I quickly established myself as the slowest swimmer in my wave. But was also able to keep some distance between myself and the next wave, so it seemed like for the first 3/4 mi of the race, I had the lake to myself. I purposely went out slowly because I knew the last 1/2 mile would be tough based on my pool experience and I expected the OWS to be more challenging overall. Best to play it conservatively 1st time through. Also, I must have had some reaction to something in the water, because my head starting running and was having trouble breathing in that first lap... got better eventually.

Somewhere after the turn heading into the 4th 1/4 mi segment, the leader of the race passed me. And he must have had quite a lead on everyone in lake! Eventually some others also lapped me as well. I don't recall much about the 3/4 - 1 1/2 mi part of the race, basically got into a (slow) groove alternating about 70% freestyle 30% backstroke. Most of the section of the race I was focused on trying to straighten my stroke out. It was GREAT to have a cable in the lake as I was able to gauge how straight (or not) I swam. Well, turns out that my freestyle was pretty good for the first mile or so, and then I started veering a little left if I didn't adjust. Backstroke, however, was a disaster... was veering left from the start - wound up in the cable several times. So what seemed to happen is I would swim freestyle and would wander away from the cable, then flip over on my back and veer back toward the cable. Overall, it worked out fine, but I probably added 1/16 mile to my swim and that was with the cable being there. If I'm going to continuing to do the alternating approach, need to get that straightened out. The backstroke did seem to get better as I got more tired (or more likely adjusted).

The last 1/2 mile, I started to get toe cramps, which is not a disaster, but it does mess with your mind, also is a warning that I'm low on electrolytes. Started mixing in a little breaststroke too. Last 1/4 mile I decided to push hard home - big mistake. Had a massive charlie horse that made me stop dead in the water. Couldn't get it to go away, just kept re-cramping. Had a few moments of "dang - not sure how I'm going to finish the last 1/8 mi, which turned into, I don't give a dang, I'll skull in if I have to"... felt like forever, flipped over on my back and just was skulling some in the right direction... finally relaxed enough to be able to pull again... maybe 3-5 min dead in the water... not sure. Anyway, limped on into the finish. [Even as I write this the following day, my calf is super tender, hard to put weight on it]

Okay - lots of good learning from this race.

1) Need goggles that don't fog. This is stupid. I spend too much time adjusting and clearing them.
2) Need to make sure I'm super hydrated and have sufficient electrolytes. I was lucky it wasn't hotter or my problems with cramping would have started earlier. In the pool, I always thought this was caused by pushing off the wall, but clearly that isn't the only contributing factor.
3) Need to work on straightening my stroke. Just like biking and running, my left side is just weaker.

Chatted with Alvin ? who was from Norfolk area and was doing the 1 mi. Also a triathlete. Grabbed a bit of watermelon, snapped a picture with Tsvi and headed out.


See above.


I will definitely do this again. Probably learned more doing this race than any other in recent years.