I did my first ever open water race at the weekend. All went well until I stood up to run up the beach to the finish, where the wobbly legs took over and some dude sprinted past me. For all you seasoned competitors, do you have any tips on how to wake the legs up from their slumber so they’re ready to rock and roll when the time comes?
Increase your kick over the last 100m to get blood back into your legs.
I will leave advice to others. I will just ask–Did you practice this?
How about getting off the bike and running–Did you practice this?
Wow. Can’t let a post go off to page 2 without a reply!
Maybe you’re kicking too hard during the swim and you should back it down a little. Not much use of the arms for running right off, they’ll recover, so you can burn them up on the swim. I kick a little harder near the finish, which seems to get the blood flowing to the legs a bit. I’m not wobbly, but the breathing goes ballistic. I’ve been practicing swim-run bricks, either 500 or 1000 fast yards then out for a three miler at near race pace, once a week. It’s getting better.
Nope, I didn’t practice it at all. As I said, it was my first ever race, and I hadn’t expected it, especially as it was a swim only, so I hadn’t planned to be running anywhere 
Thanks for the advice everyone. It’s always good learning lessons the hard way
Sorry if I misunderstood.
No worries. I’ll be doing my first tri in the new year, and will be taking your advice and doing a few bricks before then. Thanks.
How far was the swim? Did you wear a wetsuit? The longer the swim the tougher it is to get the legs running.
As you stand up to exit the water, presumably in waist to knee high water immediately start raising the knees high as you approach the beach. Idea is to get muscles ready to running after swimming. Once again a whole lot of practice will make it easier.
This is fairly normal, at least based upon my grand total of four triathlons and what I have read. I think part (or most???) of the problem is that you are horizontal during the swim and then get vertical when you start running. I’m going to practice some swim-bike bricks next year to see if I can get used to this.