Race Report/Whine (long)

[mrs.jacinthe]

SUMMARY: I did my first 2.4mi this last weekend in Lake Tahoe. I bombed it. Absolutely bombed.

It took me 15 minutes longer than my projected finish time, and I had been hoping for a better time than my goal. The worst part is, I can't put my finger on why I sucked so bad. I really don't feel like, at the time, I could have put forth any more effort than I did. As it was, I was rocking some pretty nasty lactic acidosis when I finished (urp! ) ...

As my coach says, you have to take the bad days alongside the good ones, so here it is: Finish time - 1:28:50 (ouch!). First place age group (not really that impressive, I was the only person in my age group). 18th place overall. It sucked. My last mile time in a race was 28:28, so I was fully expecting to finish in under 1:15:00. I was hoping for around 1:10, honestly. But you know, I guess I'll take it as what it was - a fun race in a beautiful location. No regrets - or at least not too many.

ACTUAL RACE REPORT (LONG-ISH):
Got to the race site early, used the (wonderfully clean) site bathrooms (no portajohns!!). Took a little time to eat a PB sandwich and drink some water/coffee. Took my warm up, dragged my bag over to the finish area to leave it. Got halfway back to race start, realized I was still wearing my glasses. Had to go BACK to my bag and drop them off. Then went back to race start.

The organizers had the 1/2 mile race start first. The 1.2 and 2.4 racers left at the same time, about 10 minutes after the 1/2 milers started. I felt great at the start! Lake Tahoe's water is crystal clear and about 68 degrees and it was a nice distraction to be able to look at the things on the bottom while I was swimming. Rounded the first turn buoy, headed towards turn buoy 2, and noticed they were pulling the intermediate buoy out of the water. So there was probably 1/2 mile of open water between turn buoys 1 and 2. Sighting was TOUGH at that distance. Grr.

Anyhow, I was trucking along, drafting off the two college-age water polo players (ID'd by swimsuit with "Chico State Water Polo" on it. LOL) directly in front of me. Rounded the 2nd buoy, 3rd buoy, 4th buoy, and 5th buoy feeling great. Did not get lost/off course, wasn't hungry/thirsty/overheating ... then it all went to heck. The police escort boat that was toodling along ran it's siren, so I stopped swimming briefly and looked around. I came within about 20 feet of getting run over by a ski boat. Awesome. Then I started swimming again and the LA hit like a brick wall. It was like swimming through peanut butter. I kept on trucking but I'm pretty sure this leg of the race was where my time went all to crap. By the time I rounded buoy 6, the water polo players were all the way around buoy 7. My race strategy had included a "kick" from buoy 7, around buoy 8 to the finish. Fail. Just barely managed to pick up some speed for the finish from after the turn around buoy 8.

To add injury to insult, as I was exiting the water, I was determined to finish with enthusiam, so I was running, but I tripped over a rock on the bottom on my way out of the water. I didn't fall, but I stumbled across the finish line looking like a drunk. Took me about 15 second AFTER crossing the finish line to get my feet back under me and stand still for them to get my chip off. LOL They were all "do you need water? gatorade? bagel?" and I was all "no, I'm fine, just really clumsy on land."

THEN I couldn't find my gear bag with dry clothes and my post-race fuel. Took me about 5 minutes to find it, then I sat down and as the adrenaline wore off, I noticed that my middle toe was swollen and red and the 4th toe was missing a toenail. Fabulous. Not only did I look dumb at the finish, I broke a toe.

But again, the after race stuff was great. Wound up 1st place age group, 14th in my division (non-wetsuit), 18th overall. Race swag was awesome. Tech tee, knudson recharge stuff, powerbar, etc. Won a custom-printed kleen kanteen and a pair of goggles for being 1st in AG. Won another (non-custom) kleen kanteen in the post-race raffle.

OVERALL:
A great race, well-organized and fun. Beautiful location, couldn't ask for better. Race support and volunteers were wonderful. Swag was good and useful. Only thing I would change is more buoys. I'd have been seriously SOL if I hadn't had my prescription goggles on - with 1/2 a mile between turn buoys 1 & 2, sighting was near impossible even WITH good vision.

