Pacific Crest Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The morning of the race I screwed around at the Transition and did not get a warm-up swim in. I had about 5 minutes in the water before my heat started. While the weather was sunny and warming up nicely the water was 57 to 59 degrees which felt very cold to me.

I went out slow and controlled. I tried to build speed on every turn. I lifted my head for navigation on every. I used a modified bi-lateral breathing pattern. At about 300 meters I started to hyperventilate. I threw up into the water twice. At this point the beach curved away from the course. I decided to take the DNF vice risk getting sick again in the water.

Not exactly a shining moment for me, I was able to breast stroke to the beach. It took about 5 minutes to regain normal breathing and for the nausea to go away.

Because my son was in the hospital and the weather has been wet this year with little sunshine I only had one open water swim. The open water swim was at Vancouver Lake which is warm. I tried an off road triathlon a couple of years ago and had the same issue of shakes and nausea.
To make sure this does not happen again I am going to:
• Get in a long warm-up the day prior and race day
• Review Cold Water swimming techniques
• In race season swim open water every 10 days

It is funny but the only time I felt bad about my DNF was watching my friends cross the finish line. Although the swim of shame to the beach wasn’t much fun either. I feel as long as I learned something from the event it wasn’t necessarily a waste. Sure I didn’t get to really race but, I am going to be just that much fresher and better trained for Troika in five weeks. I also learned to pay attention to water temperature and educate myself for colder water swimming.