The one thing I wish I knew before my first triathlon – swim slow!

Last week (or maybe the week before?) there were a few twitter accounts asking triathletes what the one thing they wish they knew before their first triathlon was. I responded to one or two, but also figured it might make a good topic for a blog post, where I have a bit more space to write.

My one thing I wish I knew before my first triathlon is to go out slow on the swim. In my first triathlon I got caught up in the adrenaline, and pace of the other swimmers in my lane*, and was off like a bullet. But I was dead tired halfway through the swim, gasping for air, and struggling to stay afloat. Because the swim is the first event that carried on into the bike, meaning that I was really wiped before I’d even started peddling. I learned my lesson and now go much slower in the swim. Frankly, that’s not where I am going to do any real damage to a time anyway, so better to be a little more relaxed and have loads of gas left in the tank for the other 2 events. I don’t mean go out like you’re out for a leisurely swim stroll, just don’t go out like a bat out of hell. Get into your (race) pace and stick with it.

*It was an event where we were put into lanes based on our stated times. So apparently we all had relatively similar swim times when we registered. But the speed in the lane was way beyond anything I’d ever done, and so way beyond the time I had stated. But it must have been a bunch of other newbies in the lane because we all did pretty much the same thing. I think I was out of the water second in my lane even though I had started in 4^th or 5^th, meaning that despite the blisteringly fast (for me) start to the swim for all of us, we all slowed down a lot over time.