Took off and got into the lead quickly. Our wave timed the sets perfect and we didn't really have any surf to deal with. Got to the first buoy feeling good and didn't see anyone so I just put my head down and headed for the end of the pier.

About halfway through I saw another swimmer with my color cap on and we were trading back and forth for first. The person who navigated better seemed to pull into the lead. The current was heading out to sea. So it was tough to stay on line. After a few minutes I was SO far outside of this guy that I thought I was off course. I thought, for some weird reason, that we might have to swim through the pier because this guy was so far inside. I kept my cool though and continued to head for the end of the pier.

At this point someone else caught me. It was a girl and we were going very similar speeds. The other guy turned out had taken a much better line to the end of the pier and me and this girl wound up getting pushed way wide by the current. As we came to the final buoy, I swear we were swimming for 5 minutes and it seemed like we were going no where.

As we turned towards shore I started to hit the gas as I wanted to beat her bad. Funny thing though, she hit the gas too...lol. She had another gear as well. So my focus shifted. Now I just wanted to stay with her because I knew that I would be able to get out of the water faster and beat her up the beach. Being 6' and having surfed since I was 10yo, I knew I had her covered. As we hit the beach it was no contest. I was able to stand quicker and get up the beach much faster.



I knew this was going to be a pretty sucky time. For one, I got very tired the last 1/4 of the race. I haven't been swimming much since my last race and my arms were just a bit stale. I also took a horrible line around the pier and got caught in the current of the water bouncing off the pier. I should have taken a much shallower line closer to shore.

Nothing.


This was the first time I have swum 1.2 miles. I really wanted to do this swim as I have two HIM next year and I wanted to see where I was at. I should be able to get this distance under 30 minutes. I probably could do that now if the conditions where right. If I had been training right up to this race, I'm sure the result would have been better. I'm really glad I did it though. It was a great race.


I'll be back next year for one of the longer distances. Maybe even the 4.8 mile ; )