A few weeks back I was asked by a fellow triathlete if I
could be a “swim buddy” for the Title 9 sprintTriathlon that was coming up in Hopkinton, Mass. I really never heard of this but I looked at
my schedule and it fit so I said sure.
Now, I was going to compete in the FirmMan Half Ironman, BUT, I had
recently completed Timberman 70.3 and wasn’t sure If I could get enough
workouts in to be ready for FirmMan. When my friend Laura asked I thought 1) It was a great excuse NOT to compete in
FirmMan and 2) I kinda wanted to see a triathlon from the “other side”. I told Laura (who was the swim buddy
coordinator that I was “in”.
I received an email a few days prior to the event to make
sure I was there for the “swim buddy meeting” by 7:15am. I thought that it was awesome that I could “sleep
in” while going to a triathlon. By sleeping in, I mean that I set my alarm for
5:50am. Prior to training and competing
in these events that would be early but now this is definitely, sleeping
in.
I got up and got ready.
I really hadn’t volunteered before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I got in my car and took the 40 minute drive
to Hopkinton State Park. I did make a stop at Dunkin Donuts to pick up some
coffee and food. I checked in at the
volunteer booth, got my free T shirt and
headed to the Swim start where the meeting would be.
I walked down and changed into my wet suit. I saw Laura and
made some small talk with her and some of the other swim buddies. I later learned that Chrisann from TeamRefuel was a swim buddy. How cool was
that? She was selected by Team Refuel to
train alongside Hines Ward for Ironman Kona.
Now, if you aren’t too familiar with Kona. It is the Holy Grail for triathletes. It’s where we all want to compete and very
few of us will ever get the opportunity to be there.
So 7:15am came and Laura gave the 8-12 of us the
instructions for the day. Laura is also
an aspiring Ironman. She is slated to
compete in Ironman Florida and has her own blog titled a “Fat Girl’s IronmanJourney”. She is truly and inspiration
to many fellow current and aspiring triathletes. By her own admission she is
not fast. I asked her “so how long do
you think it will take you?”. Laura told me that she wanted to finish in
16:59:59. You have 17 hours to finish an
Ironman and be considered an “Ironman”.
Every perspective Ironman wants to hear Mike Reilly say your name at the
Finish line followed by “You are an Ironman”. Laura
told us all what we should be doing, where we should be in the water and what
to look for in distressed swimmers. The
Newbie swimmers would be in the last three waves. We all grabbed guard buoys or swim
rings. I grabbed a guard buoy. The swim buddies also where a distinctive
blue swim cap.
So, I was in the water about 150-300 yards from the
start. It is supposed to be a .25 mile swim but I think it is actually much further than that! The first 5 waves of swimmers went past me with
5 minutes in between starts and no one needed or requested any assistance. Normally, many new swimmers will have trouble
shortly after the start. It’s the
intimidation of the water coupled with the nerves and adrenalin with can make
the swim start challenging. The 6th
or 7th wave of swimmers came and “Michelle” was in that wave. Michelle had swum about 150 or so yards and
she was having some trouble in the water. She spotted me in my blue cap and
life guard buoy and waved at me telling me she needed some help. I swam over and she grabbed the red guard
buoy. I asked if she was ok which she
said yes but she was out of breath and seemed nervous. I told her not to worry that she was going to
get through the swim. I asked if she
wanted me to swim with her and she said yes.
In triathlon’s you can hold on to a swim buoy or a kayak or
whatever else you want to as long as you don’t advance your position. So Michelle and I had to make it past 4
marker bouy’s before turning for shore.
At first I let her try to compose herself and figure it out. She got to the first buoy by a combination of
swimming on her back as well as free style.
Michelle was not the “quitting” type and kept moving forward. Midway between the first two buoys Michelle
saw that the next wave of swimmers was beginning to overtake her. This was
probably her “low point” in the water. I
saw it in her face. I told her not to
worry, and that it was very common for the faster swimmers in the later waves
to overtake swimmers in the previous waves.
In order to try to get her in a rhythm and get her mind off of the fear
of not finishing I told her; “OK, this
is what your gonna do, You are going to take a stroke and count 1 take another stroke
count 2 and then breath. Your going to
do this at least 20 times before we stop again.
Don’t go to fast, don’t crush it. Got 1,2,breath, 1,2,breath. You are gonna get there. Ready?”
Michelle was off. I
watched her swimming and she was SO MUCH smoother. We made it past bouy two, then three. I think it was here where she started to gain
more confidence. At the last buoy she
started to make the turn toward shore and stopped. She said “is it Tim”. I said “no Its Nate”. She thanked me and went on her way.
I am sure she finished her first Triathlon and to tell you the
truth I was really “Proud” of her as weird as that may seem. This was such a rewarding experience to help
a fellow triathlete. If you ever get the
chance to be a swim buddy I say go for it.
I also got a great swim workout in too!
Until next time, Keep Training!
Nate
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