On Saturday morning, I was getting ready to go out for an easy ride, leaving from the boathouse which is used as the transition area for Augusta 70.3.  I was minding my own business, just gazing out at the dock that you pass right before exiting the Augusta 70.3 swim course.

Beautiful, right?  Sure…if you don’t know about all the sewage.  Calm and beautiful.  Hey!  Is that a log floating right there?

Yeah?  Right there? Oh a little log or something?

 Nope.

That’s an f-ing alligator.  

I stopped swimming in the river a long time ago for fear of encountering an alligator.  There were rumors of gators.  There were sightings by others.  And for the last two years, the only time I voluntarily get in that river is race day.  Lets be honest, it’s the easest OWS course there is.  No turns, just river current and a straight line swim.  No need to get eaten before race day.

But seriously.  Alli-f-ing-gators. Yes, I know that the Savannah river is too cold up where we are for the gators to be aggressive.  Yes, I know that this is just an adolescent and only like 5 feet long.  Yes, I know that the odds of getting eaten are slim to none.  But here’s the thing, where there’s an adolescent, there’s a mommy.  And I’m not so scared of being eaten.  I’m more scared of coming face to face with a gator in the middle of the river and not being about to go anywhere.  And I’ll just have to have a blinking contest with a gator.  I will no doubt hyperventilate and ultimately drown myself from fear and panic.

It’s a well known fact among my training friends that I won’t swim in the river.   Occasionally after a long hot ride, I’ll jump in to cool off.  Not any more.  Never again.  Shit, my text to my coach when I sent him this photo was “guess I’m not racing Augusta anymore…”  He responded “please don’t post this on facebook.”

And I didn’t…even though I think it is an important PSA for other gator-fearing triathletes like me.  But, I respect him and his wishes not to have the gator panic multiply within the ranks of his athletes.  He didn’t say anything about the blog…

Of course, I will still race come September 30.  Heck, having the largest 70.3 in the circuit has to be good for something…like scaring away all the gators before we get to my swim wave, almost 2 hours after the pros go off.  But I’m a little worried that I’ll work myself up.  I’ve never had race day OWS panic issues before, and I don’t plan to now…and I hope that just doesn’t happen.

But seriously.  Alligators.  Alli-f-ing-gators.