We say things may be breath taking and this may actually be a discription of beauty. One may say that something took their breath away, and mean they experienced a surprise. I think my breath was taken as 2300 other athletes took the plunge into the water of 64 degrees on June 24th, 2007.
It was 7 am and 52 degrees cold. I was standing there shaking as I watched the waves roll in on that windy morning. The water was so rough,2 minutes before the start of the race, the race director made an announcement that if you wanted to bypass the swim and do a duathlon, they would allow it. What!? I thought, I have trained way too hard, put in too many hours, no way I was opting out. I could not believe it! The water was the roughest they had seen all week. I new this was a mental game. Now I had to win the first battle. Cold temperatures and waves... oh yeah, and 2300 athletes, all about to jump in the water at once. I have to admit, this was the craziest thing that I have ever done (I have done some pretty crazy things). Fifty seven athletes did not swim that morning, and thirty were pulled from the water before they drowned.
One hour and thirty five minutes later, numb to the bone, I finished the first leg of a long journey.
To have your breath taken, has anything ever taken your breath?
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