Steelman Racing Nockamixon Swim Challenge - Swim

Race was broken up by 3 mile wetsuit, 3 mile non-wetsuit, 2 mile wetsuit, 2 mile non-wetsuit, and 1 mile lumped together but the choice was still given for wetsuit or not but not awarded separately.

I went with dark vermillion (red) mirrored ROKA goggles, no wetsuit. Air temp and water temp both 73 at the start, overcast with a strong breeze which created chop. Not quite whitecaps, at least on the regular. The swim started out overcast but eventually the sun came out through the clouds. Great weather!

My mantra for the race was long, strong, fast, smooth - keep good form. I felt very ready physically and mentally coming into this race, I had been building some good mileage in the pool and I wanted to have a successful race to back up my preparation.

I definitely nailed sighting. My tactic was to head directly at each buoy and it worked, I don't recall feeling like I strayed off course. It was tricky with the wind and chop. At times the incessant waves were annoying but much of the time I was able to block them out and keep pushing onward.

Lack of contact was great. At one point I touched someone's feet and later someone touched mine but that was it! It was wonderful!

Fave moment: looking up and seeing a flying cormorant.

Lap 1 went great and most of lap 2 did, too. According to someone's Strava creation of the course, I was about 3.5 minutes slower on lap 2. I still felt strong heading into the lap. Something weird happened at the corner of the first leg: there was a guy in a kayak yelling for everyone to turn. I was a little concerned because I didn't see the yellow buoy, not exactly sure what happened to it. At any rate, I turned as did everyone else nearby. I did hear him say something about a buoy but I wasn't about to stop and get the full story.

The short side of the triangle was the best leg, the wind and chop were behind us pushing! Ah, relief of sorts from the waves. Oh, I unintentionally drank SO much of the lake, largely because of chop breaking when I was breathing. Starting the final stretch my shoulder was starting to let me know it was unhappy. Oh well, deal with it!

I was a bit confused as I neared the end of the course, I should've cut harder toward the finish but I was trying to work out if we had to go around any other buoys. No, just head to the arch. I gave it a kick to stay ahead of a couple of racers in my vicinity. Made it up the ramp surprisingly well, crossed the timing mat and stopped to get my chip removed and to turn in the number in my cap.

Take a more direct route to the finishing area/arch instead of swimming a bit wide like I did, otherwise I'm pretty happy. Maybe swim a bit faster?

I felt lightheaded and a bit off in general so I leaned on the fence for a few beats. Since I wasn't feeling the greatest I didn't grab much of the food offerings (big mistake, they have some nice goodies) and only took Oreos. I did manage to remember to pick up my pint glass which all racers got.

On my way to see EFP, I ran into some of the crew from the masters group so I talked to them very briefly, I wanted to sit down, I still wasn't feeling quite right. Finally got to my chair and towel and it was nice to sit down! Drank my post-workout Nuun drink, chatted with my friends and watched other racers finishing.


Not being sure of the route to take at the end of the race but that's it.


RD did a great job again of pre-race and race day communications. Everything was organized and ran smoothly, I felt. There apparently was some sort of timing snafu with some of the racers because the results changed from race day to the next day.