Gecko Hagg Lake Open Water Swim - Swim

Terrible terrible swim.

Survived. Just barely. In all my years of swimming i've never felt like I was anywhere near drowning until today. I started out in the back/side to stay away from the crazies. 30 seconds to the "gun" they called everyone back - I moved back but not far or fast enough, and suddenly i'm in front, and suddenly i'm getting clobbered. I was struggling the first few minutes just to catch my breath, people on all sides. And to that arsehole who pushed me down and launched him/herself off me - thanks - you suxor. I wanted to quit right then and there - but told myself to calm down, let ppl pass and things will be fine. Finally I rolled over and did some backstroke just so I get some air back in my lungs. I turned back over and got into a good rhythm until I passed the 3rd buoy out of 8 - ~1/3 of the way into the race. And then my wetsuit felt like a sail billowing in the wind - it was catching water everywhere. I didn't know what was going on and struggled and almost quit yet again. But i'm like okay the wetsuit is foobar and I've just gotta keep going... I literally felt like I was pulling three people during the last 2/3rds of the course.

I stepped out of the water at 39:43 on my watch - official 39:37. So yay, met my goal!

When I handed off my chit to the timekeepers I reached up to unzip my wetsuit - and low and behold the zipper had broken away (I think i pulled it up too far when I put it on), so i was swimming with a huge unzipped hole in the back of the suit - NO WONDER!

I can only imagine if I hadn't felt like drowning in the first 5 minutes, and with a normally functioning wetsuit for the rest what my time would have been... Oh well I learned, I HTFU'd, and I didn't quit even though I wanted to at least twice. I just kept swimming. I met and slightly beat my goal despite all the hardship.

Have someone check my wetsuit before entering water - make sure the zip is below the breaking point.
Absolutely make sure i'm at the outside middle or back.
Practice more OWS, in wetsuit!
Get better sleep the night before.

Stretched arms, lounged and watched 4000m race, then went for the bbq. Then got on my bike and rode the rest of the Hagg Lake loop and back to the train for a total of 41+ miles.


Wetsuit wardrobe malfunction (my fault).
Swim cap wanting to come off.
Getting caught up in the shark feeding frenzy at the start!


I enjoyed the venue - Hagg Lake is beautiful, event was very organized, and the swim course was easy even under self-challenged conditions. Next year i'm coming back to kill it!