RunGunnRun...(and swim and bike): Kona 2013...The SWIM

Race report! Only 2 weeks post race! I'm breaking it into 3 posts...

Purposely I arrived to the start way early, like before transition even opened! I was like 3rd or 4th in line!! I hate rushing pre-race. My awesome sister/sherpa calmed me through the madness while the rest of the family parked. Bag drop, getting numbered, the whole shebang. It like a cattle call. Michelle got a panic call, WHAT IS A PRE-RACE BAG?!?!?...IS THAT LIKE A MORNING CLOTHES BAG?! Hysterical. I ran into a fellow KCer Jason in transition and had a pep chat with him. Once I had all my bags dropped off, bottles on my bike I was able to hang out with my family and soak it all in. :)

I got in the water as quickly as I could as I wanted to get to my spot and 'chill' for a bit. SOAK IT UP, I told myself, YOU MAY NEVER HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO THIS AGAIN. I lined up way left (away from the buoy line) as I had no desire to get the sh*t kicked out of me. I had no place to line up with those folks on the buoy line. I may have had to swim a bit further but for cleaner water I was all for it. I laid on my back and fought back tears looking at the athletes, the spectators, just soaking up the vibe. What a powerful moment, it will NEVER be forgotten. THE DRUMS, oh my the drums. Michelle had told me to expect them. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it. Yet, I was eerily calm...the nerves weren't there at all. I had poured my heart and soul into getting to this exact spot. I had made it, I had actually made it. With my own body (and the support of so many of my friends and family), I had made it. What a powerful thing. It was go time.

The cannon went off and so did the ~2k athletes. I can't wait to see the NBC coverage. The photos online look amazing. In the mix, all I saw were bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles. It was NUTS. The water in Kona is crystal clear and all of the bubbles were quite the sight! I am not sure if it was the lack of nerves or what I was feeling, but about a minute into the swim I got AGGRESSIVE. Now this isn't a regular IM swim. You're swimming with the best of the best. These guys/gals have done this a ton of times. So the madness isn't AS bad, almost a polite madness. I decided to swim my heart out. I found some feet and stuck on them like glue. In tri, you can legally draft in the swim and it saves A TON of energy. People started to swim over me and 'pull' me off MY feet...oh no ya don't. I was like a jealous crazed ex-girlfriend. I kept my arms wide to keep other women off MY big strong feet. It was super fun! I've NEVER had a fun swim in this distance. Oh and I saw the diver photogs!!! How cool was that? I've always wondered what it would be like to see them. I cry just thinking about it. :) At some point on the way out I actually looked up to sight (I only did this a couple of times, you actually don't even need to!) and saw that I was right on the buoy line. I suppose with that many people it becomes a vortex...it sucked me right into the line I didn't want. What do ya do? I hung on for dear life. I got to the first turn buoy in 30 minutes. Holy cow I was having a hell of a swim, for me. (hm, maybe all that swimming this year paid off?) Motivated to swim a sub 1:10, I kept on strong feet. Rumor had it there was a southern swell...turned out not to be an actual rumor. I did my best to keep on someones feet. Funny, I 'experimented' a bit scooting off the feet a bit and feeling I far back I would fall...bust ass to get back on the said feet and then be ALL OVER THEM. Yup, drafting actually works!

And like that...it was done. Over. 1:10 and some change. PR IM swim IN KONA. VERY happy girl. So happy that I ran into transition, quickly changed, ran right on out without even seeing the volunteers with the sunscreen...oops!