The mens' wave started first. The womens' wave didn't start until after the men got past the first buoy. Started from in the water. There were about 27 women in the group. I started in the middle and back from the first line. At the start, I tried to keep up with the people around me. One of the other woman I was near ended up being the fastest. I ended up going way faster than I should have and couldn't get in a good rhythm for swimming. My breathing was really off and I couldn't catch my breath. I dropped back and tried to get in a good rhythm. Then, I started catching some waves from one of the boats that was in the water. This made me a little dizzy and disoriented. I kept going, although a bit slower.

Once I got to the 200 meter buoy, I was breathing a lot better and finally started to feel like I was doing better in terms of rhythm. I actually felt like I was swimming. There was another person about 15 meters in front of me, so I started following her to the next buoy. My goggles started to get a bit foggy, so it was easier for me to follow her. I thought I was swimming downstream, so I didn't want to use too much energy. I was really swimming upstream, so I could have swam harder. Oh well. Once I got past the second buoy near the tree, I also realized that I could kick a lot harder because I didn't have to bike or run afterwards. I've gotten so used to the not kicking very much from triathlon training.

It felt like forever to go from the second buoy to the last one. I was trying to work on sighting for the buoy as practice for my tri. I stopped at least twice to clear my goggles so that I could see better. I also felt a lot better about my form and my breathing. I got in a good rhythm of breathing every 3 or 5 strokes. I got better at catching the waves and keeping my strokes in tune with the waves.

When I finally rounded the third buoy, the goal was to head straight back through the river rather than going back along the curved path that I went out on. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see the starting point. It would have been really nice to have more buoys in the river or to have balloons on the top of the ones that were there so it would be possible to actually see them (several swimmers made the same comment after the race). I ended up to the right of the second buoy when I should have been to the left. I'm sure that I swam more than a mile. I had a kayak following me the whole time. I think they were worried that the last two of us wouldn't finish and would need help. I stopped to clear my goggles and the woman in the kayak asked me if I was okay. I assured her that I was fine and I would be able to finish, I just couldn't see. She laughed and told me there wasn't much to see. I ended up following her a lot because I couldn't see the starting line.

It got to the point where I was finally able to see the start, so I started swimming a lot harder. I knew that I was one of the last swimmers. This is the first race were I was just about DFL. It wasn't a bad feeling, I was just a lilttle disappointed that I didn't do better. I had hoped to swim faster. At the same time, I am really glad that I was able to do the swim and get a lot of experience. I learned a lot and I think I'm going to be a lot more comfortable doing my tri in August.

Next time, I would make sure that I used goggles that weren't blue! It was really hard to see all of the buoys. Also, I wouldn't try to keep up with all of the other swimmers and try to get into my own rhythm from the start.

Light swim for about 5 more minutes. Talked to the woman who finished right after me. She told me that she had followed me the whole time and was really glad I was there. Got out of the river and walked around and had some food and a lot of powerade and water. Stayed for the awards ceremony and got a medal for being 2nd in my age group (even though there were only 2 people).


There were a few things:
-trying to keep up with everyone at the start made me really tired and unable to get in a good rhythm of my own
-goggles made the buoys dark and kept fogging up
-still congested from a cold made it hard to breathe and made me a little dizzy/disoriented at some points
-course wasn't marked well and was really hard to navigate


This event was sponsored by Sportsbackers as part of the Capital One Adventure Games weekend. There weren't a lot of athletes, so it wasn't incredibly disorganized. The volunteers didn't seem to know what was going on. Things were running late, but only by about 10 minutes. Lots of what went on was ad hoc. Still, it was a fun event. I enjoyed it and I'd probably do it again.