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Nothing Scares Her Anymore...

Wednesday, 03 September 2014 00:10

By Suzie Fox (suz--news.blogspot.com)

About a week before an Ironman I start to get a little anxiety about the mass swim start, it is very violent and crowded to say the least. However after Kona and IM Cabo I am not nervous about the Wisconsin start this year. My heart rate will still be higher in the first 5 to 10 mins of the swim then it will be the entire day and I will still have to be attentive and swim defensively with my arms protecting my head. Two years ago before IM WI I was absolutely terrified of the swim start but after 3 IMs in the bank and the chaos of my last two starts I feel like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone running out his front door shouting, "Hey! I'm not afraid anymore!"              

I was trying to find footage of the mass swim start at the 2014 IM Los Cabo and I ended up finding coverage of the entire event and it makes me want to go back and race there so bad! Anyway the mass beach swim start is at 7:15 and it still gives me chills. It is beautiful and horrifying at the same time and was 5 times more frightening than a waist deep mass IM start....

Kona was the worst of the worst! Everyone there is totally nuts and ridiculously competitive so the start is a brutal washing machine of kicks and punches. The Kona swim never seemed to eventually break up like the other qualifying IMs I've done because everyone there is the best of the best in their own little corner of the world and the competitors are all much closer to the same pace then the other IMs. I took just as many blows at the turn around and at random points throughout the swim then I did at the beginning. You hold your place and pace at Kona out of fear because if you slack or slow for a just a second you will get trampled by every person still left in the water behind you. READ MORE