Correspondent BL

This column responds to questions posed by correspondent BL, part-time blog correspondent, full-time 8th grader, and hopeful niece to a future ironwoman.

BL:
Where and when was your first triathlon?

Liz:
Oh, that. August 2003 at Lums Pond State Park in Bear, DE. In January of 2003 I decided to teach myself to swim with an eye toward trying a triathlon. I quickly realized I had a natural penchant for swimming with my head above water so I enrolled in adult swimming classes at the YMCA. The classes were only slightly helpful and unfortunately reminded me of the torturous swim lessons of my youth.

Eventually I was able to swim 800 meters which was the race swim distance, so my friend Brad and I signed up. 800 meter swim, 19.1 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. My stroke was extremely inefficient as I failed to understand the physics behind swimming. My head was not above water, but for all practical purposes my body moved as if it were. For me, the swim was all about getting out of the water on to dry land where my ancestral roots were well grounded.

The swim took me 42 minutes. To give that some perspective, I'm a slow but much improved swimmer and my fastest time at twice that distance is 33 minutes. Why 42 minutes? Immediately at the start I was swum over. This is the unpleasant experience where people swim over the top of you without any qualms. I waited and cleared myself some space before continuing on to the first buoy. Then, head down and driven to touch land, I swam.

Before long I noted that there was no more physical contact. I was grateful. Still, something didn't seem right. I felt the presence of something near me, not a swimmer, not a fish, but something. I stopped and looked up. It was a canoe. I was way off course--way, way off course. The guy in the canoe, who witnessed my cursing, said "Don't worry, you have all day to finish". I was going to quit. All I needed to do was touch the canoe and I would be disqualified. I was willing to accept the tow of shame back to shore. I thought about my nephew serving in Iraq for the 4th Infantry Division, I carried his picture in my shoe. If he could endure the conditions of Iraq, I knew I could at least try to finish the swim. Before my first stroke, I saw another swimmer about 200 yards ahead of me and suddenly I thought, "hey, maybe I won't be last".

Eventually I made it to shore, I passed the other swimmer at the second buoy and the canoe continued in his escort. The bike and run were nothing. I am a land animal. When I finished in approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes I vowed I would never do another triathlon.

Never say never. I can finish that distance in under an hour and a half now and as for competing in other triathlons, I say "bring 'em on."