By leaps and bounds...

One of the reasons why I decided to join the Iron Team in the first place was to conquer my fear of swimming in open water. A few weeks ago I posted my story about my first triathlon and stated that my swim sucked, mainly because I lost my nerve, panicked, and totally freaked out 50 yards into it. Ever since then I haven't felt right about anything regarding the training and I really wanted another go in the open water before our next scheduled tri in a month's time. Renee, Jesus, Jerald and I decided to go for it and we planned to do our own open water swim at Aquatic Park in San Francisco and I am so glad we did. I took my time, allowed myself to get acclimated to my surroundings, RELAXED, and this time I remembered everything I had been working on in the pool over the last three months and I was able to swim 200 yards non stop several times. It was amazing. I am so happy about this that I can hardly explain it.

It was about 45 degrees that morning but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A beautiful winter day in San Francisco.

Jerald put on his wetsuit for the first time, this was his first open water swim. He was pretty nervous and it took some arm twisting to get him to join us...
We made our way out into the water which was so cold that it was painful to get in. It took a while to get warm again but we did. Wetsuits are amazing...
Once we felt ready to go we headed out to the white buoy which was about 100 yards from shore. Unlike the last time, I was able to swim as I have been instructed, I was able to relax, I didn't go out too hard, and I made it!
I ended up doing four laps total, this is a shot of Renee and I taking off for another lap with Jerald and Jesus looking on.
My last lap was my best, I was comfortable throughout and was pretty happen when I got back.
Renee and I were thrilled with today's swim as we both had rough swims at the practice tri, but we were all very happy and proud of Jerald as he did great in his first time out. Jesus was a great coach today, he put us all in the right frame of mind and told us exactly what we needed to hear. His girlfriend Bertina took the pictures and did a great job as well. What a day!

It's crazy when I think back to late July when I couldn't swim one length of a pool (25 yards) without stopping to catch my breath. I am gaining confidence and skill with the swimming by leaps and bounds! I am back to thinking that I can actually do this...