2006 800 Meter Open Water Swim

My First Open Water Swim 

My morning began at 6:15 AM. I ate a quarter of a pear, quarter apple and a small protein smoothy. My friend Tom (who has been helping with my swim coaching) arrived at my house at 7 AM and we set off shortly thereafter. We arrived at the race site (Mansfield Dam Park) at around 7:30 and picked up our race packets. Then we walked a long way into the park and to the water.

We milled about, checked out the course (two 400 meter laps) and picked up our timing chips. The timing chips are about the size of a quarter. In a running race, you affix the chip to your shoe with a little plastic tie. In a swim or triathlon they use a velcro strap around your ankle. I put mine on pretty tight because I was worried about it loosening when it got wet. As it would turn out, the timing chip was my achilles heel. More on that later, though...

Around 8:15 they started herding everyone down to the water. We each had our race bag with our number on it so we could walk down to the water with our shoes, then hand off the bag to a volunteer to pick up when the race was done. The shore was really rocky. First up where the people doing the 5k race. They were wearing white swim caps. The start was actually a little way from the shore so they swam out to the start and got in a nice long line treading water for awhile. They were off. It was time for my group, the orange caps, to get into the water. The start and finish was denoted by a large inflatable T-Rex. We passed the T-Rex and went into the water which wasn't as cold as I had prepared myself for.

All last night, during the parts of my choir concert when I wasn't singing I kept repeating little mantras in my mind. Things like, "I am a fast swimmer!" I repeated these as I waited to go in the water.

It was time for us to go in the water. We started swimming out to the start buoy and about halfway there, my timing chip came off. I freaked out because the stupid things are $30 or something to replace. Turns out the velcro strap was floaty and it popped right up to the surface. As I'm halfway to the start (about half the swimmers were at the start and about half were on the way there) as I'm trying to tread water with one leg while affixing my timing strap with my hands to my other leg, they started us. I freaked out a little, but got the chip secured and swam to the start. I pushed the start button on my heart rate monitor and began swimming. I was having a hard time swimming around all the people that had gotten ahead of me while I was messing with my timing chip. They were all clumped up and going way too slow. I had to swim way out and back to get around them all.

I was going along pretty well after passing people, but I hadn't even reached the first buoy when my chip fell off again. I again put it back on. All the way to the next buoy, I kept tightening it. Every time I reached down, I could feel that the velcro was coming off. Halfway to the next buoy it came off again. I put it on again and swam around the next turn. It came off again. I held it in my hand for awhile, but realized that stroking with one hand as a fist was not efficient. Finally, towards the end of the first lap I stuffed the chip and strap down the front of my swimsuit and tried to wrap it around the chest strap for my heart rate monitor. The velcro was scratchy against my chest, but at least I knew where it was and could actually focus on swimming the second 400 meter lap.

I looked at my watch when I got through the first lap - 12 minutes. Not bad! Especially for all the stopping I did to mess with the stupid chip. tried to crawl a bit, but when I did I would get in a groove, which is mostly good, except I would forget to sight. I kept going way off course. (It's amazing how quickly you can get off course in just 10 strokes or so!) I mostly did a breast stroke because it was easier to see the buoys and see all the people around me. I passed people doing the crawl with my breast stroke so I wasn't too worried about losing time. In fact, I passed a lot of people. I was pretty surprised.

When the T-Rex was in sight, I picked it up and did the crawl stroke to shore. Since it was a straight line with the shore to my right, I could make sure I was lined up as I breathed on my right side. Finally I made it to shore and volunteers pulled me up. I yanked my chip out of my swimsuit and the volunteer looked surprised and said, "That's an interesting place to put that." I explained that it fell off about 5 times so it seemed like the best solution.

I stopped my heart rate monitor once on shore and it said 25 minutes which made me pretty happy. I was hoping for 30 minutes or less. My chip time is actually longer 27:33. I'm trying to figure out how that worked out. They should have gone from the gun time at the beginning (when I was still not to the start line) and then when I crossed the mat at the end, it should have picked up my total time. Although, there was a lady with a little computer after the timing mat asking for people's numbers so maybe something wasn't working quite right. It was all a little chaotic. Either way, it's a good time, especially with all the messed up chip stuff and the fact that I didn't actually start at the starting line when they said to start. I finished 52 out of 99 people. Pretty much right in the middle of the heap. I'm looking forward to next year with even more training and hopefully no chip issues. (I'm going to safety pin my chip at the tri just so I don't have to worry about it.)

After I got out of the water, I felt a little dizzy and sick to my stomach. The dizzy went away but I felt a little sick for awhile. I sometimes feel sick after I swim. I can't help but wonder if I get a little seasick or something. Roger speculated it is exertion, but I don't feel that way after running and it's way more intense for me.

I've felt really pleased about it all morning. It wasn't scary and I didn't freak out and I did better than the goal I set for myself! I can't wait for the tri a week from tomorrow. I only have to swim half that distance (although I have to bike and run after that) so it should be super easy!

Some of the pictures are a little "Where's Waldo?" I'm wearing a black and red swimsuit. In the first one, I'm pretty much right in the center. I have the really stupid looking tan on my legs (from my tri shorts). In the second I'm entering the water to the left of the T-Rex. I'm the fourth person to the left of the T-Rex. In the last one, I'm breast stroking right in front of the lady on the canoe (my head is lined up with the tip of the canoe).