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Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim - SwimOther


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Skaneateles, New York
United States
60F / 16C
Sunny
Total Time = 40m 2s
Overall Rank = 191/236
Age Group = Male 35-39
Age Group Rank = 19/25
Pre-race routine:

The night before this race was a complete mess. We had a wedding reception to go to at 630pm and by the time they served dinner it was after 9pm! By rule I would have eaten before 7PM but you can't tell the caterer to speed it up without looking really bad! DId my best to run the place out of tonic water and limes so I stayed pretty well hydrated at least. We didn't get home until after 10:30 so by the time we got our son to bed and my bag packed it was nearing midnight. I only got 5-5.5 hours of rest the night before the race, oh well.
Event warmup:

Some stretching before wetsuit on, and a couple of light jogs over to the port-a potty. Once we were in the water I got to do some warm up swimming along the starting line.
Swim
  • 40m 2s
  • 1609 meters
  • 02m 29s / 100 meters
Comments:

Up at 5:45am, grabbed an espresso gel, a clif bar and a water bottle and headed out. I could tell it was going to be a sunny day there were no clouds at sunrise, but I was worried about chop on the water because the wind was blowing pretty steady. Got into town at 6:40 and met Bill. We had our timing chips by 7 and we had time to socialize, stretch, and hop into wetsuits. Looking at the course they once again routed us along the shore line, so the actual course layout seemed longer than 2 years ago. The water seemed suprisingly calm for the amount of wind out there. Bill and I didn't register in time to make the Judge boat, so we boarded one of 2 buses that took us out to Country Club Point. After leaving the bus we walked a short distance to the dock and jumped into deep water. A short swim out to the starting line and we were ready to go, I had gotten water in my goggles when jumping in so I spent time clearing them out while treading water at the start.

I had a solid swim, I once again tried to start the race in the front to avoid running into slower swimmers. I did get run over a lot for the first few minutes, but then I seemed to have a nice space to myself. I could see the bottom of the lake the whole time, so navigation was made a lot easier. I would pop up every so often to sight the next buoy, but really the easiest thing to do was follow the bubbles of some swimmers who were slightly ahead of me. I was happy because, compared to last year I never had to pop out of the water and swim on my side or back to catch my breath, I was able to keep rolling with the freestyle the whole time. The only hiccup I had in this race came when I wasn't even swimming any longer. I had stood up about 10 feet from the ramp, and started to move towards the volunteer who was wearing a wetsuit and helping people grab the railing to pull themselves out of the water. I had experienced firsthand how slippery this ramp was the day before while entering the water for Skinnyman, so when the volunteer offered his hand to help me I accepted, but I did not have time to remove my goggles. As he pulled me up toward the railing my front foot caught on the edge of the ramp, I lost my balance and lost a few seconds trying to stand back up and get out of the water. I had hit my lap button as soon as I stood up and it read 39:34, but by the time I got out of the water and ran to the finish it was 40:02, which tied my best time of exactly 40:02 from 2008! The only thing I can say about 2008 was that course was a straight shot from the start line back to the park, instead of hugging the shore and being more of an L-shaped route. EIther way I was happy not so much with my time but with my effort and not needing to pop out of the water and rest! I beat my time from last year which was the same exact course by 2 minutes.
What would you do differently?:

I wondered if swim shoes would have been a good idea to get up the ramp, but that may be extra drag in the water.
Post race
Warm down:

Drank a bottled water, socialized with Bill and Rob for a while, then headed over to Skaneateles Bakery for those wonderful fresh made doughnuts I'm allowed to have once a year!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training time in the pool, needs to be increased!!!

Event comments:

This is a really fun event, I consider it a nice way to recover from the Skinnyman as my legs were torched so I really didn't kick much. You cannot beat this lake for an open water swim event, it is crystal clear and very calm for the most part. This will be an annual event for me as long as I'm local.




Last updated: 2010-09-05 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:40:02 | 1609 meters | 02m 29s / 100meters
Age Group: 0/25
Overall: 0/236
Performance: Good
The actual time in the water was 39:34. 40:02 includes time to get out of the water, up the seemingly crisco-coated ramp and run barefoot approximately 30-40 yards to the finish line.
Suit: Zoot Shortsleeve
Course: Starting line is about 50-100 yards from the Country Club dock. We had to jump off the dock and swim out to the green buoys.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Shot
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Bad Navigation: Average
Rounding: Average
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2010-09-05 10:36 PM

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New user
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Liverpool (Syracuse), New York
Subject: Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim


2010-09-06 6:47 AM
in reply to: #3083371

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Extreme Veteran
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Farmington NY
Subject: RE: Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim
Seems like an awesome weekend. I did the Skinnyman and thinking about "i'm All That" next year. Thinking about.....
2010-09-06 10:03 AM
in reply to: #3083371

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Elite
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Subject: RE: Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim
Nice work out there Jay!  Keep up the great work...training for 2011 STARTS NOW!!!  
 
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