1500 extra long meters

The 1500 was the first race at lake Moreau. I walked over from the campsite on the other side of the lake. There were only six people swimming. No wetsuits. I thought that was interesting because in this event there are no separate divisions. I didn't get an official water temperature but I think it was about 70-71. We started from the water line. Plenty of room so we were not crowded at the start. For a few seconds at the start I was ahead of everyone. I think I just ran in faster. One guy caught up and passed me before we got to the first buoy. 

I could tell There was no way I was staying with him so I let him go. Then right after the first buoy one of the ladies started to pull ahead of me. Normally I just swim my own race and I don't worry about everyone else. But just this once I decided to race. She opened more of a lead on the way to the second buoy. But I got a better line, so when I came around the second buoy I was just a few body lengths behind. She started to open up a little more distance but she had a little bit of zig.

We rounded the third buoy, probably just over halfway through the race. By now I was convinced she was just a little faster than me but I was reliably swimming straighter. So I stopped paying attention to her and made my best line for the fourth buoy. It worked. About fifty yards short of the buoy she fell in directly in front of me. I tried not to tap her toes as enjoyed the draft. Coming out of the turn I rode the draft for another minute and then started moving up. I swam on the outside shoulder to hip and then shoulder to shoulder. We came to the fifth and final buoy. I let her have the inside line, like a gentleman, and then did a reasonable approximation of a sprint into shore. 

We came in at 34:45 and 34:46

Turns out the course was long

Lake Moreau

Who: Green Leaf Racing
What: Moreau Lake Races
When: September 8, 2013
Where: Lake Moreau State Park, Ganesvoort NY
Why: To get back in the game

So this turned out to me my first repeat swimming event this year. Meaning the first swim from last year that I managed to do again this year. It is a fun event, I'm glad I came back. There was a bit of a gap in my training in the last few weeks, which I will be writing about, so it was nice to get back in for a race.
The Lake Moreau races include a 15k run, a 1.5k swim, a 3k swim and an aquathlon (1.5k swim 5k run)
For reference the 15k run seems to be a brutally hard course.

About a mile

That's how I think about 1500 meters. I've gotten used to thinking about open water swims in miles. Converting to metric is harder than just doing the math.
Anyway I left the campsite on the opposite side of the lake and drove over to the beach where the races were starting. There were two tables for check-in. I figured one was probably for the swim and the other was for the trail run. I couldn't tell which was which and the lines were short so I just picked the one on the right. I was wrong, I should have gone to the table on the left first. My mistake might have caused a full 15 second delay in getting checked in, so, not such a big deal.
Wifey and our little son were going to be walking over from the campsite and they probably wouldn't be arriving until after the start. I had plenty of time to get set up before the start of the race.
I think I missed the announcement that the pre-race briefing was about to start. I just saw a bunch of swimmers down by the water listening to a guy with a clipboard. I grabbed my cap and goggles and ran down there.
Whatever I missed it wasn't much, because I got a full explanation of the course. The start would be in water. As soon as the briefing was done we waded in. Most of the swimmers were wearing wetsuits. The race directors said the water temp was 74 degrees. Usually 74 degrees feels pretty cold when I first get in. But this time the air temp was cool enough that the water actually felt warm. They gave us a count down and then we were off.
I found myself drifting to the right on the long stretch between the first and second buoys. I  had to correct my course a few times. This meant that I was already on my own early in the swim. The lake felt small. I'm not sure that it is the smallest lake I've had a race in so far. But even from in the water I could see almost the whole of the lake at once. I thought that swimming a shorter event first could really be a problem for me in the next race, so I didn't push my pace at all.
When I finished I found that wifey had arrived, no problem, in time to see the end of the race.

Three K

I've only done one other swim that is a comparable distance to 3k. I wasn't quite sure how to think about it. I did the 2 mile in Reston, though, and that is a very similar distance. The field was very small. Fewer than 20 swimmers in the event. I spent most of the swim on my own. The lake was still flat. I didn't notice any wind. Navigation was simple. The buoys were easy to spot because there was no chop to hide them. The bottom disappeared from view before I rounded the first buoy. I could see the sunlight casting beams through the green water. Just before rounding the second buoy I noticed there were some strands of lakeweed below me. The very top of the weeds, which was all I could see, must have been fifteen or twenty feet down.
I made a point of not trying to sprint into the finish. I didn't want to make the aquathlon harder for myself.