And that's that. Congrats if you made it all the way to the end of this.

[Susie]

oh, I'm sorry about your foot! That sounds so painful. And it is so easy to do after you've been horizontal for over an hour, you're tired, etc., etc.

Your time sounds pretty good, even if it's not what you were hoping for. What prior times were you basing your goal time off of? Previous OW paces? Paces in similar (cold!) water conditions? Unless you were looking at really similar water conditions, don't beat yourself up. That's one of the things that I love about OWS relative to pool swimming. Every set of race conditions is 100% unique, so you can't directly compare one race to another. Water temp, GPS variation in buoy placement, chop, etc. all matter. You just race the best you can on any given day, leave it all in the water, and move on.

And yay for good race swag!

[mrs.jacinthe]

Aug 23, 2012 13:32:18 GMT -5 Susie said:

oh, I'm sorry about your foot! That sounds so painful. And it is so easy to do after you've been horizontal for over an hour, you're tired, etc., etc.

Your time sounds pretty good, even if it's not what you were hoping for. What prior times were you basing your goal time off of? Previous OW paces? Paces in similar (cold!) water conditions? Unless you were looking at really similar water conditions, don't beat yourself up. That's one of the things that I love about OWS relative to pool swimming. Every set of race conditions is 100% unique, so you can't directly compare one race to another. Water temp, GPS variation in buoy placement, chop, etc. all matter. You just race the best you can on any given day, leave it all in the water, and move on.

And yay for good race swag!

Thanks, Susie. I was basing my goal time off my last year's mile time at the same venue. The water temp was actually substantially colder last year (60 versus 68 this year) and I'm in better shape all around than last year. So I presumed (silly me) I could do the same time if not better. I was wrong. The water was similarly still, with the exception of the rogue ski-boat wandering onto the course.

I have another 2.4mi in October in much warmer water and lower altitude, so here's hoping I can improve substantially between now and then.

[kams]

Many congrats on your great finish. I know you aren't happy with it, but I'm still impressed!
Tahoe water is absolutely gorgeous. Was this part of the 3 day iron-distance (where they offer multiple bike courses the next day, and then run courses the third?).

Hope your toe heals quickly, what a bummer that is.

[gumi]

Aug 23, 2012 13:32:18 GMT -5 Susie said:

That's one of the things that I love about OWS relative to pool swimming. Every set of race conditions is 100% unique, so you can't directly compare one race to another. Water temp, GPS variation in buoy placement, chop, etc. all matter. You just race the best you can on any given day, leave it all in the water, and move on.

lol, this is what I *dont* like about open-water swimming.

I personally would struggle with longer open water swims because I would start off to fast. It took me a long time to run races without needing a Garmin to keep my first 5 minutes in check. And I STILL mess up sometimes! Maybe your first half a mile was too fast?

Must have been nice to see stuff while you swim. I always get to swim in nasty green water with no visibility.

Anyway, I think you did just fine and its good training for your next one!

[gt7301b]

Good job! I am amazed by anyone who can swim 2.4 miles.

[runblondie26]

I'm sorry the race didn't go as expected. Swimming that far is still mighty impressive in my book.

[Deleted]

Bummer it didn't go as you wanted, but sounds like you did great. What an awesome accomplishment!

[mrs.jacinthe]

Thanks, ladies! I talked with some of the guys in my regular OWS group yesterday night and several of them who swim 2.4 races regularly noted that their times were really high. Like 10+ minutes too long. So the general suspicion is that the course was too long. So I feel a little better. Taking off the 10 minutes that they complained about makes me feel a lot better about my time. Obviously the place wouldn't have changed but at least I didn't suck quite as badly as I thought.

gumi - In hindsight, I think I actually overswam the middle portion. After I lost the draft off the water polo guys, I had to push hard to maintain even close to the same speed. Usually I split a race into thirds (fast slow fast) but this time I did fast fast slow ... which probably caused the problem. And yes, I train in a murky lake too - it was WONDERFUL to be able to see the bottom and all the little fishes (and thankfully no big fishes). Best race venue I've been to, by far.