Event Time: Prep and Swim

Didn't sleep well. That's normal for me before an event. I guess when I start sleeping well the night before, it will be time to hang my goggles, bike and running shoes up. The stinger will have been taken out of the bee. Tried something different for breakfast: A recovery drink and a powerbar. I was a little hungry at the start of the swim: good. Getting body marked, transition set up all went well. This was my 39th triathlon, so even at my age, I should have learned something by now. The pool we swam in had 50 yard lanes. I have never swam in a pool that big. And, there was not an out and back in the same lane like some other pool swims. Other than passing and getting passed, it was like an uncrowded open water swim - very nice. Felt really good in the water, swimming well. Then, I was passed on my first 50 yard lap by one, two, three swimmers. They really didn't look all that smooth and I thought then that I would see these guys and girls again. Sure enough, at the end of the second lap, there was one of the men who passed me, hanging on the wall, mouth gaping open, and it looked like his eyes were bugged out. I touched the wall beside him and I was gone. Here he came, thrashing by me. I thought, this is going to be fun. So, I tucked my thumbs down on my index fingers for a little more pull and swam along side of him to the wall, where I let him go. By the time we finished the next lap, he was gasping on the wall again. I passed and he passed back, and I drafted off him to the wall, at which time he moved way over and let me go. Then, I came upon a woman who had passed me earlier. She was obviously out of her form and struggling, but she did a great flip turn at the wall. She looked good on that, but in swimming, she looked like every part of her body was had something different in mind. It was fun, and I had one of my best swims ever thanks to the pool length and the competition. The run to transition was about a hundred yards and the carpet didn't catch all of it. There was some ooh, ooh, tiptoeing into the transtion area. But life had a smile. It was a long run with the bike to get to the bike mount line, but I have that down pretty good. In fact, I can run with my bike as fast as I can run without it, though that is not saying too much. Will write on the bike portion of this event in the next post. http://www.triaggieland.com/