HYDE PARK — Angela Broadway will hurl her body into Lake Michigan on Saturday and attempt to swim a mile in the open waves while people kick and elbow her.
Broadway, a Hyde Park mother of two, will attempt the Chicago Triathlon even though she just learned how to swim in January.
“Before that, all I knew how to do was not drown,” Broadway said.
She said competing in the race, which involves swimming a mile, biking 24 miles and then running 6 miles, will be a major milestone in a two-year journey to wipe away a personal legacy of weakness.
Broadway, 39, said she only briefly enjoyed the natural litheness that some teenagers luck into. Hers quickly faded when she had her first son at 17.
“I never really bounced back from that,” Broadway said. “Once I lost it, it was hard to get it back.”
Broadway said she never really knew how to lose the weight. Her only athletic experience was a couple years on the pompom squad in high school.
She described two decades of working a desk job at Blue Cross and Blue Shield and coming home to watch TV on the couch, eating pretty much whatever she wanted as her weight creeped up to 220 pounds, and Type 2 diabetes set in by age 37.
In 2012, she said she was struggling with a new personal darkness after she and her husband separated. That year she agreed to volunteer at a corporate-sponsored run Downtown.
“I worked the tent and wished that I could be out there running,” Broadway said.
She said she started working on that wish by walking. When the first few pounds came off, she said set aside feelings of shame and fear that people were staring at her body and started jogging.
“Most of that was self-induced,” Broadway said. “The people who are also participating are very supportive.”
Last year, Broadway completed her first marathon and is now down more than 60 pounds.
Now she will face open-water swimming, which her coach Ovetta Sampson said will be more of a mental than physical challenge.
“It wreaks havoc with your mental state because you’re out away from land,” Sampson said.
She said the fear of not being able to stand and take a break as hundreds of people around you are slashing at the water can be too much for some racers.
“People can have panic attacks if they’re not used to the vastness,” Sampson said.
She said problems can be exacerbated when a panicked swimmer loses focus on form, which provides speed in the water. Fear is often heightened when the swimmer slows down and gets waves pushed into the mouth while coming up for air.
“You have to swim with the rhythm of the water,” Sampson said, adding that it took her 30 years to get comfortable swimming in open water.
Broadway said she is ready for the challenge. She said exercising and eating better has helped replace her depression with confidence and helped her face her personal demons.
She said Saturday was a test as she began to grapple with the sudden death of her estranged husband last week.
“I’m planning his funeral as I’m preparing for the race,” Broadway said.
She said the waves of emotion are still washing over her, but every time she trains, it becomes easier.
“This is what gave me life,” Broadway said. “When I went out and did my training, it lifted a tremendous weight from me.”
She said she felt peaceful and focused during a four-hour practice run of the triathlon Saturday. She's ready.
The race will begin at 7 a.m. Sunday at Monroe Harbor, 400 E. Monroe St., with the swimming portion of the race. Racers will then bike up to Hollywood Avenue and back on the lakefront trail. Finally, participants will run from Randolph Street to 31st Street and back on the lakefront trail.
Professionals will compete on the course starting at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Race results will be posted on chicagotriathlon.com.
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