Open water

I raced in a lake this weekend!

Here I am, passing someone at the finish… That’s me on the inside, closest to the camera…

 

And here I am crossing the finish line… you can see my time on the clock that is over by the “crowd” of swimming fans cheering at the finish…

 

This was the finish of the mile race. Originally I registered for only the 500 meter race, but when we arrived and I realized that 500 is sort of a warm-up and I was being a chicken, I decided I’d do both races. I finished squarely middle of the pack in both races, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to my times.

The water was much warmer than I’d expected (~ 72 deg F). And I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. I was really nervous about racing in a lake. I did a Danskin triathlon almost ten years ago (wow! can’t believe it’s been that long!). The swimming leg of that triathlon was really short (< 500m, I think), and the water was end-of-summer warm. As far as US Masters is concerned (and as far as I’m concerned), this was my first open water race.

After I finished the mile swim I kind of wanted to get back in and do it again (“Coach Greg” would say I didn’t push myself hard enough…). Instead, I have to wait two weeks for my next open water race — another mile swim in a potentially colder lake.

Something about “racing” in a lake feels more like fun than serious racing. It was hard for me to get too worked up about my time or how I finished (at least before the race… after was a different story…). It reminded me of vacations at Wallowa Lake, or in the Adirondacks. And it was all over too quickly.

I think I could get used to this as a summer diversion… it’s a nice break from “serious racing…”