2013 Great White North Race Report: the swim

The alarm went off around 4 am on race day.  We planned to leave the hotel at 5:30 so I spent the time puttering around the hotel room, had a shower and put on sunscreen.  I had saved some items from the breakfast buffet at the hotel the day before which would be perfect for my race morning breakfast – two slices of white bread, raspberry jam and two hard boiled eggs.  I saved a banana to eat in transition later and drank some coconut water on the way to the race.

We got to the lake soon after transition had opened and we were able to park nice and close.  The first order of business was to get in line for the porta-potties.

After that it was time to start getting transition ready.

I also made sure to eat my banana an hour before race start.  After that, it was time to find friends!

And then time to get the wetsuit on!!  And obviously spend some time being pensive in transition… (photo by Ken Anderson)

With about 30 minutes before the race I ate a gel, then made my way over to the lake for a warm up swim!  I was pretty excited to race in my new Huub!

I had a very short warm up swim and then we were being ushered back through transition, over the timing mats and back on to the beach.  Race morning was going by so quickly!  I found Kelly, Mitch, Shannon, Trevor and Danny on the beach.  With a few minutes to spare before race start music was playing and we were dancing on the beach.  Sometimes there are so many nerves before the start of the swim and goofing off and busting out silly dance moves was the perfect start.

All of a sudden the gun went off and everyone took off in different directions into the water.  It was hard to sight the first buoy so I just made sure I was following people. I kept things fairly easy, just concentrating on enjoying the swim and breathing easily.  I also made sure to take plenty of opportunities to pee on the swim!  There were only two buoys in the lake to indicate the triangle we’d be swimming, but I didn’t spot any smaller buoys in between.  People were getting really spread out on the swim. When I made the turn around the second buoy back to the beach it looked a lot closer than I figured it should be and way before I expected it, I was at the beach.  The swim was short for me!

My wetsuit came off quickly thanks to the breakaway zipper and I had it down and off my arms in no time.  No issues getting the sleeve off over my Garmin and no wetsuit bites on my neck either!!  As I ran on the beach I spotted Deb from Huub cheering me on, and just past her I spied my husband.  This resulted in the best post-swim photo of me ever!

photo via Jordan Bryden

photo via Ken Anderson

Swim (2000 meters): 42:53

(Last year’s swim time was 53:53…even if the course was a bit short…that is still a mega improvement over last year!!)

T1: 3:36

Next up…time to ride!