open water

after waking up to thunderstorms which forced the cancellation of our final scheduled open water swim (which was to be my first, believe it or not), i was able to get with 2 other triathletes (crispin & david) in the late afternoon for an icey dip into lake lanier. WOW. my feet went numb in a minute. i wished i had a full wetsuit, instead of the sleeveless one recommended. i danced around on my tippy toes, trying to delay the inevitable. finally i took a deep breath and dove under. instantly, my breath was gone... the cold water seemingly compressing my chest, forcing any air out. my first lap was rather messy: my
breathing was shallow, forcing me to come up every 2 strokes instead of 3; i was rushing my stroke, which probably didn't help the breathing situation... took in a few mouthfuls of lovely lake water; and my siting was a bit off - those buoys look quite tiny when you are sea level! my second lap ended up being much better... took my time, evened out my stroke, which in turn improved my breathing a ton. we were freezing and called it a day after that. i was bright pink, david was turning a bluish purple, and crispin - well, he just stayed black ;-) while i only swam about 400m, i'm definitely glad i got a chance to get in the water for a swim before heading down to panama city beach (and glad i got another chance to practice squeezing in to that damn wetsuit!).