Since the race started so late, had plenty of time to warm up. Swam probably 200 yards nice and easy.
Wished my brother John and my friend Todd good luck then took off when the horn sounded. The first couple hundred yards were a bit rough, almost like a triathlon start but that settled out fairly quickly. At the 1/4 mile marker I was quite a bit ahead of last years pace so was feeling pretty good. Got to the 1/2 mile mark a little slower than I wanted but still not too bad. I had planned to slowly drift to my right, away from the bridge, so I could just swim straight into the bay at the end of the bridge. So I did that, just gradually slipping to the right and a little farther away from the bridge...until a kayaker tapped me on the back and told me to get back over closer to the bridge. I stopped and looked up and realized that I had drifted WAY farther to the right than I had planned and was a lot farther from the bridge than I wanted to be. Uggh. So, had to turn left and get back where I belonged. Somewhere about in here I began to feel a current that we were swimming into. The heavy run-off this year is still affecting the rivers some and apparently there's more water running through the lake than last year at this time. Got to the end of the bridge and headed into the bay and picked up the pace a bit but still wasn't feeling it very well. Finally got to swim near a few people in the bay and passed a few on the way in past the pilings but still was not feeling as good as I did last year here. Seemed like I was swimming by myself up until this point too, and didn't have anyone to help me push harder until the last 1/2 mile. Got to the beach and that was it, all done for another year.

I'm still working a lot on my new swim technique. Obviously have a lot more work to do to get feeling comfortable with it, especially in open water. That and navigate better. No excuse for letting myself get that far off on this course.
The good thing is that with all the navigation issues and not having anyone around most of the swim to help me push harder, I was still only a little over a minute slower than last year and didn't feel like I had swam hard at all when I got done. So the technique is working, just have to fine tune it some.

Found John and he'd had a killer swim! I'm really proud of him and how much he's improved his swimming this season! Got a huckleberry ice cream cone, some blueberries and coffee, then chatted with some friends before we took off.


Poor navigation and getting used to a new swim technique.


The RD has GOT to figure out that people are there to swim and not listen to him. Sheesh!