Aquathlon Part II

I stopped at the water station on my way out of the transition area and then I took off down the trail. Immediately it felt pretty rough. My legs felt heavy and my calves were tight. My breathing was ragged, not the way it should be when setting out on a run. The trail was level for a while. I just jogged along hoping I could settle into a rhythm. The trail brought me out onto the road. I followed the road for a few hundred yards and then made a sharp turn onto another trail. They had a guy stationed there to make sure no one missed the turn.
The new trail was steep and narrow. My calves were cramping up. After a minute or two I slowed down and walked. I was thinking I might have to walk the rest of the way. Somewhere around there a guy overtook me. I stayed behind him for a minute because there was a part of the trail that was so steep he had to walk it too. But then the trail leveled out a bit and he was out of sight quickly.
After another minute I started trying to run on the easy parts of the trail. There were a lot of spots that were steep enough I had to walk up. Then I started finding some spots that were steep enough I had to walk down. I noticed the drawstring on my suit was uncomfortably tight, so I pulled it loose.
Run a little, then step carefully then run a little more. I found I convenient mens room (large tree) just off the trail and when I emerged from behind it a few moments later I actually felt much better.
I continued for a while stepping carefully through the tricky spots and running between them. Then the trail I was on junctioned into a wider trail. I wasn't sure of the distances at that point but I think this was somewhere around halfway. I realized that my calves had finally loosened up. The up and down part of the trail was mostly over. The remainder looped around part of the lake and then over a bridge and back to the beach. I was feeling pretty good by this time. Every time the trail changed direction or crossed another trail I had to pause to check the markers.
A little past where I think the 2 mile mark was I overtook another racer. I told him I was coming up on his left and he waved a hand to acknowledge. I glanced at his number and realized he wasn't doing the aquathlon he was finishing out the 15k trail run. Meaning he'd been out on the trail since around the time I started my first swim. "looking good" I shouted back to him. A short time later I crossed that bridge and from there it was just a short distance past some picnic grounds and the playground. By the time I spotted the finish line I barely had time to try to sprint to the end. Just under an hour and 10 minutes and the toughest 5k I've ever run.

Aquathlon Part I

My third event of the day was the aquathlon. 1.5k swim and 5k run. For me those are pretty even distances. Meaning I should spend around the same amount of time swimming as running.
After finishing the 3k swim I got my new body marking, my chip and my bib. I set up my running stuff at the designated transition area. I'd never done an event with a transition before so I didn't really know if it made a difference how I laid things out.
The start was in water about knee deep. We were swimming the same course I had already covered three times that morning. I think there were only three people, including me, swimming without a wetsuit. The water temperature had measured at 74 earlier in the day. We walked out to the starting point and they told us one minute to the start. About thirty seconds later a dog on the beach barked, doing a pretty good impression of an airhorn. We all chuckled but no one actually started early. At the actual minute mark they blew the airhorn and we were off.
My arms actually felt pretty good on the swim. I know I was not swimming at my fastest but at least it didn't feel like a struggle. A lead pack took off and I quickly lost track of them. Just after I rounded the first buoy I found myself swimming shoulder to shoulder with a wetsuited swimmer. We stayed even for a long time while swimming for the second buoy. I could tell that his stroke was faster than mine, though. Eventually he fell behind, or I pulled ahead. I passed one more swimmer after I rounded the second buoy. Mostly because I was swimming straighter. I think I spotted her again as I was rounding the fourth buoy. I actually tried to pick up the pace on the finish of the swim.
I'm pretty sure no one passed me on the swim. The only people ahead were the ones who took off right at the start.
I ran up on shore and to the transition area. I tried to throw on my shirt but, of course, it stuck to me and it was a bit of a wrestling match to get it on. I pulled on some shorts as I sat down and messed with my shoes. Wifey told me my transition took two minutes. I know that with practice and some forethought I could make it quite a bit faster. On the other hand I took off on my run with a little bit of sand in my shoes as well as in my shorts. Over a long enough run that would be a problem.

Lake Moreau

This weekend was the lake moreau swims and aquathlon in lake moreau state park. Naturally I went for  the triple dip. 1.5k followed by the 3k followed by the aquathlon 1.5k swim and 5k trail run. There was also a crazy hard 15k trail run that started just after the first swim.

Who: Green Leaf Racing

What: Lake Moreau Swims and Aquathlon

When: September 9 2012

Where: Lake Moreau State Park Ganesvoort NY

Why: Because Summer is still not over