Fifteen Hours Ahead: Sprint Aquathlon

Since learning how to swim, I've been training to build up my speed and endurance so I can compete in a triathlon. To motivate me to stay on track, I signed up for the Singapore sprint series.

The Sprint Series consists of 3 races building up to a triathlon.

Race 1 was an Aquathlon - a 750m Swim / 5km Run, at Tanjong Beach on Sentosa Island, which I just completed.
Race 2 will be a Duathlon, a 3km Run / 15km Bike / 3km Run at Upper Seletar Reservoir on the 15th of March 2009.
Race 3 will be the Triathlon, a 750m Swim / 20km Bike / 5km Run, at Changi Beach Park on 19th April 2009.

Before the 1st race, I was mostly worried about swimming because I'm still learning, and I've never had to swim in race conditions. On the other hand, I was not concerned at all about the run, because I know I can run a 5k without trouble. But during the race I swam faster than I expected. And unfortunately, I ran slower than I expected.

I used up a lot of my strength in the swim because people kept crashing into me. I was warned that you get tussled around quite a bit during the swim. But nobody really explained just how many arms and legs would be smashing down on me, pushing me under water or interrupting my stroke. And I never anticipated how much getting bumped disrupts my swimming. In the pool, I have OK timing with my strokes and breathing so I can maintain a steady pace. But in the race, every time I got hit, I lost my sense of timing. It made me swim faster, because I was constantly trying to pull away from whoever was hitting me. But it also made me swim spastically because I got hit from every direction.

I wasted a lot of strength trying to swim away. I finished the swim faster, but by the time I got to the run, I was worn out.

About half-way through the run, my stomach started feeling "hot," and I had to slow down and walk for a bit until it passed. I got better and continued the run, but I was a little disappointed that I had to walk in the middle of the 5k run.

I forgot to note my time when I came through the finish gate, but I think I finished the race in the middle of my age group. They haven't posted the race results online yet, so I'll update the blog when the race timings and standings are released.

Before the next race, I'll put a little more thought into staying calm during the swim. I think I'll also put more effort into my running. Once I get better, I want to move up from the "Sprint" distance to the "Olympic" distance. The Olympic distance is also known as the "international distance" or the "standard course." It will be double what I'm working on now, or 1.5mm swim / 40km bike / 10km run.

But I still have to finish the sprint series before I'm ready to move up to the next distance.

UPDATE:

The final results are out. My times: