Rob Eakin Triathlete

Race Report – Kits Challenge

First, I barely made it to the race. In spite of being off work, the past couple of weeks have been tough for a variety of reasons and, other than a couple of training camps, had put in more training hours than I ever had. So a Sunday morning on the couch with the Tour de France and the British Open on TV was unbelievably tempting. But a competition was calling and I can't say no to a race.

And good thing I did go.

After a short warm up, got out to fairly sub-par start. Positioned myself behind another swimmer but slowly realized that she was slower than I should be going as you can see by the "lazy" start in my heart rate data (the race is between the 1 and 2 at the bottom).

After the first buoy, with a couple of swimmers on our right, moved out to the left and picked up the pace. By the time I hit the second buoy, I took a peek behind to find I left them all behind. Unfortunately, there was no one in sight in front of me. So I settled into a good pace and made sure to stay on course this time around.

Two things I noticed in this race for the first time both of which have come with more time and experience in the water.

1. I actually had some idea where I stood in the race. Being newish to swimming, every time I hit the water it was all about what I had to do to survive the swim. For the first time yesterday I was able to keep track of who was around me (although I was by myself for the latter part of the race) and gauge how strong they were.

2. Which brings be to number two. I was able to use that information and actually change my pace. Up until now it had always been just go and hold on for dear life. Yesterday I recognized I was too slow, picked it up a notch to pass and even had another level for the finish.

So yeah, it was a fairly lonely swim the rest of the way (the swimmer ahead finished almost 2 minutes ahead and the swimmer behind was over a minute behind me) but managed to motivate myself to push coming around the final buoy to the finish knowing it was just a race against the clock at that point.

Finished up in a time of 23:50, almost one minute faster than my fastest 1.5 k swim. So slowly that better feeling in the pool is translating into faster times (it's about time). Finished as the 3rd male so another ribbon to add to the collection as well.

While still tired today, two fairly successful weekends in a row have me looking forward to some more hard work this week as I get ready for Nationals in Kelowna in August.