The Swim – 1.2 mi (or 1931 meters)
The swim is an in-water start off of a floating dock. Waves go every three minutes and the swim is a fairly narrow triangle. There are small peg type buoys set up very frequently. There is a large orange sighting buoy halfway out, another large buoy where you turn left, then swim 100m to the next orange buoy, then turn around and head back. One final sighting buoy halfway back.
There was still a bit of fog on the lake when we went off. It was absolutely beautiful out there.
The water was quite warm. Officially 69F, so wetsuit legal for everyone! After you move away from the floating dock the water is quite clear.
The buoys are actually all tethered to a yellow cable. Because the water is clear enough, if you swim close enough to the cable you can actually follow that the entire way and have minimal sighting to do on the swim. I had started to the outside, but wound up moving inwards toward the pack to avoid getting off course too much, then found the yellow cable shortly thereafter. Since I am a back of the pack swimmer I knew I would be in a prime position for getting run over by the fast swimmers in subsequent waves. I was willing to take that over going off course and sighting all of the time.
The next wave behind me were the men 40-44. My feet were touched a couple of times, but it seemed like as soon as they found you they would move out of your way. No big deal.
Swim, swim, swim…I felt like things were going so well. That I was swimming efficiently and moving well.
When the next wave of speedy swimmers arrived, the women 35-39, things changed. The lead swimmers were very aggressive. If they found your feet they were beating at your feet and pulling on them. I just wanted each of us to move out of the way and swim on. They wanted to fight a bit more.
At the time I didn’t think it affected me, but when things got more interesting I think I wound up swallowing more water and more air than normal. I tried to burp a few times to sort things out but nothing. Little did I realize how much my “nutrition” on the swim would affect my race day…
The swim ends at a boat ramp, so it was a pretty easy run up and out of the water:
No wetsuit strippers here though, so you are on your own for that one.
1.2 mi in 45:46 (2:24/100m)
F30-34: 38 out of 50 swim finishers
OK, So far so good…can’t wait to hear the rest. Sounds like you had a handful of malfunctions prerace. That’s enough to rattle anyone.
Chicks PULLING on your feet? WTH?
1.2 mile swim – I would completely drown in that, you know.
Cannot wait for the rest!
So the women were more aggressive then the men…Hmmm, Interesting.
Oh no, I can see where this is going. 2 years ago at Ironman Fl I swallowed a ton of SALT water and that led to some serious problems down the road…and my leg. Let’s hope your story doesn’t go there.
Nice foreshadowing. Somewhere, even if it’s only in private, you have to be honest and capture ALL the info about where a race goes wrong. That’s the only way to learn from it. Pretending it didn’t happen will only get you into trouble next time. There will be a lot of astonished triathletes if you have come up with some new ‘mistake’.
great report so far – entertaining and leaving me hanging for more! 🙂 umm the 35-39 women were pissing me off just reading about them. i know that happens in swimming but geeze, just move around. it’s not like you’d crash into someone on the bike or just plain plow them down on the run!
I can only imagine the G.I. issues after slurping up that water…yikes…
can hardly wait to read about the rest of the event.
I don’t like the sound of that…gulping in lake water…you never know what’s in there. I hope I’m wrong as to what is coming next.
I don’t know how you swim 1.2 miles at all, let alone with people pulling at your feet!
Don’t leave us in suspense too long.
Leana, I felt your frustration on you FB status update yesterday. One can train to their hearts content and make it to the starting line and have their expectations blow by unplanned circumstance. To me you finished this race long time ago. When you are so focused through your training a winner is born. Congrations on your 70.3 finish. You dug deep and found used the strength and persevered to finish it up.
See, this is what freaks me out most about the concept of OWS in triathlons… getting banged into and yanked around.
Sounds like you still had a good swim, though. Good work!
ok you’ve got me on the edge of my seat with the intially prelude and the recap so far…
So annoying, why don’t they start the heats far enough apart! I hope you gave a few a good kick… LOL.
I do not like this pulling. That would be a mistake…