Absent Husband said:
Great in theory - hard in practice. I got VERY disoriented through the
first couple of hundred meters in the swim. People seemed to be
swimming in every direction, so I couldn't just 'follow someones feet',
and I couldn't spot the buoys at all in the water. I got a bit anxious
about swimming in the wrong direction, but just decided to slog towards
the 'group' and hope I got close. Eventually reached the buoy to turn
parallel to the beach (leaving a ~1.1km straight swim). Water was very
rough, and I struggeld again with keeping my technique tight and
rhythm.To cut this short - I handled the conditions pretty poorly. Went out
too hard, got disoriented and anxious, and had awful rhythm and
technique. Final time was 32min 20sec (but it felt like 40min!!)
Great report.
In my first triathlon I was last out of the water. Mind you, I was one
of only two people out of two hundred that wasn't wearing a wetsuit.
In my last triathlon at Meelup near Busselton my goggles filled up with
water at least twice, my wetsuit zip unzipped, and I got caught up on
the ropes of one of the bouys. My swim time was about 5 minutes slower
than what I normally do in the pool. I haven't swum in the ocean since
and I have a half Ironman on this weekend,(just didn't get time to get
to the beach, blah blah).
I ALSO discovered that competing is a good reality check but hey it's
fun too.
Marty