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 Swim
Comments: Okay, this swim did not go as planned, and did not go well at all. I had a total OWS nutzo freak-out adrenaline extravaganza with extra claustrophobia sauce on the side. What was so great about this freak-out is that I was totally unprepared for it. I mean, I've been swimming in the pool training for my first tri for about six months, and I've swum off an on for years before that, though swimming is still my weakest discipline. I've done OWS, as recently as last week. So I was more concerned all this week with the water temp and with getting all my gear to the TA on time -- and once I had done that before the swim start, I thought I had all the tough stuff done, and I wasn't expecting any difficulty. And THAT'S WHEN THEY GET YOU! Swim start was fine -- maybe 50 or so in my wave for the sprint tri, and we were the first wave. I started back and to the right, trying to stay out of the way once the wave reached the left hand turn at the end of the course. I shouldn't have worried -- after about the first 100 meters, I started my gonzo OWS freak out, and I got dropped to the back of my wave pretty quickly. This is the way I remember it: I started out okay, thinking mostly about my position in the swim wave, rather than the water temp or my swimming form or the course or anything else. And after wading with the pack a bit, we all dived in and started swimming. I got about 100 meters in doing okay -- good form, breathing on every fifth stroke, looking left at another swimmer to keep on course. And I was fine -- until I couldn't get quite enough air. Switched to every fourth stroke, trying to take a long breath in TI "sweet spot" every couple of breaths. Still couldn't breathe. Switched to every other stroke. Couldn't breathe. Starting to get a stitch in my side. Started to breath on every stroke. Went to breaststroke. Couldn't breathe, stitch in my side, and I started CHOKING when the water hit my face, even though my face was out of the water by now. Switched to backstroke, and tried to quit hyperventilating. Did that for a while, then tried to switch back to freestyle. By this point, I'd dropped way back into the trailing edge of my wave. But that wasn't the worst thing -- when I rolled back over to freestyle, I COULDN'T GET MY FACE BACK IN THE WATER. Just couldn't do it. The rest of the swim was just me piecing together a minute or so of freestyle with a minute of breaststroke. I got passed by some of the next wave (women's sprint), and then by some of the next NEXT wave (men's international distance). But I was still hanging out with some of the last bits of my wave by the time I got out, and most importantly, I did get out -- I did finish, and I did keep swimming, and I didn't give up, even though I was totally freaked out. What would you do differently?: Not freak out.  Transition 1
Comments: Forgot to put out SOCKS when I set up my TA! I'm a newbie, I need these. Had to fish them out of my backpack, put em on, drink some water, and go. Hey, I thought that putting your race belt on at T1 to have it on during the bike and the run was the way to go. Seemed to be fairly few doing this -- I guess they'd wait to put it on in T2? Am I wrong here? What would you do differently?: Remember sockies. Not freak out in the swim.  Bike
Comments: Ah, well, the bike. All I had to do was take my bike off the rack and I felt better. I love my bike. I love riding my bike. And so I got on the bike, and I just RODE. Nice. Loved it. Was able to keep a nice cadence and speed through most of the first 4/5ths of the bike. Passed a bunch of people -- mostly because I was so far back in the swim, I assume. I also think I was passing a bunch of sprint duathlon people. Only got passed by one speedy guy on an Orbea, and he and I played friendly pass tag for a while before he dropped me on the final climb. I said something chatty to everybody I passed, and in general had a great damn time. Drank a full bottle of water in a few different takes. Only problem came at the end when I was climbing a few small hills. The bike isn't entirely tuned right -- skipping a bit in the granny gears. I tried to get the LBS to fix it, they didn't so I've been fiddling with it ever since, and I still don't have it quite right. Coulda done a bit better with some bike sexpertise. Anybody got some? This is where the guy on the Orbea caught me. And as I'm climbing that last hill, I could look up and see the elite sprint guys crossing the dam on the run -- it was a bit disheartening. I was hoping to be closer to the FOMOP on this one, not in the BOMOP, but the swim just did me in. Well, I'll do better next time. What would you do differently?: Tune the bike better. Remember sockies. Not freak out in the swim. Transition 2
Comments: Kool Moe Dee. Everything's good. I was even taking it easy on this. What would you do differently?: Not freak out in the swim.  Run
Comments: Great run, great route, loved it. First mile was just over 7 min/mile, but I then didn't see the next mile marker so I didn't get a split. Fairly certain I was slowing down over the race, but I didn't care. I knew I was slow, so I was just having fun. Giving high-fives, talking to people, looking around, enjoying it. What would you do differently?: Not freak out on the swim. Post race
Warm down: Met DW at the finish line, got some photos taken, (disappointed that there were no finisher's medals, just top places in each AG and race). Still, got some pasta, took a shower in the open-air showers, picked up my bike and got out of there a triathlete. In celebration of that fact, I went to Fado's and had two pints of Guinness and a Trinity Steak Boxty. What limited your ability to perform faster: Huh. I'm not really sure how to define what caused, or perpetuated, my open water swim freakout. I would make a guess that it was a combination of an adrenaline rush and the washing-tub effect. Everything else about the OWS I've done before -- swimming in a trisuit, swimming in open water, swimming fast, swimming CONSIDERABLY longer than this distance. The only thing that was impossible to simulate outside of race day is, well, the race -- the siren start, the adrenaline, the pack, the thrashing in the water. So, I freaked out. I guess the only way to experience a swim start is to experience a swim start. I'm going to do better next time. Event comments: HFP is pretty cool; I like them. The only thing that would have made this race better was getting it off on time; I still don't know what was going wrong. Last updated: 2006-04-21 12:00 AM
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United States
HFP Racing
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 52/128
Age Group = Men 30 to 34
Age Group Rank = 5/9
Had two nice taper days Friday and Saturday, and slept well the night before, so I was physically well rested. But I was a bit mentally freaked out -- there's a lot to pack, and a lot of minor details to get right. This was my first tri, and it's a lot to take in all at once. Plus I'm Captain Anal Retentive in the 2nd Obsessive-Compulsive Brigade, so that's nice.
Got up at 5AM to drive to Deer Creek. I knew the route and distance to the venue because last year I volunteered at the last race of the season at this reservoir. Out the door at about 5:20 and on the highway at 5:30, after brewing a pot of coffee for the thermos. Once on the road, ate a banana, cup of coffee, wheat bagel, Go Lean bar. (In retrospect, this might have been a bit much for breakfast -- should have cut out the bar and added a bottle of water.) Got to the venue about 7AM. I was a bit nervous about getting there on time -- I thought that I was cutting it a bit close, since the TA was going to close at 7:30, and I needed to pickup my race packet, get boymarked for the first time ever, set up my first TA ever, and take an earth-shattering, porta-potty shaking bathroom break, all in less than a half an hour. It didn't help that the line for packet pickup was really long, so I only had a few minutes to set up my TA.
Once I got my TA set up I listened to the race announcements at 7:45, I headed down to the beach for an 8:02 sprint tri swim start for my AG. Had a little bit of time to run up and down the beach, stretch a bit, swim out to the course and back, and come back and stretch a bit more. At this point in time, I noticed that it was 8:30, which was a bit late for an 8:02 start. And although I didn't think that the lake water was all that cold (something I was worried about, since I don't own a wetsuit), getting into the lake water, sitting around a bit, and then standing around doing nothing while the sun goes behind the clouds and the wind starts blowing, I started getting a bit cold. I went from Team Javelin to Team Lawn Dart, if you know what I mean.