First Open Water Swim

Today was my first ever open water swim!  I was very nervous about it and thought about it all day.  The plan was to go out to a riverfront public park, David would kayak and I would swim.  We'd trade off when the swimmer got tired.

My biggest fear was that the water would be freezing.  I can't stand being cold and I'm a pretty big wimp about it.  Seventy degrees is still jeans weather for me.  Before we unloaded the kayak I went to check the water temperature to see if I'd even be able to get in.  It was like a bath!  The water at the gym pool is much colder.  Now, a slew of other fears came to the forefront.  Maybe the water was too warm.  Was I going to get an amoeba?  Was I going to drown?  It's close to sunset and I think that's when sharks feed.  Am I going to get bit by a shark?  I watched shark week once about 10 years ago and I've never been able to get into the ocean without thinking about it.

I was nervous but figured it was better to face my fears now rather than when I was racing.  The water was less than knee deep much further off shore than I expected.  There were some sailboats anchored out in the distance and I had to walk all the way out to them before the water was deep enough to swim in.  When I started swimming a lot of things I hadn't considered happened.  First, the water was salty!  Duh.  I hadn't thought about that.  I couldn't see anything.  I knew I wasn't swimming in a pool so I wouldn't have the line at the bottom of the pool to keep me going in a straight line, but I couldn't even see my hands during my stroke.  The waves weren't big, but they were big enough.  I could feel my body bobbing and the waves splashed into my mouth a couple times when I was trying to breath.  I also didn't realize how crooked I swim when I can't see where I'm going.  I swing way out to the left.  I didn't look up to see where I was going on my first few strokes and when I finally looked up I was going a good 45 degrees or more from where I thought I was headed.

I thought my pool workouts would have prepared me for an open water swim.  Comparing open water swimming to pool swimming is like comparing jogging on a treadmill to jogging uphill against the wind.  Not at all the same workout.  My initial plans to only do one open swim per week may have to be thought out again.

I took some good lessons away from my first open water swim.  I'm less worried that I'll get eaten by sharks, and I'm less afraid of drowning.  I have a more realistic view of what the swim will be like for the Pineapple Man and I still have a lot of work to do!