1st Half IronMan - Part 1 The Swim

1st Half IronMan - Part 1 The Swim

For experienced triathletes these posts are probably a bit nul and void but having never done a triathlon of any distance before this was quite the experience!

As with all these events it had been a relatively early morning, but the morning had gone pretty much to plan. I was feeling as rested and good to go as I was going to. The only thing to do now was to wait for our start group. We sat on a bank and watched wave 1 go off, in complete awe of how fast those athletes were swimming, they were out the water and on the bike before we were even in the start enclosure.

When we got there, they asked us to raise our hands if it was our first one, there were a lot of us who raised our hands, that gave me a bit of confidence, I wasn't alone in this new endeavour… whatever happened it would be a PB!!! And then something happened that threw me off a bit, as I was about 10 meters from the start, a tap on the shoulder, an official demanding I take my neck guard off (my wetsuit gives me pretty bad neck chaffing which is why I wear one). I took it off and managed to compose myself, the only shame was that I was no longer starting next to my friend and training partner Harry. Alas, if that was the worst thing that was going to happen on the swim I would take it….

GO…

HOLY HELL WHAT IS GOING ON….?

Why have I forgotten how to swim? I tried my normal breathing rhythm (every 3 strokes) and swear I nearly drowned….

Is that some ones foot? Yes and it just kicked me in the face…

Honestly a little bit of panic set in at this point. Was I even going to make it through the swim? I pulled to the outside of the course, just to the left of the main pack and tried to get into a rhythm. I would say that it took me a good 500m or so for me to get comfortable in the water but I still didn't think I was swimming well.

After the turn though (and a slight detour - good to know my poor steering in the water crossed over from rowing to swimming!) my pace felt like it started to pick up, I felt comfortable, I was going past people but still didn't particularly feel as if I was swimming fast.

The swim was probably where I felt like I learned the most, I felt like I was ready but in hindsight swimming in a much bigger expanse of water, plus with that many more people than I was a shock and should have been something I trained more for…

None the less by, when I stepped out the water and looked at my watch to see that it was 37 minutes, I was shocked, please and it certainly gave me a boost jogging into T1!