3 Mile Bridge Swim - SwimOther

Simple race. Start on the north side of Pensacola Bay and swim to the south side. 3.275 miles. The weather and water were quite nice. The water could have been a tad cooler, but the bay was pretty flat - so no complaints.

I kept the pace easy for the first half of the swim. I felt smooth and in control at the pace I set. After that I cranked it up a bit since I was feeling pretty good. I passed probably 10 people on the second half, so I paced well. I definitely negative split the swim. After 2 miles I cranked it up even further.

For the middle part of the race I was pretty much all alone. I did catch up with three swimmers with about 1k to go and left them behind - they finished about a minute back. A lot of folks complained about the current pushing them out away from the bridge. I never noticed a current. I guess I was so busy sighting and swimming I just never sensed it.

Felt pretty good all the way until the end when I started getting my all-too-common calf cramp issues. I gotta figure these out. I managed to hold them off until the very end. In fact, once I cleared the boat dock I sprinted the last 300ds or so in. As soon as I stood up my calves wanted to cramp. So I waddled the last few yards in.

Overall I am thrilled with this effort. I never found myself in any aerobic or muscular endurance type trouble. I probably could have done the 10k, honestly. The race sure didn't feel like an hour and a half. It felt more like about a half hour - the time passed really quickly.

Not only did I feel great, but posted a good time. I was really hoping for a 1:30 finish and managed to get it. On the other hand, of the 18 people that beat me, 7 were girls, and of the remaining guys one was 13 and another 64(!). Definitely some really strong swimmers out there.

As a comparison to previous swims the two sprint swims I did last year were at 1:40/100 for 600yds and 1:34/100 for 300yds. Massive improvement in 6 months.

I could have gone harder from the get go. But my strategy for anything new like this is to make sure I don't blow up.

Collapse on the sand.


Nothing.


Great race. They need to move up the award presentation. It drags out too long.