Your open-water swim in your very first race

Mine was a 400 yard murky lake with water temps in the 60's. I was a confident swimmer, had been participating in a swim class 2 days a week and I had been training in my friends pond to get used to the wetsuit. She prepped me for what to do if I accidentally swallowed the cold water. 

Sure enough - race start was small but a mass start. I started at the back of the pack since this was my first race and pretty quickly swallowed someone else's splash. My lungs constricted a bit from the adrenaline, the cold water and the wetsuit. I flipped to my back to settle down then got mad and took off like bat out of you know what trying to make up for the poor start. 

My first tri swim was.... back in 1984. Before tri wetsuits. I had been a fairly strong swimmer, though not particularly fast. I had no problems with the distance (half-mile, if I remember right). But I hadn't done much open water swimming, and certainly never a mass start. Okay, check that -- I'd never swum in a group before at all.

The start scared the crud out of me. I go pinched between two others that both forced me down while they clubbed their way over me. Then had some one clawing at my feet. Once traffic and my panic cleared a bit, I got angry and got moving.

Things I've learned that helped, even to today with probably a couple hundred tri's under my belt:

* Look at the swim course, and look for something on the horizon to use as a sighting aid to get to the first turn. Caps and buoys can all look the same when your eyes are looking at water level.

* Get in the water before the start and get your face in the water. Get past the "gasp reaction" that is completely natural when putting your face in the (cold) water. Warm up a bit, get to where your body relaxes, then line up for the start.

* If the first turn is going right, line up to the left, so that you don't get pinched into the buoy as the crowd veers toward it. And vice-versa.

I looked back at my race report from my first tri.  (2007 yikes).  I was a very timid swimmer, so I picked a beginner friendly race with a shallow swim.    The one item of note is that I was surprised by the chop caused by other swimmers.  That was always a problem for me, really, getting splashed in the face unexpectedly.  It is possible to practice this in the pool with another swimmer purposefully swimming right by you.    It also works to swim on the outside of the pack, assuming you can breathe on the side that is away from the group.

p.s. learning to breath both directions is invaluable.

Well...I did a sprint Triathlon in 2008 with a 500yd swim.  I don't consider that my first triathlon considering I hadn't been in a pool for over two years before they started my timer and I jumped in the pool.  The I had less than 20 miles on a bike in the two years leading up to that race too so I just consider it a day of cross training in my runner days, but the swim in that race was a serpentine pool swim.  You swam up one side of the pool lane then back down the other side, ducked under the lane dividers, and kept going until you had been up and down every lane in the pool.  You had to predict your swim time and the fasts predicted swimmer went first down to the slowest swimmer. They started swimmers about every 10 seconds and I think some of my friends were about off the bike before I got in the water that day.  I over took a few swimmers and had a few over take me.  Having people swim over you throws you off your groove and slows you down, but I don't feel it is not a big deal to run into people in the water.

My first real Triathlon was in 2015.  It was a 1.2 miles swim in a large lake.  That race had an in water start.  There were about 300 people in the race.  I had been swimming for 16 weeks and had the basics down but still lined up on the back row.  I young kid that was about 17 years old was in front of me.  He was joking around with the other athletes in the water.  It helps to keep things light when I was doing my first open water swim start.  I didn't find out until a few weeks later that the kid in front of me had his Pro Card.  He just did the swim in a relay with two middle aged age groupers from where he worked.  I didn't have any problem with swimming over people in front of my at the swim start though.  He left a wide open gap in front of me.  Yes, I ran into a lot of people, but again it wasn't a big deal.  You got change directions and keep swimming. 

The swim was NOT what I expected in my open water 1.2 mile swim. I expected everyone to line up 100m out of the water and spring to the shore and dolphin dive in. I expected a ton of contact at the start with everyone swimming over each other.  It was a lot my calm that what I had built me self up to expect.  Did I feel prepared? For the start?  Yes!  For the 1.2 miles? No!.  I had never swam 1.2 miles before.  The longest I got up to in training was about 1,400 meters.  I wasn't sure if I could keep my face in the water without panicking of a full 1.2 miles or if I would get tired before I got to 1.2 miles.  My goal was to swim smooth and easy and try to stay in the front crawl the whole way.  I did pretty good. I did get leg cramps at about 1,500 meters into the race which required me to do back stroke for a while while I worked out the cramp, but I had a great swim time going about 15 sec/100yds faster than what I was able to do in my training.   The swim is short.  When you line up for a triathlon on race day the swim is going to be a easy.  It is the run that you should be worried about.  That is longer and and comes after you have already swam and biked.  

Actually quote from my race report in 2010.  It was probably even worse than this:

"See above notes on course, but the measurements were WAY off. The swim leg winner posted a 15+ min 750M swim, which is way off. Probably closer to 1K swim. I went into the swim with the idea of enjoying the experience. Which I did, for a LONG time. I swam mostly freestyle with a little bit of backstroke thrown in. SLOWLY, but that's OK, that was the idea. My sighting was awful because my goggles kept fogging up. I think I swam so far off course I almost was swimming in circles.

Got into a decent rhythm about halfway through then started to tire a bit the last 200 or so (you know, the EXTRA 200). Last 100 was miserable; I felt like I wasn't even moving forward.

Wait, what the heck was that???!! Oh, it's a good female age group swimmer who looks like she's swimming under water, passing me like I'm floating still (which I more-or-less was).

Wife was worried about me because I took so long. She was ready to come into the water after me. "Finished" finally and felt OK standing up (remembered to kick last 50 to get legs warmed up).

All-in-all, I experienced everything. Goggles fogged up, got kicked in the head, kicked someone else, went way off course, got climbed over by a chick."

All that aside, I still finished, then made up a bunch of time on the bike and run.  The slow swimmer bonus is that you get transition to yourself. 

I'm probably atypical.  

My first tri was a sprint with a 400 yard(?) swim in a small inland lake (strip mine lake).  It was a small race with only 75 or 80 participants divided into 3(?) waves.  I let my wave splash around for 10-15 seconds before starting and had no problems with the swim even though I'd only swam  once in the weeks leading up to the race.  

I was a lifeguard and swim instructor and had swam for fitness off and on between age 16 and age 40 when I did the race.  I'd been a Boy Scout and a Boy Scout Leader where we swam from docks, canoes, etc.  We had to pass a swim test annually and I'd learned that the key to passing was to go slow.  I'd done mile swim multiple times, generally in a pool, but at least once in open water.  As a scout, we had to jump in water fully clothed and use our clothes as floatation.  As an adult, I'd demonstrate this.  I'd been scuba certified and water skied.  Being in murky water didn't scare me and I was confident because of my background that I'd be OK during the swim even if I wasn't fast.  

Now...my worst tri-swim experience was my second season and a sprint with a 500 yard(?) swim.  I'd been training for a HIM and was (ahem) cocky about my ability and so started at the front of the wave...I was completely gassed by the turnaround.  Lesson learned, and I generally let the group dissipate a bit rather than join the mayhem.