Semi-relevant background note #1: When I was 8 years old, I was terrified of the pool and wouldn’t leave the shallow end. Then, my parents told me they would buy me a Cabbage Patch Doll if I learned how to swim a length of the pool and jumped off the diving board into the deep end. This was all the motivation I needed. I even joined the kids swim team that year and won a few 8-and-under division ribbons (the glory days!). Swimming long distances quickly, though, never really crossed my mind until I discovered the exciting world of triathlons.
Semi-relevant background note #2: When I started training for my first triathlon, the thought of racing even 250 yards brought back some of those same 8-year-old fears. But I took some swim lessons (open water and stroke technique) with a coach, committed to swimming once a week, and I made it through. The coach told me, though, “if you want to get better, you have to swim at least 3 times a week.” In the back of my mind, I thought, “what-ever, all I have to do is make it through the swim."
But, it ends up that "just make it through" mentality kind of sucks. The swim sets the stage for the rest of my race. If I'm just getting by in the swim, I'm setting myself up to just get by for the rest of the triathlon. I started realizing this as I was getting ready for the White Lake International last fall, but since I signed up for the Ironman 70.3 Raleigh with Jen Dixon knowing there was a possibility that I would have to do the swim and the bike (thank goodness this did not end up being the case), I knew that I had to do whatever I could to set myself up for a solid swim. Even when I ended up doing just the swim (phew!), I had the added pressure of not wanting to disappoint (read: embarrass) my teammates. Plus, once I stared hitting the pool two or three times a week consistently, I figured out that swimming is actually a lot of fun, as well as great cross-training.
Race report proper (sort of):
The night before and the morning of this race, I was just terrified for some reason. I was convinced I was going to drown and leave my child motherless. Totally irrational, I know. Still, it was happening. The parking troubles Josh Dixon and I had in our epic quest to get to the race site did not help my anxiety level. But I calmed down a lot when Jason Klaitman called and told us the race was wet-suit legal and even more once I got to the water and got caught up in the pre-race adrenaline excitement.
And the water felt great. I felt strong the whole way once I got started, and I was really happy with the experience—especially since it was my first wetsuit-legal swim competition. For context, here’s a look at what my swim paces have been since I started caring about swimming:
Triangle Tri (750 m): 2:48/100 meters
White Lake (1500 m): 2:42/100 m
Raleigh 70.3 Relay (1.2 miles): 2:25/100 m
I’m pretty psyched about this improvement. And I think that the relay time could have been better were it not for a crowded heat (the last heat of the race) and some choppy water that made me want to be more conservative. I also got smacked in the head pretty hard by a rouge wrist, and overall I think I drank about 3 gallons worth of Jordan Lake water. Yummy.
I was so happy with the race, in fact, that I signed up for an aquabike race from the same spot in September (slowly making my way to that full half-iron distance). Fingers crossed for more improvement.
Takeaway (in your Dory voice now; don't be shy): just keep swimming. just keep swimming.
