Sunday, June 24, 2012

Not-so-super Swim

The campsite where we stayed was on the north side of John's Pond, right next to the town beach where the race is held. So it was easy to make breakfast and then stroll right over to the start. My trouble was, it was a hot night, and I woke up thirsty. I didn't figure this would be a problem. They would have water before the race. Well, I was wrong about that. This was not a disaster, I just jogged back over the campsite in order to refill some water bottles. But I'm not sure I got enough water into me before the start of the race.
The course is a half-mile triangular loop course. That means 6 times around for the 3.1 miles. Six times around and a little bit more. There was a 1/2 mile race as well as a 1 mile race. Everybody starts at once and swims on the same course. Needless to say things are a bit crowded at the start, The 5k and the half mile starts together with an in water start. I waded in about waist deep as we lined up and I thought the was was cold. I wasn't really expecting cold to be a problem for me in this race.
They blew their siren and we were off. Considering the mass start it wasn't all that bad. No bad collisions, no kicks to the face. I decided I would do my count from the tetrahedral buoy furthest from shore. So I counted "one" as I made that turn. Since this was an acute triangular course all the turns were sharper than 90 degrees. I felt like my turns were sloppy and slow.  I was surprised that I still found  a few 1 milers on my third loop. I was just beginning to think that the course was too small for things to really open up when suddenly I found myself alone. There was a large gap ahead and a large gap behind.
Despite the simplicity of the course I still had a little trouble with navigation. The entire course was marked by three buoys, and on the longer legs of the triangle the next buoy was very difficult to spot. This usually meant several strokes of breaststroke while I located the buoy and got myself pointed at it. The buoy was just too small of a speck for me to see with a quick sighting. I was consistently drifting to my right on the way out and to my left on the way back in. That matches the direction of the wind so maybe my drifting isn't all that mysterious. By the time I was on my second loop I was amazed I could have ever thought the water was cold. I was hot. I actually had that feeling of being a little too warm that I usually only get during a pool workout.
Near the end of my fifth loop  another swimmer blew past me on the turn. I figured this guy is already coming in for the finish maybe I can see where he goes. But I lost track of him and so I started my last loop without knowing where exactly the finish line was.  I kept looking for my oomph. I wanted to put on a little speed for the finish. But I just didn't have it. I moseyed on in to the end of the race and swam right past the finish, because I didn't know where it was or what I should be looking for. My official time: 1:35 something. Considerably slower than my previous 5k races. I'm disappointed with my finishing time but after all I only have two other races to compare it to. At this point I can hardly even guess what the problem is. Was I slightly dehydrated? did I sleep poorly? Was my navigation adding a lot of distance? The title of this post is my feelings about my swim.

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