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Lake Montclair 1 Mile Swim - SwimOther


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Dumfries, Virginia
United States
USMS
Sunny
Total Time = 44m 34s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = Women 30-34
Age Group Rank = 7/8
Event warmup:

At 8:30 am, I calmly sat on the beach, listening to the RD give us the rundown and I looked out over the calm, clear lake. I was soooo chilled out. I thought, “maybe I won’t have my open water freak out moment after all!”
Swim
  • 44m 34s
  • 1760 yards
  • 02m 32s / 100 yards
Comments:

At 9am, my wave was called (we had self-seeded, so I was in wave 8 with my guesstimated time of 38 minutes) and I waded into the water. I let the rest of my wave take off then I put my face in the water and…

…the air would not blow out my nose. Something in my brain was not letting me breathe. And there’s no way a person can swim a mile freestyle without breathing properly. This was going to be a problem. But this is why I signed up for the event. Practice practice practice to get over my open water panic.

Deep in the recesses I must have been thinking, where’s the black line and what’s lurking under the cloudy green-ness? So I rolled onto my side and kicked while I tried to calm my breathing. Waves 9, 10, and 11 swam on by me. I rolled on my back and floated and tried to repeat my mantra while counting rhythmically, “in through the mouth, out through the nose.”

I finally put my face in the water around buoy number two. And that’s when I found my groove and fell into a rhythm, sighting maybe every 10 strokes. I got so psyched that after another half mile I turned at the wrong buoy, certain I was heading towards the finish. I heard kayakers shouting but when I sighted it didn’t seem like they were gesturing at me, and I was feeling great, so I kept on going.

Only when a kayaker paddled up right alongside me and the fireboat pulled in front of me and they boxed me in, did I stop swimming and hear them tell me I had turned too soon. I had swum way out of my way and had to turn around! I swear even one of the firefighters was mocking me. I let that one go with the quickness after I reminded myself that I am the one in the water swimming my ass off and he’s just floating around in a dinghy.

Oh well. I got back on course and hauled ass to the finish line, swimming strong with good form but certain that I was dead last by now. I emerged from the water and ran up the chute but there was no big finale. So I wasn’t the last one to finish? I looked behind me to see for myself and spotted several swimmers still pulling through the water. Wow, I couldn’t believe it! I wasted about 1/5 of a mile flailing around in a panic, and I swam way off course, and I still finished ahead of some others?!
Post race



Last updated: 2007-08-30 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:44:34 | 1760 yards | 02m 32s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/8
Overall: 0/
Performance:
Suit: competition swimsuit
Course: two "laps" around a wide grouping of 8 large buoys
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current: Low
200M Perf. Bad Remainder: Average
Breathing: Drafting:
Waves: Navigation:
Rounding:
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2007-09-28 12:19 PM

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Subject: Lake Montclair 1 Mile Swim
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