When I said I’ll try triathlon, I decided to go for the Olympic distance, because I found it was challengeable but a manageable effort. So I signed up for Carcan Frenchman Triathlon for may 2025.
However I didn’t wanted to discover triathlon’s specificities on my first race. I wanted to gain experience first by signing up for a smaller format, 3 weeks before my main goal.
The distances for the XS are very short :
- 400m swim
- 10km bike
- 2,5km run
So It’s really family-friendly and not so serious. Some people do this on all-mountain bikes, some swim breaststroke all along. Yes a few people will have specific TT bikes, train for very short distances, and will try to beat the own time or a place for a podium. But that’s not the majority, and most people were here for the fun.
Once we get here, I prepare everything for the next day, ready to go.
After we got the race bib and the stickers, I stick it on the bike, helmet and attached the bib to my belt.
The swim
The swim is done in the Atlantic Ocean, it might be scary at first, but the water is quite calm there, because of the way the coast is a bit set back. I decided to warmup and get confortable with the water temperature by swimming just a bit. So it was the first time I swam with a swimsuit, and it instantly felt very “floating”.
Little bit of a description if you’re not a swimmer : When you swim, trying to keep an horizontal position is very important. Instinctly, and when you’re a beginner, your legs will naturally drown a bit. This causes drag, and you’ll need to push harder with your arms.
This can be avoided with a good technique, and you gain speed or achieve the same pace with less effort. To try to feel that at first, you can swim with a pull boy in between your legs. This will helps keep your legs horizontal, and you can focus on the front technique. The first time you swim with a pull boy, you instantly feel less exhausted. Swimming with a swimsuit just feel like you have a giant pull boy all around you. You naturally just float more !
So even with a poorer technique, your body will automatically be more horizontal. By warming up in the water, I instantly felt that change. That eased up the stress quite a lot that I was building up.
The other point that’s very different compared to pool swimming, is the sighting. Swimming in a straight line is not easy, because you must look down and not in front of you to stay horizontal. In a pool, there is a blue line at the bottom to help you stay in the right track. There is no such thing in open water, and you don’t see much beyond 50 cm anyway. It’s not uncommon you hear people panic when they first swim in open water, and that’s one of the biggest reason.
So how do you swim straight ? Instead of breathing to the side, you take a quick look in front of you before the breath and then you turn your head back to the side. If you’re a good open water swimmer, you can take a look each 5 or even more strokes. If you’re not, it’s better to sight regularly, because even if you think you’re swimming straight, you’re not. Simple as that š
Last thing that’s different : There is people around you ! Well, in a pool too, but there are rules : you pass on the left, you try to be careful if there is someone in front of you, etc. You try to give as much space as you can while being able to pass, it’s not easy when there are multiple swimmers with different paces, but that’s the general rule.
During a triathlon, it’s a big mess, where you have the elite swimmers in the front, and then there is a big pack of moderately average swimmers trying to survive all this. So suddenly you give a kick into someone’s arm, and the next stroke you’ve got someone swimming on your back and you’re receiving a leg punch at the same time. Bonus point if you didn’t tied your gogles enough, and you now need to put them back on while swallowing the incoming wave.
Well I might have pictured this a bit bad. It’s kind of fun and rewarding when there is a bit more of a challenge, and when everything is not so smooth like in a pool. And the feeling of swimming in a natural environment adds to the pleasure.
So the gun shot is heard, time to go ! To be honest, at the time of writing, it is more than a year ago now, I dont remember the swim much. “Pas de nouvelles, bonnes nouvelles” as we say in french, “no news, good news”, If I dont remember it specifically, I think it wasn’t too tough. It was a relatively small triathlon, without too much people around, so not so stressful. I just remember one guy getting yelled at by one of the lifeguard in a paddle because he was swimming literally in the opposite direction. He was getting back to the beach after 50 meters :D. Side notes : those guys on paddles are most of the time trying to encircle swimmers. If you see one right beside you, you’re mostly on the wrong track !
The bike
Once out of the water, I’m heading to the first transition in the bike park. Earlier on that day I’ve arranged all my stuff for the bike and for the run, all ready to get picked up (helmet, shoes, etc).
The bike portion was quite short, it was planned for a 10km race, however due to local constraint, it was shortened for a 5km. Ended up being 3,79km on my Garmin !
I just started using clip-in shoes for cycling around that time, for those unfamiliar with it, it’s specific cycling shoes that you clip onto the pedal, for a better power transfer that classic flat pedals. I managed to not fall on the bike during transition, which is important to note !
The run
Hopped off the bike, changed my shoes, and off I go for a 2,5km run. Again, this is a very short distance so you must go all in, it’s not a sprint so you’re not a your maximal effort, but you must be very close.
And voila, done, 10 minutes later I’ve officially did my first triathlon š
The fact that this triathlon is so short, I did not recall having any pain in the ankles. This happens most of the time when I run more than 12km, at a “fast” pace. If I’m mostly chill, I can run for even longer distances without having serious pain.
Anyway, it was a very cool experience, that relieved a lot of stress (mainly the swim part) before my main goal of 2025, which was the olympic triathlon in Carcan.
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