Presque Isle Sprint Triathlon

Race: Presque Isle Sprint Triathlon
Date: August 23, 2015
Location: Erie, PA
Time:
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: X out of X
Results: http:

My first and only triathlon for 2015 is in the books. I went up to Erie with Daniel Pruzinsky to compete in the Presque Isle Triathlon. This was the 4th time we've done this race. The day was absolutely perfect for racing: clear skies, air temperature in the upper 60s, calm wind, flat water. About 30 min before the start of the race, I had what i thought would be a good omen. A green tree frog the size of a fingernail fell onto my head and then onto my arm, and just sat there, grinning, for 10 minutes while I admired it, showed it to people, talked gently to it, and then walked it to a safe place out of the way of the race course. This soothed my mood and made me happy. Later, we entered the water and started the swim. I took off very fast and felt really good during the first third of the swim (total length = 616 yards). However, after rounding the first buoy I began to lose my breath. The wet suit can be constrictive and the colder water temperature (74 degrees) didn't help. I lost my cool and stopped swimming for about a minute. I treaded water and watched half my age group swim past me in their green swim caps. A life guard in a kayak asked if I needed assistance and I shook my head. I just had to catch my breath and push past the mental inertia of staying put. I began swimming again, but stopped a couple more times for shorter periods to calm down. I don't know what happened to me there in the water, but I had started out feeling so good and now I was feeling lost and defeated. Sports performance of all kinds is dependent on a combination of mental and physical preparedness. I think what happened here is that I knew deep down that I was not physically prepared for this swim, but in the first few minutes of the swim I was making use of several years' worth of experience to mentally get through it. Eventually, my mind realized that despite "feeling good," my body was not trained for this swim, and then I panicked and stopped swimming. You see, I have only swum 7 miles within the last 5 months. Before I got busy moving into a new house and getting married, I was averaging 10 miles of swimming per month. OK, so with my swim over, I psyched myself up for the bike ride and did well. I averaged 21.6 mph on the bike during the 13-mile loop. Then I ran 3.5 miles at a 8:37 minute/mile pace. My bike performance was slightly down from 21.8 mph last year, but was still quite reasonable for a lack of training (only 24 miles in the last 2 months, compared to a typical level of 100 miles per month). My run was satisfactory. It was slower than last year but not by too much. I actually have been doing a lot of running lately, and I just set a personal best in a 5K a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, my disappointing swim was still in the back of my mind and there was little reason to push myself harder during the run segment. I always sound a little negative about my races when I write about them, but all is well. I finished 10th out of 20 in my age group and 94th out of 378 competitors. This is great for being so out of shape, coming off a wedding and honeymoon, and recovering from a head cold. I had a lot of fun and I am enthusiastic about beginning earnest training for next year's races.