Snapping Tortuga Open Water Swim - Swim

Course was a LOT shorter than advertised. With my training and abilities, I was expecting to come in somewhere in the low- to mid-40's, so when I stepped out of the water at sub-30, I knew the course was short. Turned out it was 1.05 miles according to my watch, so it was a little disappointing to have this be shorter than an HIM swim, when I was expecting this to be my longest OWS to date.

That said, I was very happy with the performance. I tend to get really "bored" during open water swimming, constantly thinking things like, "Is this almost done yet? I feel like this is taking forever!" So my goal for the last couple races has been to just keep my head in the game and not let those thoughts creep in. During this race, I felt like time was just flying by. I didn't feel like I was going particularly fast, but I was maintaining a comfortable pace.

There was a decent amount of wind chop and surface current, so the first two legs of the triangle were bouncy and slow. But I was able to keep myself in a good place mentally and just kept plugging away. When I rounded the last buoy, I told myself I needed to "swim with a sense of urgency"....it's easy to just lock into a pace and kind of swim along, without treating it like a race. I did that for 2/3 of the race, so the last 1/3, I told myself to pick it up....plus, it was nice that we were finally going with the wind/chop/current!

Swim at a bit stronger pace -- need to swim with a sense of urgency for the entire thing, rather than just for the first minute and the last 1/3. But pretty happy overall

Changed into dry clothes, ate some fruit and a cookie, drank some water, cheered on the rest of the swimmers

At some point, we heard some clapping and realized they were doing awards. I wasn't expecting to place, given that I don't have a swim background and am not all that fast, but I guess the race has been taken over by triathletes (or maybe those with swimming backgrounds did the 5k), and I'm a reasonable triathlete swimmer. Ended up taking second in the female masters category, which was a pleasant surprise. The "award" was some turtle wax -- for the snapping tortuga race. Very clever :)


Just not pushing it quite as hard as I should throughout the entire race


This is kind of a bare bones race -- I don't have any problems with it, but don't come expecting lavish amenities or anything.

Honestly, though, it was pretty disappointing to have the course so much shorter than advertised. For those swimming the 2500, it was only 1700....but for those swimming the 5000, it was only 3400 (so a full mile short). I understand being a little off....and it's not uncommon for people to swim long due to sighting issues, but to be that short means that course was quite far off.