Midnight Swim

It was New Year’s Day and my resolution was to begin my training for the Ironman.  I procrastinated.  At 11:30 PM, I put on my swim trunks and headed for the gym.  Just before midnight, I dipped my toes into the pool.

I wanted to see how long I could swim before my body gave out.  The longest I have ever swam was when I did a sprint triathalon almost a year ago where I swam 100 meters.  How long could I last?  No stopping, just all out swimming, could I do the 2.4 miles?  Could I do it under 2 hours and 20 minutes?

The pool was freezing, I snapped my swimming goggles into place and began.  At the beginning, the hardest part for me was counting.  One, two, three . . . (wait, did I just finish three or start three), I messed up counting already.   The swimming part was easy, up until lap 27.  When my goggles opened up and water began seeping in.  Ahh, the annoyance of chlorine filled water seeping into my eyes, I had to take a quick stop to fix the problem.

In the end, my mind was the hardest thing to overcome.  I kept telling myself that it was ok to stop short, people would understand, I had never done this before.  Any number would be great, but I needed to know how long I could last so I prodded on, lap after lap after lap.  My mind continued to whisper to me, “Give Up.”

On lap 55 my arms began to get heavy and my stroke was not fluid anymore, I kept slapping at the water like a seal who pounds it’s fin on the water’s surface.  I had lost all sense of grace.  On lap 60, my mind won, I knew I could not reach the 78 laps needed to complete 2.4 miles, my first training swim came to an end.

I swam 3,000 meters or 1.86411 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes, well above the pace required to complete the swimming portion of the Ironman race.  Not to shabby considering my longest swim prior to this was 100 meters.