At first the water was cold, I mean it’s May in the Pacific North West! Water temps I heard were in the mid 60s and the air temp was down in the mid 40s. But after about 10 mins of warm up it was fine. I was reminded of XTERRA nationals in Tahoe in 08 - without the choppy water that swim had. This was also the first time swimming in my Profile Design Gold Cell wetsuit and it rocked. It fit like a glove, was super flexible and more buoyant than any other wetsuit I’ve worn.
I was not sure how I’d compare to these other triathletes and swimmers so I started in the back of the back. Mainly because of one guy I talked to before the race who was discussing some of the difficulties he had in his last 10k…swim! The guy raced over 6 miles swimming. That shows some kind of dedication to this sport. When the swim went off being that far back in the pack started me swimming past people right away. The course was squared off at the first end and a point at the other. After the first buoy I was in my rhythm and working on keeping my form. After the second buoy I was struck by how much I love Hagg Lake. Cool clear water that doesn’t taste like an impending intestinal parasite…
Everyone was very polite at the turns-I didn’t get hit once! I saw some people back-stroking around the buoys even. I felt good and kept my focus on my swim form. It seems the epic 5am battles between the pillow and the pool, along with some excellent coaching, is helping my comfort level in the water - I’ve been able to get through both this and the Vegas swim without the normal panic I’ve gotten in previous year’s races.
After getting so turned around in Vegas from bad sighting I have been working on swimming a straighter line and sighting more. I’ll bet that looks pretty funny in the pool but better sighting combined with the almost one dozen buoys on this 2000m course I did pretty well at staying headed in the right direction. Pushing a straight line to the last buoy went well then turning left took me in sight of the beach exit with only a few hundred yards to go. I pushed harder and finished with a time better than some of 1500m XTERRA swim splits of previous years, at 0:34:33.00 I placed 10th in my age group (M30-39) and 50th overall! Thanks to everyone who has helped me improve my swim this season.
