The clinic

The advice on navigation that they gave  during the clinic might have been helpful to me before blundering through the 5K. Not that it was useless after one open water race. Use big features on the shoreline to help you navigate. Get a look at the course before the race. They talked a little about the mental aspects of open water and mentioned a few drills that use might use in your training. But there is no substitute for practice which is why the clinic included a practice swim.

The swim had wave starts just like the races. From my point of view the major difference is that there were not as many faster swimmers participating in the clinic. Which meant that I started in the first wave. I put myself toward the back of the group and we were off. This was wave A so there were some fast swimmers. I didn't even make an attempt to hang with them. My short term goal was to keep them in sight. So I followed the lead pack around the dogleg and back towards the main lake. But by the time I had turned out of the dogleg and onto the main part of the lake I had lost track of the lead pack. I couldn't see anyone to either side. I suppose a savvy and experienced swimmer could have been riding my draft at this point but I doubt it. So I swam out the rest of the course on my own, without a bunch of other swimmers to help my navigation. Much to my delight I managed fine on my own. I did pause on my way back between the turnaround and the finish and look around. I couldn't spot anyone in front of me or behind. I got to the finish feeling great and went for a second round of food.