White Lake Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I stood in the water, waiting for our wave to go off, already terrified. I had a tiny bit of hope that somehow I'd find a way to swim 750 meters; after all look at all these other guys who are going to do it. About 50 meters in my lack of swim train and fear of open water, unknown to me until that moment, took over and I went into full panic mode. Now on my back, not even doing backstroke because I didn’t know how, I tried moving my body in the direction of the finished line – a mere 700 meters away. Ten minutes later I was exhausted and still not to the halfway point. Decision time; ask the guy in the canoe who had been following me to pull me out of the water, OR suck it up and finish my first Tri?

DFLast is better than DNFinsh, which is better than DNTri, so on I went.


Learn to Swim and get over my new found open water anxiety.

At this point, I'm literally happy to be ALIVE – not to mention completely exhausted. Kissing the ground was a thought but I felt poor form so instead I just jogged up the little hill into T1. I put on my sneakers and hopped onto my mountain bike, now determined to finished what I had started.

Too many things to print, but T1 this race was more about salvation than speed.

A strange feeling came over me once I got on the bike. I was suddenly calm, happy, and just enjoying the race. If you’ve ever seen the movie Office Space I was Peter right after seeing the hypnotherapist. Wow, was I slow.

Again, it comes down to training, and mostly swim training. It's amazing to me how much a poor open water swim can impact the bike portion.

Uneventful.

My run fitness, although not great, was the best of the 3 sports, and it showed in my results. I'd normally be very pleased with an 8m 20s mile pace but I rested on the bike allowing me to be fresher and the course was very flat.

Nothing.

None.


Not knowing how to swim and not realizing I have a fear of open water.
Also, my mountain bike didn't help, but by that point the real damage had been done.


The race itself is fantastic; I would recommend it to anyone, especially beginners.

I'm writing this RR in 2010, over five years after the race to help me remember where I started and hopefully down the road not forget how far I've come. After the race the huge challenge open water swimming presented for me kept me away from doing Triathlons. I knew I wanted to come back to the sport “someday” but not until I was properly trained. A little more time passed, my wife and I had two beautiful children, and all of a sudden 4 years had gone by. Once again, it was decision time – let “someday” stay off in the never foreseeable future or get back in the water and overcome my fears. I’m very happy I made the decision to TRI again in 2008 as I’ve found my passion for this sport! Although I’ve yet to overcome my open water swimming fears I know with proper training and the great advice I find at BT I will someday soon.