Grasshopper New Media Presents...

When I competed in my first triathlon in May, I was so nervous that after finishing the swim, I put on my running shoes instead of my biking shoes. So what’s the big deal about that? I have clipless bike pedals meaning that my pedals are only about an inch wide on either side and my biking shoes clip into them. It was pretty hard to pedal with running shoes, but fortunately the course was relatively flat.

I’m now about to do my final triathlon for the season. This one looks to be the best by far. The company hosting this one is been wonderful about providing pre-race information. They also offer a couple of free clinics to ensure everyone is fully prepared and to ease any nerves. How cool is that?

They had one such clinic this past week which was for open water swimming. Because I swam competitively throughout college, the swimming is my strength, but since I have never specifically trained for open water I thought it would be good to attend. It was very well run, and I did pick up a couple of pointers. I also learned an important motto.

For a while now, I have been reassuring friends that I “compete” with or as my training buddy says “complete not compete” with, that although I’ll probably finish the swimming ahead of them, they can expect to whiz by me on their bikes. At one of the competitions I swear that someone who floated on his back through the entire swimming part zoomed past me on his bike.  Same thing with the lady who swam in a suit with a skirt and her glasses. No, she wasn’t worried about her glass falling in the water because she never puts her face in the water.  Each triathlete’s age is written on the back of their right calf, so by far my worst moment was seeing the number 79 on a passing triathlete’s leg.

The woman who ran the swim workshop also swam for her college. She’s been doing triathlons for the past 9 years and talked about the very same phenomenon as me!  She advised the nervous swimmers that they had no reason to fear competing in the open water, because they could swim from rescue kayak to rescue kayak, holding on for a few minutes at each one. She explained that for them, their race starts when they hit the beach after the swim, while for her, her race ends when she hits the beach after her swim. I could hear scattered laughter when she said that. That’s right, all of the strong swimmers were laughing.  Ahhh… cameraderie is a nice thing.

In addition to teaching those less comfortable in the water how to break their swims into shorter segments, the workshop gave other tips, such as encouraging those struggling to flip onto their backs to center themselves.  There is a workshop this week about the cycling leg of the triathlon.  I hope they provide comparable tips for people like me.  I certainly don’t want to flip onto my back while on the road, but a fellow swimmer suggested there might be ideas like pull into a slide street, grab a sip of water, catch your breath and then continue!

by Alex Elliot

Photo from the Adidas Marathon 2007 graciously provided by infomatique, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved