I Almost Died...No Really, I Did!!!

This last weekend up at the infamous cabin they had a special little festival that they do every year.  It has become quite fun and continues to get bigger and bigger each year. They have lots of races for the kids (sack races, three legged races, peanut spoon races, etc) and they each get a ribbon for participating and if they finish in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place they get a colored ribbon and their name printed in the newsletter.  We try to go up every year as the kids love it so much.  

Now, as you all know, I have been training for this stupid triathalon for the past year (and not really liking it but, whatever).  So, I was excited to see that I could compete in a tri at this festival and it would be fun and easy and laid back and easy (wait did I already say that?).  It was perfect since they did all three stages but, they spaced them out over two days...PERFECT, since I was concerned about doing all three events with little time in between to rest.  So, here I had it...I was stepping up to do this and thought "Good way to start and this was going to be easy peasy."  

Ummm, ya, well, I had never done an open water swim before...Holy Crap...that was no fun AT ALL!!  It was a half mile swim and I knew about an eighth of a mile in that I was in trouble.  I could not get into a rhythm and I couldn't put my face in the water.  This has never been a problem before and every time I would put my face in, I would FREAK out because I couldn't see a thing.  It was all murky and not the least bit like swimming in a pool.  So, I thought "Well, I will just keep my face out of the water then."  This was good in theory but, I kept getting splashed in the face by other swimmers wake and literally kicked in the face several times.  I begin to think..."Oh crap, I can't do this" and I begin to look at my options.  I cannot turn around since I was so far out at this point that it would not have mattered.  I could not be plucked out by a boat since they were all kayaks and canoes and I would certainly pull them in with me in my freak out session.  So, I continued to swim and think and freak out and swim and freak out and think.  This was spirit crushing for me since I thought that the swim would be the best event for me...apparently not since I almost drowned.

I continued to swim with the encouragement of my super hot hubby (he was great...he swam with me even though he could have gone much faster).  I finished the half mile swim completely out of breath and so excited to receive the participation ribbon.  I was so proud of myself that I did not finish last...I finished second to last, in front of a fit young man in his 20's.  I won't even tell you he was drunk at the time of the swim but, I totally beat his ass!!!