I crawled back out of the waves and lined up with Tracy.  We stayed to the back of the pack as it edged closer to the water.  Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger blared over the speakers.  The wave ahead of us started.  We moved up to the line.  4 minutes to go.  They asked how many of us were doing our first half Ironman, a lot of us hollered and raised our hands, Tracy and I included. 3 minutes to go. I looked around for Kristin and Serena. I didn’t see them, but I knew they were there somewhere.  2 minutes to go.  Wow, those waves are really huge.  1 minute.  I said, mostly to remind myself, “It’s just a fun day of activities I love, with my friends.” 30 seconds to go.  Goggles on.  One last fist bump with Tracy.  We got this!  I looked at the clock just over my left shoulder.  3 seconds.  Here we go. The horn went off.  We set out into the waves.  It felt like a slow death march at first.  How far do I wade in like this before I try to swim?  I stayed to the back and the side.  Ok, here goes nothing.  Waves kept splashing me in the face.  Just make it to the turn, then it will get easier.  I did whatever I needed to in order to get there.  I tried to find what would work for me in that mess, so I alternated between freestyle, breast stroke, side stroke, doggy paddle…you think I’m kidding, I’m not.  I spent the entire first half of the swim having a major hissy fit.  I complained in my head, it ISN’T supposed to be like this.  What the hell?!  This sucks.  Why did I even bother learning how to swim if I can’t perform in this anyway? The waves weren’t supposed to be this big! 

I heard an announcement, “We need a pick up between 4 and 5”.  I glanced that way and saw a kayak.  Someone was hanging onto the side.  I prayed that it wasn’t one of my friends, prayed they were all ok.  (Unfortunately, I learned later that one of the approximately 200 swimmers pulled from the water was my friend Jen.  I’m happy to report that she’s fine, she just got a little seasick and determined it wasn’t her day so she got cleaned up and was waiting for us at the finish) As I swam,  I wondered how Karen was doing, since I knew she was equally as scared of this as I was.  As the waves crashed over me, a song from my ipod popped into my head and I thought through the words…”You look around, It’s staring back at you, Another wave of doubt, Will it pull you under?  You wonder…What if I’m overtaken?  What it I never make it?”

C’mon, Linds, you’re almost to the next marker.  Just get there.  Is this even safe?! Should they have cancelled the swim portion?  Well, they didn’t, so keep going!

At about the half-way point, something changed inside me.  I had been frustrated with the conditions and having a whiny pity-party about it, but I finally told myself, “Lindsey, yes, the conditions are terrible out here!  But Girl, SUCK IT UP!  This is the hand you were dealt today, so get over it and do what you came out here to do!”  At that point, I did just that. I got over it.  I started to swim. I mean really swim, just like I learned how.  Head down, elbows up, finger tips pointing toward the bottom of the lake, breathing as often as I needed to. It was way harder than in the smooth, even water of the pool at Crestview Middle School, but I pulled myself from one buoy to the next.  I was tossed in the waves, I swallowed about a gallon of water, and I kept ending up way off course.  But I swam.  On the second half of that course, the waves got worse, but I got better.  Every once in a while I would gag as a wave splashed in me in the face and I had to stop to catch my breath, but then I’d get right back to it.  My goggles that had never given me problems before filled up with water on the right side.  As I breathed, I looked over and saw someone 4 feet higher than me, then I couldn’t see her at all, on the next breath she was 4 feet lower.  I got passed by waves of people, but I passed a few people myself.  I got knocked in the head, I felt like someone swam over the top of me and I had to change directions when I ran into several people, but I kept going.  My mantra became “Just get ‘er done!” I finally got to the last buoy before the turn.  The waves were bouncing off the breaker wall and throwing us all over the place.  Almost there, Linds, you did it.  Just swim and let the waves carry you into the shore.  After what seemed like an eternity, I put my feet down on the sand.  I tried to stand and got pitched forward.  I tried again.  The guy next to me said, “That was terrible”.  I responded, “Yeah, it’s a little choppy out here today.”   We smiled and made our way towards the shore.  I thought of the Seinfeld line where George says, “The sea was angry that day, my Friends” and made a mental note to say that to Steve when I saw him later.  He was probably just getting started when I had that thought.  I had been in the water for an hour. Nick was in the water somewhere.  I figured Erin had passed me in the lake. I wondered where Tracy was.  People were stripping off their wetsuits.  I was smiling.  I made it.  My longest open water swim ever.  In conditions like THAT.  The swim, all by itself, was a victory.  When it was all said and done, I was probably closer to 2 miles because I kept getting so far off course.  But it was time to put the swim behind me and focus on the next part.

I trudged through the sand and stumbled toward the transition.  I heard several people say things like, “Way to go FLEET FEET!”, “No wetsuit! Wow, that’s hard core!” and “Look at that smile!”  I jumped through the little wading pool to rinse my feet and ran past the wetsuit strippers.  I heard someone yelling my name, so I looked to the right and saw my friend and co-worker Claire in her purple FLEET FEET singlet yelling and jumping up and down.  I waved and smiled and kept on going.  Claire’s husband was competing and she was there cheering us on, that was the only time I remember seeing her on the course, but it was perfect timing.

I got to T1, and it was more than half empty of bikes.  I chatted briefly with one of the girls near me about how ridiculous the swim was, as I was putting on my helmet, socks, cycling shoes, sunglasses.  I stuck a banana in my pocket.  I grabbed my bike off the rack.  Am I forgetting anything?  I looked down and saw my gloves, so I bent down to get them and headed out for the bike.

I made it to the bike leg.  I didn’t sink.  I didn’t drown.  I didn’t just survive, I swam.

Wave 7, Females 34-39 (Yellow) lined up at the start and ready for take off…