From DNF to Swimming in 55 Degree Water—No Problem!

Many of you don’t know it, but my triathlon career started with the dreaded DNF. Did Not Finish! The words any competitor doesn’t want to ever have on his/her race record are DNF. I hate to say it, but that wasn’t my first DNF. In 2002 my wife and I tried to run the dreaded Huff Ultrafrigid Ultramarathon. It is held around New Years Eve (late December) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Yes, I said northern Indiana in the middle of winter! You bet it was like 0 degrees out and I had no idea about how to run 30 miles up and down hills in 10 below 0 windchill weather. After two 10 mile loops I DNF’ed. I figured frostbite wasn’t worth this! Plus I hadn’t eaten for like 15 miles. I didn’t know you were supposed to eat during ultramarathon events. I know, I’m a dope sometimes.

My next dopey thing I did was sign up for a half Ironman Triathlon in Lake Michigan for my first Triathlon. I signed up for the first Racine Half Ironman Triathlon. I believe the year was 2003. Don’t mind the fact that I barely knew how to swim and was having panic attacks even in the pool. I invited my father, mother, and of course Marion was there. I promised my father if I was about to drown that I would DNF. My wave started. I hit the water and it was freezing. I didn’t know you should get used to the water and practice swimming before the race. You need to do that to calm your nerves. After about 5 minutes of swimming I was hyperventilating and noticed the water depth was over my head. I felt claustrophic and couldn’t see the bouys. I didn’t know at the time that they sold prescription goggles. Go figure. People were passing me. My goggles were fogging. I didn’t know about the stuff you spray on the inside of the goggles to prevent fogging. I tried to calm my breathing but couldn’t. I saw a kayak and swam over to it. I wanted to get in the kayak but the 16 year-old managing it didn’t want me to. She wanted me to still swim. I said I am done, I don’t want to swim. I didn’t know at the time that you actually can hang onto the kayak and start swimming again. I thought that once you went to the kayak you were disqualified. Go figure!

As I sat in the kayak I saw others who the cold water was getting to. There were two other people that had to be rescued. One person was really struggling in the water. I later learned that the temperature was like 58 degrees in the water. As a small motor boat brought me back to shore, I could see Marion looking through her binoculars way out in the lake looking for me. She slowly moved over the horizon to try and see me until she looked right through me. I gingerly waved as she saw me in the boat just 10 yards in front of her. It was awful at the time, but funny now. She is looking like ½ mile into the lake and the boat placed me like 10 yards from her, it was a classic. As I stumbled out of the boat and back to transition to get my stuff, the pro triathletes were coming out the water. People were cheering and looking at me weird like “why is this guy walking.” So I started running toward the transition area. Most pros fly through the transition and onto their bikes in like 62 seconds. I could see people pointing at me like “why is this guy fumbling around with his bike and not hurrying out of transition?” I got all my stuff and put my head down and headed toward the car with my family. It was an awful, awful experience and strengthened my fear of the water.

Fear of the water continues. I had many more panic attacks in the water and wondered if I would ever get over the fear of water? Even in my first Ironman race, I had a panic attack in the water. Fortunately, three weeks prior to the event, I had a panic attack in a very calm lake. My friend Tim calmed me down and I ended up having a nice swim. I was able to do the same thing in Ironman and had a great swim.

Freezing Lake Michigan – year 2007: I am skipping a lot, but it is now today, 3 years after my first Iironman triathlon. My friend Chris is training for Ironman Wisconsin and this is our first Lake Michigan swim of the year. I checked the weather sites and they said waves were just one foot today. We were psyched to swim in the lake. We were hoping to do two miles. As we approached the lake, the waves were just one foot. There were some triathletes in wet suits coming out of the water. They told us the water was freezing and there was no way you could swim today, even with a full length wetsuit. Our wetsuits were sleeveless. As we both entered the water immediately our feet froze. Because we went through a lot of effort to get to downtown Chicago to Lake Michigan, traffic, parking, etc. (about 45 minutes), I was determined to swim.

Chris and I entered the lake where two triathletes were already there but not moving. They did not want to swim. Fortunately Chris and I had head masks/covers that were made out of the same material as our wetsuits. I had a feeling they would keep my head warm. Since I was here to help Chris I jumped in and started swimming. I swam about 100 meters and was frozen from the tips of toes to the tips of my ears. I looked back and noticed those three had not started swimming. I did this again after another 200 meters and again those three had not started swimming. I decided to just relax and swim close to the wall, which has ladders so if I felt anything bad happening to my body I would climb out.

I carefully watched my breathing, and the more I swam the better I felt. The lake water was never so clean! It was amazing, I felt like I was in an aquarium. The water was so clear, it was like swimming in the Carribean. I got into a groove and just felt great. I swam the whole mile in about 33 minutes. It just felt great! I was hoping to swim another mile but went onto the shore and noticed Chris shivering. He was obviously hypothermic and in bad shape. We kept his wetsuit on. I put socks on him and we covered him with everything we had. I made sure he was as warm as we could get him.

Eventually Chris made it to the car where we turned the heater on full blast. After roasting in the car for about 10 minutes, he started to look and feel like his old self. It was scary for him. I just talked to him and he ended up running for 65 minutes later in the day, so he is fine. What amazed me about the day was I was probably the only person in Chicago that swam without incident in Lake Michigan today. I even wanted to do another mile! Not only have I overcome my fears of swimming, I have overcome my fears of swimming in Lake Michigan when it is freezing! Honestly, it was no problem.

Face your fears: Many of us have unfounded fears. They can cripple us. Sometimes we don’t know how or when they develop. I used to be fearful and I mean deathly fearful of public speaking, swimming, enclosed spaces, not being liked, and a host of other fears. I have learned over time that all you can do is your best. If you have given something a decent effort, that is all you can do. Whether someone is going to like you or not, or whether you win the game or not, does not change who you are. I am Ross Hauser. Some people will like me and some people won’t. Whether I swim well or do well in a race doesn’t really matter because all I can do is give a decent effort. When I have given a great effort regardless of the result I should be and am happy. As our pastor often said “He is God and you are not.” I am not God, so I will make mistakes and I don’t know everything. In a nutshell, I am Ross Hauser, Christian, medical doctor, husband, friend, co-worker, son, brother, uncle, associate, boss, and hopefully, overall good guy. Whatever happens in athletic efforts or in one particular interaction with someone is not going to define me. I am who I am. If I am giving a decent effort then surely God, my parents, my wife, my coworkers, my friends and others will, for the most part, say Ross Hauser, he’s an overall good guy!

RH