Triathletes Swim

I'm in the back, looking at the camera with the thumbs up.

The swim portion of the race was first and it was clearly the best. They started us in waves, meaning a group of about 50 would start and then three minutes later another group of 50 would start.  I was in the last wave, which left me extra time for floating in the water and watching the others.  It was really calming.  The water did not have much wave to it and it was the perfect temperature.

We bunched up at the water's edge. When the horn sounded, we all took off into the water at once.  You just ran until you were deep enough to dive in and start swimming.  We all started swimming in a pack and there was definitely some kicking and hitting of the the other bodies around you.  Not on purpose in a mean way,  but in a "the ocean water is murky brown and I can't see one foot in front of me way."

They wrote my race number
on each limb and gave us
timing chips for our ankles.

In the beginning I had trouble regulating my breathing. I think I may have just been so excited that I forgot to breathe.  But I quickly got that straightened out, before I even made it to the first buoy.   I just kept thinking, "It's just like in the pool. Strong, full-length strokes are what I need."  The swim course was a square. We swam out to one buoy, rounded it on the right, swam straight past another buoy on its right and then rounded the last buoy to come straight into shore.

Please note all of the people I had passed.

I had heard a man earlier explaining to someone that you do not want to stand up too soon. You can swim faster than you can battle the waves while running in. He said, "Don't stand up until your hand is hitting sand on your downstroke." So as I came into shore, that is what I was thinking.  As soon as my hand hit the sand, I popped up and started running in.  This was the single best moment of the entire race.  I felt like an amazing sea monster rising out of the deep. I also immediately heard my friends cheering for me.

Running up the beach to the bikes.
You can see the buoys in the distance.

 I started running in. I hadn't thought about this time between swimming and getting to the transition, but you had to run all the way up the beach, up the board walk and through a parking lot to get to transition.  I had opted to pull on shorts and a shirt in transition. Most people don't, but I wanted to be comfortable.  Plus, I had to wear a race bib (showing my race number) during the run portion and didn't have a way to attach it to my suit. So I pulled on shirt and shorts, dried my feet and put on socks and shoes.  I was ready to roll until it took me a solid 2 minutes to get my bike helmet fastened. My fingers just kept slipping!  While frustrating, it gave my friends time to run up from the beach to see me roll out on the bike.  Stay tuned for more info on the bike portion tomorrow.

Read about my general overview of the race here.

Abi cheering me on!

Emerging from the sea.