I Had No Idea What I Was Getting Into

Yesterday I saved 6 people from drowning and towed 20 more exhausted swimmers to safety.  No kidding….and there were 8 of us that stacked up similar statistics.  

I am utterly exhausted. It was an emotional day for me.

I don’t know quite where to begin. The Event was The Spartan Race, and the Venue was The US National White Water Center in Charlotte, NC.

The race is on of those challenges of endurance where contestants run, crawl, scale walls, jump over fires and swim.  

We were briefed at 8AM and were in the water by 9. I didn’t get out of the water for the day until 7PM.

My training for rescue thus far has been role playing.  Very soon after 9AM I helped a panicked swimmer.

She was the lead female in the event and she was exhausted and determined to finish on her own power.  She began turning circles like a drowning rat beside my rescue kayak. Then she panicked.  The first save of the day.

There we so many tows, leg cramps that needed massaging in water, and soon I could spot a swimmer who was going to be in trouble before they knew it.

What killed me is there were people who couldn’t swim who would jump off the platform into 6 foot deep water with strong currents.  

What I liked best was my duty in water with a flotation device and a life vest. I would prowl the waters looking for problems and was there with them first hand to rescue.  

The worst cases was a woman who was panicked, and draped over my kayak suffering from a laryngospasm.  Google that if you will

Every part of me hurts today. I must have burned thousands of calories. 



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2 comments:

Ken said...

Applauding loudly!!!!!!

Wow!

terri said...

What an amazing experience! I can understand why you'd be exhausted - both physically and emotionally.