Race morning. We awoke at 445 am, I had coffee, banana, sweet potato...I think that's it. The usual. I also slowly worked on a Powerbar as the morning progressed. Unlike in IMWI, the sun was up for pre-race and instead of a dark set-up I had plenty of light. I was continuously moving from place to place, trying to think of anything I forgot or anything I could change. The overnight rain didn't get my gear bags wet, Frea's wheel's had air, all my stuff was in order! Finally we suited up and made our way to the beach. I was focused, internally nervous, but ready. Let's just get it started!
SWIM: 2.4 miles in 1:40:43
Lap 1 in 43:58
Lap 2 in 56:45
We didn't get a chance to enter the water before the race, we went in cold so to speak. The beach was crowded but not too much, and everyone was calm. I'd expected to be packed in. I waited at the back for the gun to go off, and when it did I wasn't even ready! I mis-started my watch then slowly walked to the water. The plan was to get in on the back of the crowd of 2700 other swimmers. I couldn't see a need to rush in and get caught in the mess of arms, bodies, swim caps, and splashing! I entered slowly just like I did in practice, splashing water up to my face to start getting used to the feeling of the cold water. Splish-splash, then swim!
Oh it was cold. No, it was Less Than Ideal. I quickly caught up to the back of the pack (or I didn't enter as far back as I thought I did) and was suddenly in the mess. I didn't really get kicked or hit or swam over too bad, actually I was pretty surprised that the worst thing to happen in the first lap was getting kicked by the invisible black-colored bootied feet of other swimmers. The water was clearer than most lakes I've been in, but the booties made feet blend it. I was able to swim freestyle for the most part, mixing in some doggie paddle when the crowd became too much. The forward progress I was able to make surprised me.
It was 900y to the first turn, then 125y, then 900y back to shore. The first lap was crowded for me until the 2nd 900y stretch, in which I ended up inside the guide buoys and away from the crowd. But the crowd was also pulling away from me. And I was getting cold. I could feel some shivering in my shoulders, but not too much to stop me. I was fairly impressed with how the swim was going so far.
I finished the first lap in 43 mins, 7 mins faster than the IMWI first lap! But when I stood on the beach, mindful of CP's advice to stand slowly and avoid cramps, the shivers were pretty bad. The first purple-shirted volunteer yelled out that I looked cold and was shivering, she seemed to be yelling to someone other than me. Was she signaling to someone else about me? I didn't stick around to find out. I crossed the mat and stood by another volunteer to clear my goggles (a plan suggested by TH). My hands barely worked, I took my time but wasn't getting anywhere. Still shivery over my whole body, I went in for lap 2.
Lap 2 was not like lap 1. I quickly noted the choppy water. There was small chop in the first loop from the other swimmers in the first outbound, but I didn't notice it in the inbound. Could have been there and I didn't note it. This was large wavy chop like from a boat or wind. It made the buoys hard to see, but since it was my 2nd time around I knew the tree line landmarks to follow instead.
I was cold. Terribly cold. All I could do was focus on left arm-right arm-left-right-etc-etc-etc. Finally made the first turn buoy and it was about this time that the swim started to go from bad to really bad. The waves were obscuring my view of buoys and landmarks. I could hear yelling, whistling, there were boats nearby. What was happening? I couldn't tell. When I stopped to look around two things would happen. First I'd get my head and shoulders out of the cold water and they would warm up relative to the rest of me--it highlighted the cold when I started swimming again. Second, the waves would hit me in the face. When I was flat and swimming I could time the rotations to match the waves. I couldn't do that upright. When I turned the 2nd time to head for home, I saw boats full of swim caps--athletes who weren't going to finish the swim. Afraid to see me, I headed for land without thinking more about it.
I'd lose sight of a buoy and become uncertain of where to go, but I'd follow another swim cap and I learned soon enough that the guide buoys would become visible once I got closer. It was strange that I never panicked. I did inhale water 1-2x, but just sputtered it out and continued. What kept me so calm, I don't know. I couldn't see the next buoy. My entire body was shivering. The muscles between my abs and quads were painful and tight so I had little to no kick. All I could think was right-left-right-left.... Then my lips went numb and I lost the ability to close my mouth. Breathing out changed but at least I could control enough to keep water out of my mouth. Then the final kicker--my stomach started emptying during the swim! So much for my pre-race nutrition. It came up slowly, a few small mouthfuls. I rinsed with some lake water and kept going, what else could I do?
In retrospect, I'm thinking the waves pushed me into shore? I don't know for sure, but it seemed like shore either came up fast or I just blocked out the experience.
I stood up on land and checked my watch: 1hr and 40 mins!!! The 2nd lap was almost an hour?!? WHAT?!? Doesn't matter, what's done is done. Move on! Or try to.
SWIM SUMMARY
When I was prepping for IMWI I had 3 mantra words, one of them was courage. It's safe to say I did this swim with all the courage I had. I'm a weak swimmer and I'll readily admit I'm a puss when it comes to cold water. I even hate cold/cool showers. So a long swim, in the cold, with the chop...my idea of hell.
Part of what got me through it was the super long swims of >3500y that I've been doing the past month. They weren't in my training plan (and they should have been!) but I was doing them anyway once I'd quit attending Master's and focused on swim endurance over speed. It's notable that my arms never got tired in this swim (or they did and I was too cold to notice...). This is a huge improvement over my experience in IMWI--I got tired of swimming then.
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