and just do the run portion. A coworker happened to be volunteering and as I was heading into transition, her parting words were, “I really hope you stay warm.” I just thought “no big deal.”
Once in transition, I started putting on my wetsuit. Mind you, this is only the second time of putting on my wetsuit and first time in public. I heard the announcement of water temps and asked the guy next to me if that was really cold. He told me it was definitely one of the coldest temperatures he was comfortable swimming in. Great. Fantastic. I still haven’t mastered the wetsuit zipper (it’s only been two times!) so I found the hubs waiting with Spicer and had him zip me up. It was getting close to time so I headed down to the beach to see what the water felt like. I went in to about mid-calf and it was COLD. I tried to tell myself it was no worse than floating the Guadalupe at Easter (bonus points to anybody that gets that reference). I got out so as not to psych myself out before the start. There was a short delay due to some timing issues. During this time, several people waded back into the water and came out saying it was too cold for them. This led to other people getting too caught up in their heads and dropping out of the swim. Because this is probably my last chance for an open water swim before Capitol View Triathlon, I was sticking to it.
Timing issues resolved, they announced the start. I did not want to get caught up in the mass start so I waited towards the back. IT WAS SOOOOO COLD. A group of us decided we would just walk until we couldn’t. It’s not an ideal swim strategy, but seriously, it was what I could do when hit with what felt like the coldest ice bath I’ve ever taken. Finally it was time to swim and I did all that I could to not put my face in the water – thank you years of lifeguard training. The wetsuit was moving okay, except that it felt like it was choking my neck. I’m not sure if it is a fit issue or if I just need to try to move the material around some more. I’ll play with it between now and my next triathlon. I’ll probably be the weirdo in the indoor pool trying to fix my wetsuit issues. Anyways – the swim was cold. I eventually put my face in the water. My heart rate was really high due to the cold so I tried to focus on breathing. My swim cap popped off so I had to stop to put it on. The kayak lifeguard thought I was drowning. It was fun (read: horrible) times.
So now that I feel like a fish plucked during an ice-fishing session, I’m ran up a sandy beach (awesome, not) and into transition. Thank goodness the grass in transition helped clean my feet as I forgot water for my feet. I took my time in transition. I had no feeling in my feet and I didn’t see the point in racing to get out on a run if I couldn’t even put on my shoes. Stripping out of the wetsuit is so much easier than getting it on. Then I put on my running shirt and leggings – I’m more of a modest clothing runner – got my shoes on, started my watch and headed out.
I still couldn’t feel my feet. I know at the 1.5 mile turnaround, I saw hubs and Spicer and told them it felt like I lost my broken toe in the lake. The volunteer thought I was serious. I am serious about the broken toe, but not about losing it in the lake. I cursed KroFo on the hills. I practiced my 9/1 since that’s what I intend to do for my runs. Other than lack of feeling, my runs were ok. I was a bit off my racing 5k pace but I also couldn’t feel my feet or my bum so I’m chalking it up to that.
Your Pace or Mine? 
K Moriarty
Thanks for sharing the experience. Sorry it was soooo cold but I do get the Guadalupe reference for real. I’m proud of you – keep up the hard work and you will reach your race at your pace. Loving you.