Dam 5k Open Water SWIM - Swim

This will be a short RR...I PROMISE! How much can you write about a race that lasted less than 1.5 hours?

First thing that is important to mention is that this race was governed by pure swimmer types. Hence, they were following some obscure rules for some kind of open water swimming or something or other. That meant:

NO WATCHES or HRM or anything else that could give you time/pace info
NO DRAFTING (okay, fine I didn't care that much, I never draft anyway!)

I did stick my GPS in my swim cap hoping to get the actual distance and see how straight I swam. However, it didn't work properly and I got no data :( Bummer. If I'd gotten caught, I would have been DQ'd.

Okay, so the race...

THE OUTBOUND PORTION: I took this nice and easy. Sighting was cake because the buoys were supposedly right below this HUGE white house that you could see the whole time. I swam very straight the whole way across. I was trying to stay bilateral breathing but found myself slipping into every two every now and then. I was probably working SLIGHTLY harder than I wanted to...which is to be expected due to race adrenaline I suppose. No problems on the way out. Bumped into a few people here and there, but usually was on my own. I actually thought everyone was in front of me because I turned around a few times to see if anyone was behind me and I couldn't see anyone :(

THE TURNAROUND: This went well. I had done a good job sighting so I was right by the first turnaround buoy. I had the buoys to myself so I rounded the first one, swam the 100m to the second one, and turned for home. As I was swimming to the second one I noticed that I saw no one going inbound yet and that there was a pack of about 6 swimmers about 50m ahead of me. Could I be that close to the lead pack???? And uh...now was about when I realized that I had NO idea what to use to sight back to the other shore. I certainly couldn't see the buoys, what was I going to do?

THE INBOUND PORTION: This is where life went to hell in a handbasket. The PLAN was to swim easy out, and harder back if I felt okay. Well, I felt okay. So as I turned for home I shifted into my higher gear. Problem is, so did the waves! OMG...choppy as choppy gets. I have never done an open water swim with so much chop. Chop was coming from the left/front. Breathing to the left side was downright impossible. And even breathing to the right about once out of every five breaths all I got was water. Grrr...all my extra energy was going to be wasted fighting chop! I look up to sight and I can't see a damn thing. No other swimmers, no kayaks, just choppy water and WAY in the distance the other shore. But I can't tell WHERE on the shore I'm aiming for...it all looks the same! Shit. Plow my head down and keep on going. Maybe I'll see some other swimmers eventually. They DID have a few boats out there watching for us so I figured if I got too far away someone would reel me in. A couple of minutes into the inbound portion something long hits me in the face. I start freaking out thinking it's wire or string or some crazy water junk until I realize it's one of my goggle straps. How they heck did THAT fall down onto my face? Fix the strap and keep on swimming. I see a few swimmers in the distance and have no choice but to follow them. Every time a chop hits me I feel like I am stopped dead in my tracks and need to start up my momentum again. And they are only a second or two apart. I am now working HARD...breathing every two pretty well throughout. Pretty soon a kayak comes up to me and tries to point me towards the right. Okay, fine...I'll go that way. I swim some more and she comes BACK and KEEPS pointing me to the right. Which isn't starting to feel right, but I can't see a damn thing so I keep following where she points. Pretty soon I see sand underneath me. Could I possibly be close to shore? I look up...nope, shore is still FAR away. Then I realize it's a low sandbar in the lake. Uh...I didn't pass that on the way out...I MUST have drifted too far right. So I kinda start up back to the left. I pass a white water hazard buoy...must be for that sandbar! That same kayak is still hanging around. I figure as long as I can see her I won't get too far off. Still can't see the finish buoys. A couple of other swimmers reappear and I try to follow them for a bit. But the rest of this leg was pretty much blindly swimming and fighting through waves. At one point there is a lot of splashing water around me...kinda like rain. I think it's the kayak trying to get my attention. So I look up. Nope...wind and waves have kicked up so badly it's spray from the waves...great. Next the big toes on both of my feet go numb. Um...can we say, weird? FINALLY I see the finish buoy. Yes, singular...I have NO idea where the other buoy went at this point (find out later the wind was so strong it blew away). But I also see a kayak near them...paddling INTO the current...and, uh...he isn't able to make any forward progress. Oh, this is going to take FOREVER. I have now ceased to care about racing. All I can think about is getting the HELL out of this chop. I swear I was hardly moving forward at all. Finally I could see the shallow bottom and knew I was at least moving forward, but it wasn't easy. Finally cross the finish line and drag myself out of the water. There's a crowd standing on the shore and I ask if it's always that choppy. The RD says yes, but every other swimmer I talked to said that it isn't usually that bad and all the other races held there recently had much better conditions.

Navigation. I really should have looked at the shore before leaving to find something to sight to. I was just so antsy to get in the water and get going that I forgot. I should have thought of it when I realized the only way to get to the other side was to keep and eye on a big house.

Walked some stuff back to the car, ate some clif bars, stood around chatting with the other swimmers. About 10-15 minutes after I finished I went back to watch some other folks finish. One swimmer was literally not making ANY forward progress at all as she/he tried to get to the finish buoys. It was like she/he was swimming in an endless pool! A bunch of people behind me ended up WAY off the course. I could see the white buoy I remembered passing. And honestly, it wasn't THAT far off course. I think I swam fairly straight. I wish I had the GPS!!!!

Eventually went back to the hotel to take a shower then went to HOOTERS for wings and beer! Yummy!


Navigation and the choppy water.


Fun, small race. I would have liked to see more kayaks and boats out on the water. It got downright dangerous as the chop built up. I would also like to see them measure the course...I think it was a tad short. I don't think I swam that fast. I'm thinking it was a few tenths of a mile short of a 3.1 mile race. But the folks were nice and I enjoyed the challenge.