It’s Tuesday, my swim day.  I’m a runner, not a swimmer.  But since my friends thought it would be “Fun” to sign up for a half Ironman this summer, and for some dumb reason I agreed (there may have been alcohol involved in that decision), I have designated Tuesdays as my swimming day.

It started over a year ago, when Farrell signed up for Ironman Arizona.  2012 was, for me, about forging unknown territory, so I figured I’d take on the new challenge of the triathlon world.  Farrell agreed to do Lake St. Louis with me and talk me through the whole process.  In turn, I convinced one of my Thursday night social runners to sign up too.  That social runner was Steve.  And that was the very beginning of our Will and Grace relationship.  Then we pulled Nick in to our little crew. From there, our triathlon group has grown and now there is something like 15 of us who will be traveling north up 55, past Chicago, into Wisconsin this summer to conquer Racine 70.3.

Just over a month ago, I started taking swimming lessons.  I, very literally, had only swum laps a handful of times. (Yeah, that’s right, I said swum, spell check informed me ‘swam’ was incorrect)  Somehow I managed to survive a .932 mile swim last year at the first and only triathlon I’ve completed.  I can’t say competed in, because it was my goal to merely survive.  It was ugly.  I mean, it was reeeeeally ugly.  Entire waves of people who started behind me all passed me, climbing over me in the water.  I’m pretty sure there was only one other bright pink swim cap (designated for Females 35-39) left on the course when I crawled out of the water gasping for air.  And I had to do WHAT after that?!  Go ride 24 miles on a bike and then run a 10k?  Are you kidding me?!  My ego preceded me when I thought I should sign up for the Olympic distance over the Sprint distance because I thought…Ha! I can run a 5k OR a 10k in my sleep, backwards and blindfolded.  Uhhh, yeah, try doing that immediately following two other athletic feats and let me know how that turns out for ya.  The 10k at LSL was without a doubt, the slowest, most difficult and most mentally challenging 10k of my entire running career.

I’m always up for a new challenge, so why had I not tried triathlons already?  I’ll tell you why not.  Swimming.  It’s scary.  You actually have to put your face under the water, where you can’t get oxygen, which is necessary for breathing, while exerting extensive amounts of energy at the same time.  That’s just dumb.  But ya know what’s even more scary?  Admitting that I’m going to try to do something that I really, really suck at.  I’m exposing my weaknesses.  I’m declaring to everyone that sees me, this is something that doesn’t make me feel strong, in fact, it makes me feel incredibly vulnerable and insecure.

Walking in to the pool that first day, I felt like a first class loser.  I felt like everyone was going to be looking at me wondering “What in the world is she doing?”  And I’m not just talking about my swimming technique, or lack thereof.  I’m also talking about the fact that I know nothing of pool etiquette.  I am going from the realm of running, where I feel like I can hold my own; to the realm of the great unknown.  How is it that my best friend was a college swimmer, and I know absolutely nothing about the sport? Nothing other than the name Michael Phelps, that is.

As human beings, we have this tendency to shy away from things we aren’t good at.  But here’s the thing…if we haven’t ever done it before, we’re not supposed to be good at it.  Everything takes practice.  Everyone has to start somewhere, whether that’s swimming or running or what have you.  I’ve taken almost a full hour off of my marathon time from my first to my best.  That didn’t happen overnight.  That happened over the course of 7 YEARS. Granted I had 3 children during those years, but still, it took a while.  And none of my children came into the world knowing how to walk, or talk, or feed themselves.  It was a learning process.  A long, messy, some scraped knees, lots of tears and frustration, process.

The good news is, in just a few weeks, I’ve come a long way with swimming.  I feel 100 times more confident in the water.  And I can already tell my stroke is way more efficient than the spaztic splashing I called swimming not that long ago.  I actually believe that when I get to Racine for that 1.2 mile swim in July, I’m not going to feel like the complete disaster that I was in Lake St. Louis. I’ve actually made progress, because I tried.  I still won’t be the fastest or the best one out there, but who cares?!  There’s always going to be someone better than me at most stuff.

Here’s my point…when we face the things we’re afraid of, or the things we just don’t know how to do, we find out that they really aren’t that scary after all. We just have to take a deep breath, get out there and try. The scarier part is exposing ourselves as less than capable at something, less than perfect.  Well, I’m calling it out.  I am WAY less than perfect.  (Imperfect People Unite!) There are lots of things I don’t know how to do.  But I’m not going to let any kind of fear stand in my way of trying!

Something Coach Andy says to me is, “Breathe as often as you need to.”   That’s a good thing to always remember.  Because sometimes life is just a series of deep breaths…

Lindsey squared aka The Ironman and the Novice (I’m the novice)