I visited TriSports this morning and got fitted for a wetsuit. What an experience. I have never tried one of those things on before, and never intended to use one simply because I don't want to deal with it. Another reason that I didn't want to use a wetsuit is that one of the big wetsuit brands is ORCA. So, you get in your wetsuit and head off to the swim: a person encased in a black rubber suit, with white streaks on the side, with ORCA stamped on it. That just wasn't going to happen. However, last night at the TriGirls meeting, everyone was going on and on about how great it was to use a wetsuit and that you used less energy and all that stuff, that I decided to at least go try one on. Peer pressure.

It should have crossed my mind that you try on a wetsuit over a swimsuit. However, once I figured out a way around that problem, and I got through the horror of having to tell the guy helping me how much I weighed, he got a suit out for me and I went to the changing room and wrestled the thing into submission. It is good that there are instructions on the back of the changing room door on how to approach getting into the suit.

I got it on as far as I could get it, but couldn't get the zipper to go up. The TriSports guy came to the changing room and told me not only that the suit looked like it might be a little loose, but that I needed to pull it up my legs even farther. Now, I could believe that the legs (and arms) had to be pulled farther up, but too loose?? There was no way that wetsuit was too loose. How do people function in these things?? Bending over wasn't easy. The TriSports guy helped me out pulling the legs and arms up, and then the zipper went up easily.

I got in their pool and WOW -- that thing really does give you a LOT of buoyancy! It was amazing! I had no trouble at all moving my arms or breathing, and I was bobbing around like a cork! I may be converted to the wetsuit cause. The TriSports guy let me take the wetsuit home with me so that I could wear it for a while at swim practice tonight to get used to it and, assuming everything is going to work out, I put in a reservation for Show Low, so that I could have it for my race in June.

Getting the wetsuit off was no problem at all -- it just peeled off. However, looking at myself in the mirror, all decked out in the wetsuit, was strange. There I was, in a full length, long sleeve, black rubber suit. There wasn't a single line or indentation or anything on my entire body -- everything was totally smoothed out. It didn't even look like I had a chest. It was amazing! The power of the wetsuit: buoyancy and total smoothness for streaking through the water like a shark! Let's hope I get that kind of speed during the race!