Swim
Comments: Probably the best 2.4 mile swim I've ever had. Felt great from the start and the water temp was perfect! Found some feet to draft off of for the first few hundred yards. Got spreadout soon after though. The way out seemed to go forever, but I still felt good. Navigation was absolutely perfect. Made the first turn and had to clear my goggles twice as they were fogging up. Checked my watch as I could see the shore and was happy with how the first lap went. Swam until I was nearly on the beach and was back in the water for the second lap. The second lap seemed to have a lot more waves and chop. I don't know if it was just picking up or if there was a boat that went by, but I could tell I was working harder. Still felt solid. I was catching up to the 2.4 male swimmers, but couldn't ever find feet to draft off of. At times, there would be over 100 yards between me and the next swimmer. Made the final turn for the return trip and was hoping to have a similar split as the first lap. Realized I was off by around 1:30, but could tell it was because of the waves. Again, swam until I was nearly on shore before sprinting to the finish line. What would you do differently?: Use anti-fog on my goggles. Other than that, nothing. Post race
Warm down: Stood in the water with Brad and peeled our wetsuits off. Grabbed our bags and hit the road. What limited your ability to perform faster: Nothing. This was a great swim for me. Especially since I haven't really been training with anything longer than 3k. Very happy with the results. Event comments: Pros: 2.4 mile open water swim at the beach. We could tack it onto a visit with Karen and Mike. OK long sleeved shirt. Bag check at race site (although the volunteers at the timing chip table didn't know about it). Nice location - sandy beach entry and clean, open water. Cons: Lack of restrooms. Didn't start on time. Timing system seemed to have issues. I would probably do this race again if it happened to work out with our schedule. I don't think I'd go out of my way to fit it in. It was great to get an OWS in though. Last updated: 2009-04-01 12:00 AM
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United States
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 91/149
Age Group = F 30-34
Age Group Rank = 5/6
Up at 6:15 and left Karen and Mike's before 7. Had a english muffin w/ PB and coffee for breakfast. Arrived at the race site at around 7:30 after finding a parking spot. Brad and I first got in line for the bathrooms since the lines looked really long. There was one women's room and one men's room for over 500 athletes! The RD later posted on the results website, "Missing Port-o-John situation: Totally my fault, sorry all I really just forgot! Sorry". Nice. Stood in line for over 40 minutes for the bathroom. Since we pre-registered, that was quick. Got on the wetsuit and was ready for the 8:30 am start. Took a GU around 8:30am.
No real warm up. Brad and I stood on the shore people watching. We were ready to go by 8:30, but they ended up starting the race closer to 9am. Not really a big deal as we weren't in a hurry. Just kind of ironic we were standing in the sun in our wetsuits and the swim was to benefit melanoma awareness.
The 2.4 male swimmers went off first followed 5 minutes later by the women. Just hung around waiting for the race to start.