5 Mile Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

So its like midnight on Fri night....when did my wife start snoring like that? Are the people upstairs bunnies? Dont they ever need to take a moment to rest? Why am I still awake? Ive been in bed for 2 hours and Im wide awake and my heart is pounding like I just ran a 5k. I have to get up and do a tri in a few hours! Should have been my first clue.....

I fall asleep eventually, the alarm going off a few short hours later. The start to the day goes well, its not raining like forecasted, and its fairly warm. I'm feeling ok. Shell and I get in the car and drive to the race. It appears to be well organized and everyone is pleasant, it's going to be a good day.

I set up transition and put on my wetsuit. I walk with others to the lake and get in. I submerge myself in the water and dunk my head a few times to acclimate to the water. It isnt too cold. I had done open water a couple of weeks ago in a short workout and knew I had to get comfy before I tried to swim. I swim from where Im at to the start....its not far but something just doesnt feel quite right. Last time I got in the lake it took a few yards to get into my slow/smooth/you will get there eventually method of swim.

I line up at the back and side, not wanting to fight it out with all the others in my wave. AWWAYYYYY we go. I make it all of about 25 yards and cant breath.......ok, slow down.....left right breath left right breath. What, exactly, am I doing with my arms? I'm sure I knew how to swim 5 min ago, what am I doing?

Plan b, good old fasioned backstroke. OK, this isnt bad. Why am I breathing so fast? Relax.....self propel. Guess I'd better look for the buoy. Why is everyone over there? Why is the buoy over there? Why am I swimming in this direction? (this is where it all went to hell) Have I EVER been breathing this fast in all my life?

I start toward the buoy, my respiration must be about 180 now and Im off course. I swim over to one of the support boats and grab on for a little rest. My breathing slows just enough to quickly converse with the guy. I spot the second buoy and think Im ok so off I go, doing the backstroke, yet again in some random and VERY wrong direction. Some nice lady in a kayak comes over and points me the right way. My breathing is completely out of control now and I know for a fact my breathing is as rapid as it has ever been. Im on my back, floating, trying to relax and it only gets worse. I close my eyes to take a breath and relax, only to see the image of them dragging the lake for me. I take a few more strokes, but am breathing so rapidly now Im seeing stars. The kayak lady has me grab on and she tows me the 75 or so yards to shore.

After Im no longer light headed, I walk up to the RD with my chip, he tells me if im so inclined, Im welcome to bike and run the course anyway. Happily I ride a decent ride for me and one of my better runs, so the day wasn't a complete loss.

Im really disappointed and quite angry at myself because it was a mental thing and I was so close! I'm not sure what happened other than a silly panic attack that I should have been able to work through. I only learned to swim in March. I have gotten to where I can do the meteres, but I wish I had spent more time in open water so that I could have gotten into a groove early on and not freaked out.

What now? My wife is having surgery this week, so I will likely do nothing for a few days. Then I'm going to concentrate all of my swimming in the lake until the Seafair tri on 7/15. I have no intention of blowing the swim on this one!