2009 1500 Meter open water swim
After last week's disappointing swim at the Rookie triathlon, I was hoping to redeem myself at the Red Licorice 1500 Meter open water swim event today. They have these open water swims with varying distances every month during the summer at Quarry Lake. I missed last month because I was sick (and Emmaline was up half the night as well) and the organizers were considerate enough to transfer my registration to this month. I haven't decided if I'm going to race next month.
The race was at noon, which is awesome! It was nice not having to get up before dawn. Plus this time works out really well with Emmaline's nap schedule. They had an open water clinic at 11 before the race, but obviously I don't need that so we arrived around 11:30.
At around 11:50 I went for a warm up swim. The water temperature was really warm - around 79-80. Not wetsuit legal, but there were some people wearing wetsuits anyway. I finished warming up and the race began. I had to swim two 750 meter laps of the lake. I swam one lap - 750 meters in September for the Splash and Dash I did.
The swim start wasn't too rough. I was out at the front and most people were newbies from the clinic doing shorter distances. I decided not to go crazy and keep a nice steady pace from the beginning. During the entire first lap, there was a woman ahead of me, going about the same pace, but I couldn't quite catch her to draft. It was frustrating because if I'd gunned it off the line, I probably could have hopped on her feet and done some nice drafting. I came through and headed out for my second lap.
The second lap seemed to go by much more quickly but I was out there pretty much on my own. I tried to focus on my form and not sight quite as much. I have a problem open water swimming with sighting far too much. I decided the race was great open water practice. Interestingly enough, Roger lapped his watch when I came through my second lap was a minute slower. That's really not much difference when it comes to the distance, but I felt much stronger on my second lap.
In the end, I came in at 27:39 officially which is a pace of 1:50/M. Very happy. I just wanted to come in under 30 minutes if at all possible. My one mile (1600 Meter) swim PR is 27:48 (1:44/M pace) so really, I'm not that far off from my pre-pregnacy time. That being said, measuring swim courses is really really hard to it's tricky to compare one to the other. But for today, I'm feeling pretty good about my race.
The race was at noon, which is awesome! It was nice not having to get up before dawn. Plus this time works out really well with Emmaline's nap schedule. They had an open water clinic at 11 before the race, but obviously I don't need that so we arrived around 11:30.
At around 11:50 I went for a warm up swim. The water temperature was really warm - around 79-80. Not wetsuit legal, but there were some people wearing wetsuits anyway. I finished warming up and the race began. I had to swim two 750 meter laps of the lake. I swam one lap - 750 meters in September for the Splash and Dash I did.
The swim start wasn't too rough. I was out at the front and most people were newbies from the clinic doing shorter distances. I decided not to go crazy and keep a nice steady pace from the beginning. During the entire first lap, there was a woman ahead of me, going about the same pace, but I couldn't quite catch her to draft. It was frustrating because if I'd gunned it off the line, I probably could have hopped on her feet and done some nice drafting. I came through and headed out for my second lap.
The second lap seemed to go by much more quickly but I was out there pretty much on my own. I tried to focus on my form and not sight quite as much. I have a problem open water swimming with sighting far too much. I decided the race was great open water practice. Interestingly enough, Roger lapped his watch when I came through my second lap was a minute slower. That's really not much difference when it comes to the distance, but I felt much stronger on my second lap.
In the end, I came in at 27:39 officially which is a pace of 1:50/M. Very happy. I just wanted to come in under 30 minutes if at all possible. My one mile (1600 Meter) swim PR is 27:48 (1:44/M pace) so really, I'm not that far off from my pre-pregnacy time. That being said, measuring swim courses is really really hard to it's tricky to compare one to the other. But for today, I'm feeling pretty good about my race.
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