Hell In The Water

7:00 AM


BOOOOOM!!!

That cannon will strike fear into the heart of any IronMan would-be, and I would think many of the veteran athletes as well. I have been in the artillery and infantry for 7 years, and I have never jumped at the sound of a cannon. I think I got a good 2 feet when that 2nd one went off. This was it. I was now walking in the line, headed toward the water. My heart was pounding. I was trying to fake it, and I couldn't believe I wasn't crying.

I remember hearing the words of a buddy of mine that did IM Louisville in 2009 as his first IronMan, "You won't be nervous as you head down to the water".  HA!  Bullshit man.  I could feel my heart beating in my throat.  I have never been more nervous in all my life.  Not in all the firefights I have been in, not in all the times I have seen soldiers shot, or burning, and near death.  I was prepared for that.  But just as no one can ever predict how they will react the first time they are under fire, I truly believe that you cannot predict how you will react when you are in your last few minutes on land before your first IronMan.  I don't care how badass you are...IronMan is badder.  It will bring you to your knees, whether you admit it or not.  What matters is, will you continue down, and fall on your face?  Or will you lift yourself up, with all of your strength, stand tall, and say, "I can do this.  I KNOW I CAN".

An amazing thing happened. Once I jumped in the water, a calm came over me. "You can do this, man", I told myself. "You've trained, you're ready, you've got this. Just left, right, left, right...and get to the beach", I repeated in my head. I did this, and I felt a lot better once I had beeen swimming for about 25:00.  By this time, I was past the northern point of Towhead Island.

I had started at the southern point of Towhead Island, on the east side of the Ohio River, swam to the north of it by about 400 meters, then turned and headed south, with Kentucky to my left, and Indiana to my right.  The river was about 700 meters across, it varied though, sometimes as much 1,000 meters or so.  I'm not sure of the exact width, but it is wide.  As I swam along the western side of Towhead, where the massive cargo barges are, I could see the two bridges looming in the distance that I would be swimming under.  They seemed to take forever to come to me as I slowly made my way past the big orange Doritos.  I couldn't believe all the fast women that were sliding effortlessly past me.  It was slightly disheartening, but I knew I'd see them again soon.  "Just swim as fast you can, and get to the beach", I kept telling myself.

Under two bridges, which seemed miles apart in the water, and I was within sight if the SWIM OUT arch. "I'm almost there!", I told myself. Due to a slight (read major) miscalculation on my part, I ended up swimming farther than I should have, thus making my time a little longer than I had originally expected. But none of that mattered now, as I could hear the voices of the volunteers yelling for me to swim toward them. I was 100 meters away now. In my eyes, it was all over but the crying. I would smoke the bike and run, and claim my title. I have never been happier to feel a stranger's hand on mine, as the nice lady pulled me toward the metal steps, I clambered up, and took just a second to realize that I was on land! Happy time over, it was back to business. I took off sprinting over the timing mat, ripped my cap and goggles from my head and ran toward transition.

SWIM TIME - 2:00:34




This is me here.  The skinny guy with my goggles and swim cap in my right hand, and black cycling shorts on.