From Aquaphobe to Relaxed
Open-Water Swimmer Thanks to TI
By Mark Gordon

“Come the big day I could not believe how relaxed I was. I jumped in from the pier and immediately swam way off course for the first 100 metres and again on the last 100! I exited the water laughing, both at the zigzag course I had taken and at how easy the whole thing turned out.”

I did my first open water triathlon last week. “What’s the big deal?” you say, “It was only 400 metres in a lake.” Well, just listen up to my story and you’ll find out how a simple 400-meter swim ranked as my biggest sporting achievement for the year – ahead of finishing a 26.2-mile marathon in just over 3 hours and completing a 100-hour coast to coast bike ride over the Pyrenees.

I spent the first 40 years of my life pretty well petrified of water – or to be more specific, petrified of water up my nose. I could manage a width of the pool doggy paddle but that was about it. It was whilst doing one of those widths that my daughter swam up behind me (my wife is a competent swimmer who made sure that our kids did not inherit my phobia) just out of my depth and jumped on my shoulders for fun. After what seemed an eternity of panic and flailing arms I realised I had to nail this problem.

I signed up for an “aquaphobic swimmers” clinic with Pierre Gruneberg. After half an hour of shoving my head in a salad bowl of water and “making like a rabbit”, he had me so relaxed that I could float face down in the baby pool and be pushed to the bottom. A remarkable experience!

Aquaphobia conquered, a friend suggested I venture into a triathlon. I did a couple with a slow but stately breaststroke but got kind of bored coming out of the pool last and chasing everyone down on the bike and run. I went for duathlons and got quite good at it but deep down knew this wasn’t the real deal.

I found Total Immersion on the internet, thought it made sense, experimented with the drills and was sufficiently encouraged to sign up for a weekend workshop. Kevin Millerick may want to confirm this but I think I achieved what may be a world record improvement in stroke efficiency from Saturday to Sunday. I then linked up with Glen Walker a TI coach near London for private refresher sessions and continued steady progress towards something that resembled front crawl.

So this year I thought, “This is it” and signed up for my first open water triathlon, which incorporated a 400-metre lake swim. I went down to the lake used by most of the London tri community with my club mates and that calmed the nerves. What I really enjoyed was the purity of the experience, the non-chlorinated water and being close to nature.

Come the big day I could not believe how relaxed I was. I had slept 9 hours the night before, unheard of for me pre-race. I jumped in from the pier (which reminds me I must learn to dive soon) and hung to the back of the field and off to one side like Terry’s book Triathlon Swimming Made Easy suggests. I immediately swam way off course for the first 100 metres and did it again on the last 100! I exited the water laughing, both at the zigzag course I had taken and at how easy the whole thing turned out.

I am now packing my wetsuit for summer vacation and looking forward to getting some sighting lessons from Glen this autumn. After that who knows? An Olympic distance triathlon next year - probably. An enjoyment of open water swimming TI style – definitely.

Mark Gordon is pictured here emulating Lance and the guys over the big Pyrenean passes for his second ranking achievement of the summer. He is proudly modelling the kit of Thames Turbo, London's number one tri club where he is a coach. Mark has also got to compete for Great Britain as an age grouper at the Duathlon World Champs but dreams of becoming a triathlete. To keep a roof over his family's head he is a freelance international marketing director. He can be contacted at mark@kerou-associates.com.


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