Q&A and Wetsuit fiasco

First of all, Julie tagged me last week in the Q&A craze that is going through the tri blogosphere. I was too self absorbed then with my race, but now I'm ready for it.

You get to ask me any questions you want, and I'll answer. Want to know about my training, my personal life, my past? Ask anything. If you get so personal, I don't want to be truthful, I'll simply make up an imaginatively false answer, but you'll still get one!

I'm supposed to pass it on, but since I delayed in posting it, it seems like a lot of you have already got it. Consider yourself tagged if you haven't done it yet!

Now, onto our regularly scheduled program...

This past weekend before my race, I did the unthinkable. I put a couple side by side fingernail cuts in my wetsuit! At the time, I took it in stride. Annoying, but I knew it was fixable. Not that long ago, I had looked at some directions online for how to fix them. It seemed pretty doable.

So, Tuesday, I headed into Calgary and to the local triathlon store. My goal was to buy some of the aquaseal I would need to fix the tear. When I got to the store, the guy working told me that they didn't sell the stuff, but they did fix wetsuits. I hadn't brought my wetsuit with me, but it got me thinking that perhaps this isn't an amateur job after all? I asked how much and he said it was $10. I figured that wasn't so bad, so maybe I should just get them to do it.

Then he told that all the people that are allowed to fix wetsuits are away this week, so I couldn't get it done till the following week. Ack! I have plans to go for an open water swim this weekend in a freaking cold lake. No wetsuit, no swim, and it's experience that I dearly need. He told me I could get the stuff at a dive shop (on the other side of the city.)

Frustrated, I headed home. Fortunately for me, Calgary is big enough to have two triathlon shops, so I called the other one. They also didn't sell the stuff, but they told me where to get it - at MEC, which is a short walk from my husband's office. They also assured me that if I followed the directions online, it isn't too tough to do. The aquaseal came home with my husband yesterday, so I went to work.

And got really frustrated.

First of all, I think I put too much on. It didn't dry enough for me to get it to adhere. Then, I couldn't get the two sides to stay joined for it to cure. The cuts were right beside the crotch seam, so not that easy to get it to lay flat.

I'm not really sure how my husband puts up with me sometimes...

"(insert whine here) I neeeeeed this for Saturday. If I don't get it fixed, I can't swiiiiim."

After giving me an insufficient amount of sympathy, we made another attempt at fixing it, used some scotch tape to try to keep it together and left it till the morning.

Still didn't work. So, I drove into Calgary to the triathlon shop that can fix it for me this week. The guy looked at it, and told me it would take about 20 minutes, but there might be a bit of yellow that shows. I said that was fine, as long as it still worked.

20 or so minutes later, I came back. It wasn't a little yellow, it was a lot! It ran the length of both fingernail cuts, plus a bit on either side and wider then I expected. I didn't complain, since it was fixed, but it looked horrible. And, while tri equipment is mainly about function, I still want to look good while wearing it. ;)

I could have complained to my husband, but he surely wouldn't give me the required sympathy for this either. I did however learn a benefit to the wetsuit being black. Sharpie matches fairly well!

So, all is good. I can wear my wetsuit and I can swim.

Any questions?