Shoreline Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The horrible, no good, very bad swim. I'm a swimmer. First and foremost, I'm a swimmer. And not half bad either. But I learned today that a wetsuit can be your friend and that I don't know how to swim in 2 foot swells. On the way out I was completely baffled with how to make forward progress and get air. I was way out of line for parts of it too. I had to breast stroke mostly because I couldn't find any rhythm and I was getting battered by the waves. I spent a ton of energy just trying to stay horizontal in the water and realized that while my 800s in a pool are easy and fast, that this was a nightmare. I would have gladly stripped the wetsuit off the guy next to me, but I was choking on too much lake water. After poorly rounding the first bouy, I found my stroke a bit, but was beat from the first 100 and didn't bilaterally breath, instead was breathing every stroke. Just so winded. The second bouy went better, but by this time I was pretty far back. I did pass a number of people once I was able to swim like I know that I can, but I was still just completely beaten by this. I did learn that for a wade start I'd be better off just going as deep as they'll let me rather than wait at the back. I'm still afraid of getting run over, but I'll have to get over it. I expected more like 14-15 minutes for this, so you can see why I'm unhappy.

Start closer to front, GET A WETSUIT!!!

Not bad. I don't clip my shoes in and I'm about at graceful as an elephant getting on the bike, but I've got no complaints. Set up my transition well.

Learn to get on the bike faster

I've only had a bike for 5 weeks so I can only listen to the advice of those who know better. I drank my whole gatorade and burped my way thru the bike (all the gatorade etc makes my stomach unhappy, but I did it anyway). On the way out we had a nice tailwind, so I was able to keep spinning at 90 or higher in a higher gear than usual, of course that meant on the way back I was slower, but still spinning at higher than 90. I was very pleased with my time and pace on this, didn't chase anyone, passed a few people on the way out and back and tried to remember that I had to run 5 miles.

Apart from falling off the back rather than dismounting it (where's that elephant?) this was fine, got my feet out of the shoes easily and maintained speed thru the corners coming into the finish, then dumped it right there at the dismount line. A collective "ooh" from the spectators, but nothing bruised other than my ego.

Not fall!

Felt great, turns out the bike cadence and speed were just right to give me a good run. Since this is only my second race I was concerned about crashing on the run, took the pace conservatively for the first three miles, passing many people (who, frankly, I couldn't believer I hadn't passed sooner!) at a nice pace. At mile 3 I decided to step it up a little, figuring I can gut out 2 miles. I absolutely had enough in the tank for the run and probably could have gone a bit faster, but very happy.I chased a girl down who I'd been eyeing the entire bike. We traded positions the bike several times and she ended up maybe 50 yards ahead of me. I didn't try to run her down until the last two and made up lost of ground on her, but didn't catch her. I should have just gone, my run was faster than hers, and another half mile at the pace we were on I would have had her for sure.

Just run, if you crash and burn that's the way it goes.

Smiles!


worst swim decision ever!! and underestimating the difficulty of open water swimming in really open water.


I learned alot, discovered that I've got my transition set up right for me, but that I need to get more OWS practice and a wetsuit, and to be more aggressive on the run. I did win my age group, but I was the slowest age group winner under 50. I find myself comparing this to my running finishes, which are significantly better in terms of my overall finish. I had a great time, even though I work for a competitor, Fleet Feet does a great job with their races and will do this again. Since my swim was so defeating I decided to sign up for an Oly next weekend, simply to get back in the water. I must be insane!