One of the reasons I started this blog was for me to have a way to share my experiences and potentially be able to help others along the way. I know I haven’t had a good track record of keeping up with my experience sharing but definitely know I have been able to help others in many different ways. From getting co-workers to do 5ks to ironman and anything in between. Those have been really great moments when I get “Thank yous” from people I have inspired to get active, I don’t see it as a big deal and do not go out to the world talking about it, I simply take them, and hope they pay it forward the same way.
One of the many stories that have touched me was the one from last weekend. One of the ladies from a Facebook group we belong to posted something about how frustrated she was with her fear for open water swims. Backing up a little, for those of you who might think it is just as easy as swimming in a pool, it isn’t. There is a lot that goes through your brain when you enter a body of water that isn’t a nice clean pool. It typically is the nemesis of every beginner triathlete, some overcome it and some can’t move on. In our case Felipe had a ton of issues early on with it. From panics and just in general which was strange because he had a swimming background. Me instead with no swimming back grown was totally fine with the lake. After multiple swims at the lake where I literally had to swim next to him reinforcing him that it was ok he finally let go of the fear and managed to leave me in the dust as he always does :).
Anyways, enough of a rewind, back to last weekend. Once we saw the post on the group we reached out to her, we’ve chatted with her before but hadn’t met her. She lives about 30 minutes away from us and trains a lot by her self which we figured was one of the issues. It is hard to get a good sense of safety in open water when you are alone, and yet you shouldn’t get in alone either.
Latina and Tri-ing 