Ok so here's the thing. I just learned how to swim two years ago. Prior to that I was terrified of the water. Hadn't been in a pool as long as I could remember. I wasn't even really comfortable with a hot tub or a wading pool.
So I took lessons. Down at the sketchy Beltline community pool. Turned out all I really needed was goggles. As long as I could see what was going on around me I was fine. Fast-forward two years and now I'm training for a triathlon. I do my swim training at my 25m salt water pool. Its 1.5m deep throughout. Lit from underneath. Three lanes and I rarely have to share a lane. Pretty idyllic.
Here's the problem. The triathlon is in Lake Okanagan. I can't see the bottom of the lake. It's 230m deep. You can't know what's down there! I'm afraid of fish swimming around me. What's lurking in the weeds underneath? Can anyone tell me definitively that nothing will swim up beside me an want to eat me? What about squishy things under my feet? Plus there's that whole ogo-pogo thing that I can't even think about. So it's not if I can finish the 750m swim. It's not the 20km bike, it's not even the 5km run. It's Ogo-Pogo and I'm not afraid to admit it.
2 comments:
Anything you feel against your legs will probably just be Eurasian Milfoil.
I can pretty well guarantee you will feel something squishy under your feet as you run in and out. It's called sand.
Unless there isn't any sand and instead its little rocks. (Stupid Canadian lakes.) I'd be more scared of the little rocks and running on them.
Either way it may be uncomfortable, but if you're thinking of all the weird things that could happen to you then your not really in the racing "zone" are you? Just try focusing on swimming faster instead.
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