Freakin' out about the open water swim!!

Yes, we've all been there and it can be intimidating.  My recommendation?  If at all possible get to the lake and do a few swims just so you can familiarize yourself with all the feelings of open water.  I didn't do that, and my first open water swim was a disaster!

And welcome to BT!!  Congrats on your success!!

I'm terrified of open water too - but only when training, isn't that weird?  Day of the tri and I'm fine, too busy thinking about everything else to be nervous about that.

I find that swimming with people eases the tension, try to find a group to go with.....(you wouldn't happen to be in the northeast, would you?)

The nice thing about water animals is that they're either going to go after the very front of the pack or the very back of the pack. So, if you are somewhere in between, you have nothing to fear.

As one of my favorite BTers once told me, that's what the guys in the kayaks are for - to beat off the sea beasts!

And your adrenaline will be pumping so hard that you'll barely notice the seaweed. Is there seaweed in Lake Michigan?

I first decided I was going to "do" a triathlon in 1994. It wasn't until 13 years later, in 2007 that I actually did. Why did it take me 13 years to get to the starting line? The swim!

I had some of the same concerns you did plus I knew I couldn’t swim very far (poor technique) without getting exhausted. 

I trained hard (in a pool) for my first open water swim which was the race.  When I actually hit the open water, I was fine.  The hard part is getting to the starting line.  As I was swimming I remember thinking to myself; “This is it?  I thought this was going to be hard”?

If I can do it, I know you can.  You’ll be fine.

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Rob
Triathlon Swimming Squidoo

I can relate.  I'm a strong swimmer by triathlon standards but still had trouble with OWS.  Some of it is just mental, some physical.

Mental:  You can't see or touch the bottom, maybe you can barely see your hands,  you can't see that familiar black line.  Land looks like it is far away, the next buoy looks far away, no lane lines to grab if you panick.  You might have to swim through some kelp. You can get over all of this panick-provoking stuff with a few OWS practices and some mental visual exercises of seeing yourself rock in the swim segment.

Physical:  The water can be cold, which shocks your body upon entry and raises your heartrate.  Lifting your head forward to sight isn't natural for a pool swimmer and can be tiring, which raises your heart rate.  You have a tendency to start out way too fast with all the excitement, which raises the heartrate.  To overcome all this you just need to warm up in the water before the race to get your body used to the temperature, and practice sighting during OWS and pool swims.  And dont' start too fast!

In the end it's just a matter of gaining a bit of OWS confidence and you'll be fine.  Swimming in a lake or ocean really isn't much different from swimming in a pool. You just need to convince your mind and body of that to avoid that freak out / panic thing!

Brian