Training day at Williamsburg

I wasn't going to do a race report but the more I thought about it and
the more comments I got from other friends and family the more I wanted
to put my day/weekend down on paper; in writing.  
Let's call this a race/Training report shall we. I'm going to start with
Saturday, the Saturday before the race. We went for a practice swim. No
wet suit, in my regular bathing suite, nothing fancy.  The water was
PERFECT. I couldn't ask for better, really. For ME to say that is just
craziness.  I just swam to the first buoy and back to see how thing were
going to be and I didn't want to get to tired or stressed. So A+ for the
practice swim.
Race Morning.  It's POURING!  I means POURING cats and dogs at 3:30 am,
4:30 am and FINALLY at about 5am it slows down, we make it to
transitions get our set up, there at TWO this time, which is VERY
daunting, I've never done this before. Coach Ed say's that I'm going to
be late to my our funeral, which is probably true but, I got down to the
water and got my wet suit on with the help of Rich, thank GOD, thank you
SO much!!  Just in time. So I'm a little nervous at the start but I'm
generally fine because of Saturdays swim and I feel ready, I feel great!
My wave goes off...we walk to the first buoy <smile>, I get to swim deep
water and go...feeling pretty good, it's a little rough, but it's still
ok. I'm getting mouthful of water and people are swimming EVERYWHERE,
ok, good, 'I'm fine, good practice for Ironman Florida' I tell myself
'Just keep going, your fine' {kick in the face} 'your fine keep going
and sighting'.   It seems like the minute I passed the buoy for the
international distance the water just got worse. I got on my back to get
a full breath and calm down, I turned back around to keep going and
every time I'd look up and sight I'd be pushed back or over 5 feet away
from the red buoy (the one the I needed to get to).  I saw a jet ski and
I decided to hold onto it for a second, I looked around, I saw Patti
Jackson and someone else saw holding on as well.  Quite honestly there
was a lot of confusion.  I ended up swimming to a boat because they said
that I had to get out of the water, then they were saying that that
ferry was coming, then I went over to comfort another racer that got
pulled and though that was out of the race as well and she was VERY
upset as well. Then we found out that we weren't out of the race, we HAD
to get out for safety because the ferry would've taken us under. We
could get back in and try again if we wanted to; so I got back in and
tried again!  I swam, and swam and swam for what it seemed like forever
and got...no place. How frustrating!  I couldn't even get to the next
buoy. So me and some other guy go back into the other boat. GAWD how
infuriating! Back to the beach we go to take the walk to return our
chip.
So I talked to a few teammates, Janet Chow, Rich and others. Walked up
to Coach Ed and Alexis saw the look on their faces; Ed walks up to me,
say's something like "Broughton turn the frown upside down!" So I did
because I listen to my coach <smile>.  He told me to get on my bike do
the course and treat this as a training day, so...I did!  I got on my
lovely bike that I love, because I didn't go there just to swim. I rode
that hilly ass course, I had ok nutrition, I stopped a few times for the
potty (aka good nutrition) I have to relax my neck on the bike though,
god my back and neck hurt! It got hot at about mile 40, otherwise the
weather was perfect.  I got back from my bike ride, got something to eat
then went for a run with Michele Tucker.  We run into Patti Jackson and
decided to stick with her to keep her company to her finish. THAT was a
HOT long, hilly 6 miles of run walking. 
So what I heard was that 100 people got pulled from that swim, and about
20 teammates. Some of the strongest swimmers had times like 55 minutes
for that 1.2 mile swim (that's almost double their time).  I checked my
watch while I was in the boat, I swam for 48 minutes and got nowhere.
It's not me. Its' not my lack of trying, training or otherwise.  It just
wasn't my day, I'm still waiting for my day but my say will come. When
that day comes it will be the sweetest day EVER.
Tune out the negative sounds around you.