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 Swim
Comments: At the start loads of people passed me. I just concentrated on holding my line and swimming at the right pace for me. Just after the first turn I was drafting someone and then realised it was Kevin! I passed him fairly soon after that and didn't see him again. I concentrated on maintaining a comfortable pace all the way round. A few times I felt like I was completely on my own out there, but most of the time there were people to draft and I felt like I got the pace absolutely right. The first lap was nice and calm and a good opportunity to get warmed up and into the groove. On the second lap the wind had picked up and the water got pretty choppy, with white caps around. I got a few waves over my head, but nothing I couldn't cope with. On the third lap it felt like the wind was even stronger, but it didn't seem to impact on my pace as much. There were a number of ferries that went past and caused some waves, which was another added challenge, but again I just concentrated on staying calm and relaxed all the way round. I kept thinking all the way round that this was a good opportunity to practice swimming in more challenging conditions because both lakes that we train in are quite small and mostly very calm and sheltered. I think this lake is much more like the one we'll be swimming in for Ironman - much bigger, but with clearer water. It was a little strange looking down and actually being able to see the bottom sometimes. What would you do differently?: Maybe try to improve my sighting/line. According to the Garmin I swam 4k, but my friend's showed 4.2k, so I think I didn't do too badly. Most of the people swimming in this event are pretty fast (the winner was just over 50min and I was well back in the field), which made it feel like I was swimming slowly. I had no idea what sort of pace I was swimming until I finished and looked at my Garmin, but I decided half way round the 3rd lap that even if it was slower than I'd hoped it would be the right pace for Ironman because it was a good comfortable pace that I felt like I could maintain all day. When I saw the time I was really pleased because my target time was 1hr 18min!  Post race
Warm down: Stood with some friends and waited for Kevin to finish, then we just walked back to the carpark and got changed. It surprised me how much the wetsuit kept me warm while we were standing around! I have some friction burns on my neck from my wetsuit. I could feel that it wasn't right when I was in the water, and stopped early on to try to fix it, but couldn't. So note to self: lubricate around the neck. What limited your ability to perform faster: My performance was absolutely spot on based on my pool swimming. The pace was exactly what I would have predicted if I'd been in the pool. The only thing that would make me faster would be getting stronger in the water, which is a work in progress. For me, this was a really good result. Event comments: Well organised race. It's part of a series which has different venues and distances, but I really appreciate someone putting on an Ironman distance swim that just happened to be perfect timing before my race. And they had free tea and flapjack for competitors afterwards, so I'm happy... Last updated: 2012-06-21 12:00 AM
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United Kingdom
Epic Events
8C / 46F
Overcast
Overall Rank = 124/230
Age Group = 30-35
Age Group Rank = 20/
Up early and ate breakfast (porridge) in the car. The drive landed up taking longer than expected due to a mis-calculation on the route. Also we were driving through the clouds so had to take it easy on the country roads because visibility was awful. Drank a High 5 extreme on the way there.
This was the first time I'd used my new Garmin (910XT), so was also trying it out to see how it worked for the swim.
Ran around getting parked and registered and then got into our wetsuits and headed down to the lake for the briefing. It was a deep water start, so swam out to the start line and had a few minutes treading water before the start. The organisers were in a boat and had us all singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" with the actions, which was quite entertaining and kept everyone moving until they hit the horn.
I've been having trouble feeling like I'm fighting against my wetsuit. I was given some advice to make sure I used baby oil on my arms and shoulders and make sure there was plenty of water inside my wetsuit. I did all of that and I really think it helped. I felt a lot more comfortable and although the water was cold I felt like I got warm quite fast.