Back-to-back weeks in the Triathlon (Sprint) streets, this week Lake Montclair Tri. A sprint like last week but very different courses, this one is a lake swim and twice as long (750 meters). Current temperatures made the water fairly warm; I can’t remember the last time I used my speed suit but seemed like a good time to pull it out. The first person I run into is Layla coincidentally, I signed up for this race with her bad influence 😊 We talked for a few, also saw Danielle and Susie, tri-peeps are here it’s a party let’s go!
Swim course is three parts of a rectangle with a mass start from the beach. Feels like I haven’t really done a mass start in awhile but ok I’ll just draft off the fast people let’s hope I’m not rusty. Ehhh turns out I’m rusty, positioned to the back middle, exactly where I don’t want to be it’s a traffic jam. Even worse I’m feeling panicky, the worst I can remember since my early days. So much that in the first 25 yards three times I thought I should turn around this isn’t the day. Source of the anxiety, I think the traffic jam with nowhere to go and I don’t float high in the water. In my mind I switched to butterfly my bailout stroke and was still “sinking” I was probably just flailing around using bad technique because of course I don’t spend a lot of time using that stroke. Kept going, reached the first buoy about 250m out and kind of settled in. Still had shallow breathing that I couldn’t correct. The one major lesson I learned very early in my journey is when struggling SLOW DOWN that’s not the time to keep a race pace. Made the first right and BAM sun right in the eyes, can barely see a landmark and can’t see the next buoy. This is when you hope your swimming stranger friends know where they’re going, and you follow them. I swear a bunch of folks cut the course and were inside the turns, whatever I just need to get back to shore. Second half of the swim uneventful, just a blue-collar swim. The “bad” experience was a good reminder and good experience in working through that challenge. Having said that if you’re new and reading this always trust your feelings, take time to gather yourself and be safe, you know your experience level don’t take unreasonable risks.
The bike and run weren’t as eventful both start with a high pitch climb. The bike has a couple rolling hills and a longer slow uphill drag, looped course so you get to go back down. My top speed was 34mph! Running you also go up that long slow hill, feels like more of the course is uphill as you don’t finish quite where you start. At the end I got a good 30 second sprint to the finish! Back to Layla real quick, I saw her on the bike turns and was like she’s really closing the distance on me, soon enough she sped past me I just tried to keep her in my sights. She placed 1st in her category, congrats!!! 🎉💪🏽🎉 With that, time for me to practice my breaststroke and deadman float, peace.