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Alexandria Lake Swim - 4 mile - SwimOther


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Alexandria, Minnesota
United States
Alexandria Swim Club
74F / 23C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 59m 41s
Overall Rank = 1/2
Age Group = Adult Men
Age Group Rank = 1/1
Pre-race routine:

Hung around beach area waiting for the race officials, safety watercraft and other participants to arrive. Tried to hydrate as best as possible before the start since there would be nothing until I finished. Ate one packet of energy jelly beans just prior to start.
Event warmup:

None.
Swim
  • 1h 59m 41s
  • 7040 yards
  • 01m 42s / 100 yards
Comments:

This swim felt alot better than yesterday's two mile race, I'm not sure why. My goal was to finish in about 2 hours, I wasn't sure how much my times would decrease on each subsequent mile so considering I did the two mile yesterday in 56 minutes I wasn't sure I could break two hours today. The race ended up going as well as I could have expected, and I'm quite happy with my performance overall from sighting to breathing to pacing. I've never swam anything more than 2.4 miles strait so I was quite nervous about the distance to begin with. My sighting was much better than yesterday, I was able to breath to one side on the way down, then the other on the way back, which was a problem yesterday because I was having trouble staying on the swim line when I wasn't looking at it with every breath. Somehow I got that figured out today. There was a bit of wind and a little chop on the return half of the laps so breathing only to the opposite side of the wind was critical and worked out really well. I was able to call out to the main safety boat with the timer on it to get my laps, which helped and kept my mental motivation high since I knew after mile 3 that I had a chance to finish under two if I stayed strong. The other swimmer in the race was a super tough looking lady with a thick German accent who said something prior to the race about 20-25 minute miles the whole way, so I thought I was in trouble, it turns out I lapped her at mile 3. The timing of the race was good today, we were the first lake event and started while the rest of the swimmers were finishing the pool swims from the morning, so everyone showed up to the lake when we only had a mile or so to go. It sure was excellent finishing and looking up to a beach full of people cheering and clapping!
What would you do differently?:

Nothing much, my biggest concern of the day was pacing and I think it worked out well. I'm not sure I could have gone much harder without crashing near the end.
Post race
Warm down:

Sat in the water, removed the top half of my wetsuit, cooled down a bit then got some hydration and nutrition in me. Got dressed and went to the coffee shop for a giant iced latte and a banana nut muffin. My wife met up with me there and brought clif bars, salted cashews and a banana for me.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing

Event comments:

Good race, I wouldn't say it was "unorganized" but there could certainly have been a little better organization. It was smart on their part to start us early, well before anyone else for other events showed up, except that mean bare bones staff and water patrol for our swim, no one had a stopwatch so the timing was on someone's iphone, but they did have their split sheets which was good. This just isn't a big race with lots of bells and whistles, just a nice, local youth swim club race weekend where they've thrown in a couple events for adults as well.




Last updated: 2012-06-24 12:00 AM
Swimming
01:59:41 | 7040 yards | 01m 42s / 100yards
Age Group: 1/1
Overall: 1/2
Performance: Good
Mile 1 27:00, mile two 57:00, mile 3 1:28
Suit: Xterra Vector Pro X3
Course: 1/8th mile swim rope, 16 laps around it.
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 74F / 23C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2012-06-24 3:36 PM

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Expert
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100050025
Alexandria, MN
Subject: Alexandria Lake Swim - 4 mile


2012-06-24 3:57 PM
in reply to: #4277720

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Maple Grove, MN
Subject: RE: Alexandria Lake Swim - 4 mile
Wow. 1:42 pace for 4 miles. That is impressive. I think you should change your name to Swiiminggonzo.
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General Discussion Race Reports! » Alexandria Lake Swim - 4 mile Rss Feed