Fun with Neoprene

My first triahtlon is next weekend, and I've been training since February. The water temperature in Hawk Island Park's lake will probably be around 65 degrees, if it's nice and hot every day between now and then. In other words, it's going to be effing cold. So, to combat the cold temps of my 400 meter swim, I rented a 'for-real-triathlete-bad-ass' wetsuit, which arrived today via FedEx. It looked cool in the bag it came in- getting into it was another story.

This thing was tight. I mean really tight. My husband got a kick out of watching me wriggle, swear, and sweat my way into it, and once it was on he said I only needed a cape to complete my superhero garb. I thought I looked kind of ridiculous- the Xterra website (where the suit came from) had epic photography showing triathletes looking mean and leaping out of the water in slow motion- I just felt a little like I couldn't breathe and that I just might have a panic attack.

I hesitated on posting the pictures of me trying it on- it's pretty ridiculous. But I'd better get over it- next Sunday I'll be leaping out of water in real-time in the wetsuit in front of about 2,000 spectators as I head towards the finish line.