There were only 43 of us total but I was surprised by all the jostling. I felt so comfortable from the start, though. Although I'm a bilateral breather, I'd always held my breath before exhaling and last week at the Y I'd really worked on not lifting my head out of the water so much, taking a quick breath and then immediately exhaling. I made it a challenge to see if I could do that throughout the race and I give myself a "B" for that effort. I've also been working on lengthing my stroke by pulling all the way through so that was another thing I concentrated on in the race. My sighting around the two sides of the triangle was pretty spot on, only drifting a bit. The last side of the triangle isn't straight because you have to go around the pier and I drifted out too far and lost some seconds getting back. I kept running into people throughout the course so I knew I was doing better than last year where I was 3rd to the last out of the water and never ran into another person. I was really surprised to run across the finish mat over 7 minutes faster than last year. I'm confident the course was the same distance as last year due to the times other repeat competitors posted. I don't know how much of that reduced time to attribute to the wetsuit. Pat told me he knocks about 20 seconds off every 400 yds in a wetsuit so that would translate to about 1 1/2 minutes of the 7. I'll take the additional 5 1/2 as an improvement thanks to my BT mentor group. :) Without a doubt, watching a video of yourself swim is a HUGE eye opener and points to major flaws in your stroke. Their input helped me concentrate on things I hadn't worked on in the 6 years since I learned to swim. Thanks a bunch, Junkies! Last year I was 33 out of 35 overall and 11 out of 12 females. This year I was 26 out of 43 overall and 12 out of 16 females. As usual, I was the oldest lady there. Not too shabby.

I can always improve on my swimming, no matter how much time I put in the water. For the race, I wouldn't change a thing since I was so pleased with the results and improvements.

Peeled off the wetsuit and changed into street clothes and a hat since I had to stop by the grocery store and library on my way home. Grabbed some pretzels,goldfish, oranges and chatted with folks. They handed out awards right away and I got 3rd place in the wetsuit female division. There were only 4 of us in it but bringing home a little trophy always makes my family laugh so I was glad to be able to humor them.


Having a perfect swim stroke with perfect sighting. :) As I get more comfortable with my new breathing and stronger stroke, I do need to do more speedwork, though.


It's the only swim race in our area so I always want to support it. The funds raised go back into the lake so it's a good cause.