Sunday 16 May 2010

Is tri for me?

It was the day of my first Triathlon today.  The Eton Supersprint.  400m swim, 20.4km ride and the a 5km run.

Our car is broken so I had to cycle the 30 miles to the start of the race.  Not the ideal preparation but a nice warm up.  I actually enjoyed it.  It was cold but clear and I didn't get lost.  I managed to get all my gear in my Etape rucksac but the strap decided to break after a couple of miles.  I tied it up and it survived the rest of the journey.  Cheap French rubbish.

I got there at 9:20 so had a long time to wait until the 10:45 start.  I had no idea what I was meant to do so copied everyone else.  By 10 my bike was racked, I'd had a coffee and my gear was randomly strewn in front of my bike.  I looked around to see what others were doing and tried to copy them.  At 10:15, people were putting on their wet suits so I joined them.  For the next five minutes, I decided to put on a slapstick performance.  First, I put on the wet suit backwards.  I then tried to taken it off and fell over.  I eventually got it off, turned it around only to put one leg in a leg and the other in an arm.  I looked around but thankfully, know one was filming.

I was eventually ready and walked to the start with all the other 40 & 41 year old men (I had been  moved to the wrong age group!) and before I knew what was going on, I was floating around in an 11 degree lake wearing a silly hat.  We had a briefing, got a countdown, the hooter sounded and we were off.  Well, most of the 60 people were off; I just bobbed around trying to breath.

When I did set off I got to 20 meters out and stopped.  I could not breath.  I was panicking.  All I could think of was to get out and quick.  I started again but stopped.  This was terrible.  I watched as the pack disappeared.  The support in the boat asked if I was ok.  I said no.

I tried again but it wasn't happening.  Panic is the only word to describe it.  The bloke in the boat asked what was wrong and I said I just can't put my face in the water.  He said I should just carry on with breast-stroke or front crawl but with my head out so I did.  I occasionally did 5 or 6 strokes with my head in water but that resulted in me stopping a bit to try and relax.

I was last at the first buoy but whenever I did proper front crawl, I caught up the back markers in no time.  I just could not sustain it.  I thought it would never end but I eventually turned around the second buoy and was in the home 120 meter stretch.  I had the slowest ever race with another bloke for last place and it ended in a dead heat.

I was gutted.  I staggered out of the water after just 10% of the IM distance and I was exhausted.  At that point, this was going to be my one and only tri.  As I got to my bike, I saw a friendly face in Simon.  It was great to see him.  He said I'd done well and to keep going.  I did not hurry through my transition much to Simon's amusement.

I set off on the cycle and I was mad.  I never thought it would go this badly.  I channeled my aggression into my cycling and tried to keep my speed up, constantly encouraged by Simon on each of the 4 laps.  In spite of the wind, I got into a good rhythm, passing some of the people from the swim.  I enjoyed all of the cycling passing many people with tri bikes and finishing comfortably inside 40 minutes (I didn't stop my watch).

My T2 was good and I was out on my run in no time.  My legs were tight after the ride and it took about 1km before I picked up the pace.  It was 2 loops of an out and back course and I was quicker on each of the four legs.  I finished strongly in around 1:20 but I'm not sure exactly what time.

After a long chat to Simon, I decided to just take each event as it comes, get down to Heron lake every chance I get and just try and conquer my fear.  I am also seriously thinking of a hypnotist to try and get ride of this panic feeling.

At least I can now say that I'm a triathlete :-o

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations!

    Things to note:

    1. Open water swims in May are notoriously cold affairs.
    2. Panic is an extremely common reaction to a first open water race swim.
    3. It gets easier, more relaxing and warmer as the season wears on.

    Don't be disheartened and dwell too much on the swim experience - just try and get out and do as many open water swims as you can. Accept that the swim will be slow and it will eventually become an enjoyable part of the whole thing. I enjoy my swims, I know I'll be slow and therefore I put myself under no pressure in this phase of the race - it's only when I get going on the bike that I start to feel like I'm racing.

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  2. Thanks so much John. Your support is appriciated. And it was sooooo cold :-(

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  3. Congratulations on your first Tri!

    Don't give up on the Ironman goal just yet. Open water swim's are difficult things for strong swimmers and doubly so if you're still learning in the pool.

    If the problem is putting your face under water it would be no disaster to do the race using breaststroke. This is the approach my wife has taken in her Tri's to good effect even though she's a strong front crawl swimmer in the pool.

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  4. Congratulations. At least you've done it!

    I still haven't dared to 'take the plunge'.
    After my 24hr race is out of the way (next week) I will start running again with the goal of finally reaching the starting line for a triathlon

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  6. Congratulations Simon, your perseverance paid off. The wetsuit thing was hilarious but it's all good experience. Keep going!

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  7. It sounds like most of the race was good!

    Chrissie Wellington has a similar tale for her first triathlon, and she didn't do too badly with a little more practice (http://www.chrissiewellington.org).

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  8. well done, you are one of those weird multi sport types now ;)

    as for the swim section i'm sure if this is something that you really want to do you'll find a way of over coming the issues. think of all of the other really tough challenges you've done in the past and how hard you've had to train. you can do it :)

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  9. A late Congrats on your Tri I enjoyed the video. I miss your blog on the Etape.Regards Trea

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