NYC Tri Race Report - the swim

First of all, the swim was rough. There is no other way of saying it. There were very high swells in the river. Swells that you had to glide on through in order to progress forward. With my face in the water, 'swimming' as some may call it, I felt the movement of the water making me rise and fall. The only thought I had during the swim was to keep on moving...

Before: waiting
I had to get to the transition area between 4 and 5am. I took a cab ride up to 72nd and Riverside Drive and set my stuff up. I had already dropped off my bike the day before. After setting up, I walked the mile up to the swim start, around 99th Street. I had my dry clothes bag with me - after arrival, I took my sandals off and gave my bag to the truck people. I had my goggles, blue swim cap and wetsuit that I had not put on yet. While looking out onto the river, I thought about how these 3 items were my most valuable posessions at that moment. Without them I would not be able to do the race. There seemed to be something deep about this when I was thinking about it, but I can't quite verbalize it right now. Something about what we value, what we are afraid of losing, and how - depending on the situation, what we fear most gets turned around when we lose focus on what's really important.

All throughout this time I was mildly anxious - normal race anxiety - mostly about forgetting something. I had visions of having to run the mile back to the transition area for some required item. Overall though, I was calm. I was well rested, well hydrated, and ready.

The Start:
The professionals went out first, then the elite triathletes. All of us on the line remarked how we would be sure to sight carefully after seeing one overconfident swimmer go headlong into a kayak which was blocking them from swimming into the island of Manhattan ; and another swimmer run into a tug boat that blocked them from swimming across to NJ ot out to sea.

Then the age groupers started, and the pace changed...People were lining up on the barge 3 people deep and every few seconds, the next line would jump into the water - there was no pausing, no hesitation, no time to change your mind. After standing around for a 1/2 hour, we were now moving up quickly, me under the "women 45-49" banner.

By the time I got to the barge, I started talking out loud to myself. The sound that was coming out mostly resembled Olive Oyl in distress: "ooh noo!" mixed with 'this is another fine mess you've gotten us into, Patty'

Joking aside, I really can't recall the last time I was this scared. I was feeling rushed about jumping 3 feet into the water. I jumped. "thank you Yemaya".

There is that 2 second span of time, where you are going down instead of up, that gets to me. The last time this happened was when I jumped into the deep end of the pool when doing the Indoor tri at Asphalt Green. There is a powerless feeling and then you begin to rise back up.

So there I was in the water. Salt water. Swimming. Everything was ok, going forward and up and down, sighting. At some point I saw a sign that said '500m'. Oh good, I thought, only 500 meters left. After another while, I saw the next sign - '1000m'. I realized with dismay that I still had another 500 to go after this. I sighted using the wall of swimmers then spectators that were lining the path. Every once in a while I'd look forward to catch a glimpse of the finish line which did not happen.

At last, the finish line came into view. I took care to approach the ramp without trying to stand up. I did not want to get stuck in muck as I had been forwarned. I had someone pull me up and I was out.

Swim complete!

-- lemmefineout - Brooklyn