Swim Start, World 70.3 Champs, Las Vegas
David Brown of the Washington Post wrote an article on panic attacks in the swim leg of Triathlons. (See link below)
Panic attacks may come in many disguises and at various levels and even I suffered one at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas. It was my first non wetsuit swim and I hadn’t factored this into my physical or mental preparation, so went off at full taps when the race started for our wave the 50+.
7-800m later I had literally hit a brick wall and was forced to slow down, hyperventilating, swimming doggy paddle, breastroke and being swum over. Fortunately for me I’ve swum in the sea and been dumped/barreled by huge waves and have learnt not to panic, plus we train to overcome overexerting ourselves. So I did not panic, recovered and was able to race on.
The reason I am posting this is that there are so many novices in our sport and the swim is daunting, particularly in the Ocean, so it is important that they prepare themselves mentally for the challenges, the pushing and shoving, the escalated heart rate from starting too fast.
The Riddle of an Ironman's Life 