Lake Montclair 1 Mile Swim
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Lake Montclair 1 Mile Swim - SwimOther
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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
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2007-09-28 12:19 PM |
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United States
USMS
Sunny
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = Women 30-34
Age Group Rank = 7/8
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!”