A Starting Point

I'm not going to pretend that the REAL reason I haven't done much swimming in open water is because I've just been SOOOOOO busy.

Because although I have - SERIOUSLY, been SOOOOOO busy - I've also just been SOOOOOO petrified of the open water. Of the lack of walls. And the lack of a bottom I can see. Not to mention, touch. And since the only open water I can get to without a car is the San Francisco Bay, I can't deny that I've also been SOOOOOO afraid of how freaking COOOOOOLD that water would be.

But she made me promise. And on Tuesday, after work, we decided to go. I packed my bag: wetsuit, towel, Body Glide, flip flops, cap and goggles. I said good-bye to The Cat. I told him I loved him. And that if he ever had any desire to scratch me in the eyes, now was his chance. That if he did it now, I wouldn't get mad at him.

Naturally, he didn't pay any attention to me.

So we headed to the water, to Aquatic Park. I could feel my heart thumping the entire way there. It pounded so forcefully, I seriously wondered if an accelerated heart rate ever caused a hair-line fracture in one's sternum. We parked the car, got into our wetsuits, and headed to the beach. AER, who is seriously the most WONDERFUL human being in the entire universe, tried her best to keep me calm and laughing.

She did look pretty silly in her wetsuit and cap...

We entered the water, and my worst fear was realized. That water is miserable. But wetsuits work. After taking a pee - perhaps the best thing about triathlons is not having to wait in the line for port-o-potties - we swam out to the bouyies to start our swim.

But I didn't do that well. My heart was pounding. And I couldn't catch my breath. I started to swim and the water was just SO COLD on my face, my hands, and my feet. I hated not being able to see. I hated the water tossing me off of my course. And I hated how hard it was to breathe.

I started to have trouble breathing. And I started to really panic. But AER never left my side. We swam, then stopped and floated. She talked me down when I became too wound up in the intensity of the cold water, of the overwhelming nature of swimming in The San Francisco Bay.

I only made it a half mile before I just couldn't deal with it anymore. So we swam to shore. And when we made it to the sand, AER hugged me. I started balling. One of those short but sweet wails of exhaustion, embarrassment, sadness, and on some level, a tiny bit of happiness.

My first swim in the San Francisco Bay is behind me. It can't get much worse than that.