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» NOVEMBER 2009
My Ironman Experience (part 2) – Lizelle Pauw

And so the time came closer and closer to the Half Ironman event. As we were boarding the aeroplane to leave for East London, I still could not believe what I was doing!

East London (Buffalo City) was eagerly awaiting all of the Half Ironman participants. Banners, flags and all kinds of goodies awaited us at the airport. Some of the participants were really serious about the event, and we almost had an incident with one of them when she thought we were in her way to get her bike. She quickly realized that she was barking up the wrong tree. We are Iron ladies after all...!!!

Fortunately our rental car was upgraded to a VW bus, so at least our bicycles and the rest of our equipment could fit into the car (you should have seen the performance).Eventually we set off to go and find our accommodation.

Our apartment was right in front of the starting point with a beautiful view from the balcony. It was a view of the ocean that we were about to swim the next day. Every time I walked out onto the balcony and saw that ocean I had heart palpitations. We went to the registration to register, and of course do some shopping at the expo. There is absolutely nothing that relaxes me as much as shopping. I bought myself a new pair of swimming goggles. On this day though, not even the shopping helped me relax. By this time, rumours had also surfaced of a ragged tooth shark that was swimming around in the bay. This news had Jeanne totally freaked out! I was so afraid of the water that I did not even care about the shark!

We decided to go and do a practice swim in the sea the next morning. The buoys were already out in the sea that marked the route. This would be the first time that I would actually swim in the sea and we were going to swim the entire 1.8km’s. I could hardly get on my wetsuit I was so nervous. So off we went ....

There were only small waves around us as we walked into the sea, Jeanne on my left side and Louiza on my right side. I knew that this was it. All the months of preparation in swimming pools, dams, swim drills, visualisation, pep talks came together in one moment. As I started swimming I got a fright when I swallowed my first gulp of salt water.  I had forgotten how salty the sea really tasted. The waves lifted me into the air and then dropped me down. It was as though the sea was breathing. I was watching Jeanne on my left side and Louiza on my right side to make sure that I was swimming in the right direction. I was actually swimming in the ocean. I could not believe it when I got out of the sea “ALIVE” after swimming 1.9km.  What an awesome feeling.  Suddenly I was excited about the next day’s event and not afraid any more. I was shaking with anticipation as we stood on the beach waiting for the start gun to shoot. The moment arrived and off we went, Jeanne on my left and Louiza on my right with thousands of others around us (or so it felt). I swam for my life. When we eventually reached the shore I wanted to cry with joy. The rest of the event went by without any glitches. The feeling when we came to the finish is indescribable. We were tired but elated, we had made it!