Why I love the sprints

What a difference just a week can make. I just had my one year anniversary in this sport June 4th as I repeated the MachTenn (my first taste of the sports last year). I got hooked in the sport after that and did 3 more races last season. This year I have done 4 tri's, a TT and a duathalon with 4 races the last month. I began my season with a good showing in the duathalon in april (5th in 45-49), a 2nd in my first Tri, then actually placed 1st last weekend. Then came the MachTenn. It is an open water 1k swim compared to the 200-300m pool swims I had been doing and a hilly 16 mile ride compared to the 10-13 mile rides before and a very, very hilly 4 mile run compared to the 2-3 mile runs. Swimming is by far my worst of the 3 sports, I come from a cycling background and am not a strong swimmer. I came out of the water not only 6 minutes slower than the age group winner but also demoralized. I did do a good ride and took several minutes off my time for the cycling leg from last year, but by that time I knew I was way off the pace I had set for myself and just finished the run with a friend that I eventually caugth just after the bike. I just shows how much more important the swim becomes as the distances go up. As I have said the swim is my weakness but in a short pool event I will usually loose a minute or less, but there in the open water that turns into many, many minutes. I really enjoy the sprints, where I can use my strength in the cycling leg to make up time, but I know realize that to eventually move up in distances (international or olympic) I will really have to improve a great deal. I still have 4 events on my schedule for this year, but thankfully all are of the short swim variety.