Kingdom Swim race report

[mrs.jacinthe]

So, there's a lot I could say about this, but it would be an encyclopedic-length tome.  So I'll give you the TL;DR first, then write a longer, hopefully still interesting, bit after.  

TL;DR - I came, I swam, I conquered.  I met my B goal (finish, lol) with an official time of 6:27:13, which averages out to 38:20-ish per mile.  I had been hoping to stay under 40 minute miles (including feed stops) and NOT do any mile longer than 42 minutes.  I met both of these goals.  I pulled/pinched something in my left shoulder somewhere between mile 0.5 and mile 1.5, so the rest of it was done with varying levels of pain.  Overall, I had a fantastic time, mostly kept out of my own head, and really enjoyed the event in all possible ways, even though now I'm functioning at the level of t-rex and need help with things like putting on a belt, brushing my own hair, and fastening my seatbelt.

The long version:
This week has been somewhat of a blur.  Wednesday night, I was supposed to have a pre-race massage with my normal massage-ochist, but apparently he had the nerve to get sick or something, so the appointment got cancelled.  I've been having mild shoulder problems all year, but the massages were really helpful, so when one didn't happen, I got somewhat worried.  We flew out Wednesday night and into Boston Thursday morning on a red-eye and drove all the way up here.  We arrived in time to check into the hotel and relax a little bit before we headed into town for the first event of the weekend - the pizza cruise.  It was delightful, and the speaker that they brought in was Craig Dietz, who is just an amazingly awesome human being.  Also, really delicious pizza (I intended to eat one slice and instead had two.)  

Friday morning, we got up at around 7:00 and had breakfast at the hotel (continental with bagels and stuff) before driving over to the race start line to get our rental kayak (we added a day so that R would have time to acclimate to it) and do a quick shakeout swim/paddle.  This was a good thing for multiple reasons.  First, we discovered that there was no room in the rental kayak for my "feed bag" - which is quite bulky, having four bottles and 8 packets of toddler food in it.  Also, it was good for me to get used to the water temp (too warm) and discover those damn weeds prior to race morning.  I *hate* water weeds, and these were THICK - and in multiple places on the course, as I discovered later.  It felt a little like that scene in the Goblet of Fire where Harry is swimming to the bottom of the black lake and there were all those thick weeds/kelp where the grindylows hung out.  I kept expecting something to grab me.  Ick.  When we were done, we put the kayak on the boat rack and headed back to hang out in the hotel hot tub for a bit.  Except it was out of order, so again, no way to relax those problematic muscles.  After a long hot shower (it felt weird to take such a long shower after living in CA for so long), I got dressed and we headed into town to scavenge up some things we needed (aspercream, banana, bottled water, etc).  We also went to the kayak outfitter to see what they had to help with our feed bag problem and found a deck bag that was exactly ideal.  It was $60, but we can take it home in our luggage and, to be honest, we've learned our lesson over the years about buying a cheap solution - since you usually get what you pay for.  While we were down there, we had lunch at a delightful little dockside "shack" and did early packet pickup (which is when I posted the IG photo).  We had some time after lunch, so headed back to the room to relax a bit.  Then it was over to the boat for a course cruise (so they could point out sighting landmarks to kayakers), the safety meeting, and spaghetti dinner.  I mostly skipped the spaghetti dinner and found a local natural grocery store/restaurant that had pot roast and mashed potatoes on the menu.  I have eaten pot roast and mashed potatoes literally before every long swim I've ever done.  No idea why.  It just sounds appealing, I guess.  Then pre-race prep and early to bed.

We were fortunate to have a later morning start - I didn't have to get up until 5:30, which was amazing.  We then got everything together, ran through the checklist at least 40 times, and drove over to the lake.  At the safety meeting, they had said to park at the high school and walk since parking was limited, but we were early, so I risked parking in the park and there was plenty of room.  Hooray!  We walked down to the water and retrieved the kayak off the rack.  R got to work getting it all set up while I stood there doing all the nervous things one does - organize, reorganize, and organize again.  Trot off to pee/poop.  Drink something.  Say something completely idiotic like it's the most natural thing in the world.  Analyze and re-analyze the effort required, conditions, and whatever else I could think of.  Finally, it was time to apply sunscreen and attend the morning safety meeting.  It was amazing, the variety of body types, ages, and preparation styles in that meeting.  From the serious marathoners who slathered everything in an impressively even coat of Desitin to the super-tan older folks that I wasn't even positive were wearing sunscreen - we ALL looked nervous, anxious, and excited.  After the meeting, they released the boats to go to the rendevous point.  So R pushed off and then I stood on the shore being even more nervous but with no one to talk to.  The only thought running through my mind at that point was "WHAT have I done?"  But I conquered it with "I have decided to be awesome."

Soon enough, it was 8am and time to go.  They literally send you off with a bang - a cannon, fired by two ladies dressed as pirates.  I love this crazy group of people.  We all set off, and I had selected a line WELL to the right and back a bit.  I quickly found myself SOBBING as I swam.  No idea why.  Not even sure what made me stop, but I was full-on ugly crying right there in the water on my way to the first buoy - and R.  I got that under control, found someone to draft, and cruised around the first buoy.  I then IMMEDIATELY spotted R and started waving to get his attention.  It was like 5 waves before he acknowledged, but he later told me he was just waiting to pick me up as I swam by and totally saw me wasting all my energy on waving before he figured out he should wave back.  LOL  And we were off.  I immediately fell to the bottom third, which is where I generally settle in a group of masters swimmers, but just kept plugging along.  And then it happened.  Boom - something went wrong in my left shoulder.  It felt like it was on FIRE or being stung by a thousand angry bees.  I think I pinched a nerve.  But I kept swimming and decided to alternate a fast pull-heavy swim with a moderate kick-heavy swim with slow pulls for sake of resting my shoulder.  This worked amazingly well for the entire first half, although my left shoulder, and then my right - probably from compensating - got increasingly painful.  We passed buoy 1, then 1a, then 2, then 2a, then turned right at 3 (the folks doing the 25k kept going - right over the border into Canada!).

I would tell you what I was thinking about, but truth be told, I have no idea.  I think I was busy emptying my mind and just trying to be zen in the moment.  Unfortunately, as just about any yogi will tell you, at some point when you're emptying the mind, it releases all the pent-up emotions it's been holding back.  We passed buoy number 4 (which was just past the 5 mile point) and my brain let loose.  Full on gut-wrenching sobs.  Again, no idea what I was sad about, but it was cathartic and after I got it under control, I actually felt a LOT better about just about everything.  We passed buoy 5 and I took a look around.  There was essentially a flotilla of aid boats there.  And all of a sudden, my brain got into itself.  "I could quit now and be done with hurting.  Look at these boats.  I could just signal to one and be done."  But I thought about all the ladies who were rooting me on and I couldn't even bring myself to complain out loud.  I just put my head down and kept on trucking.  We passed buoy 6 and there was a family on their dock with cowbells cheering (which is so weird in the middle of an OWS) and it made me smile and again, think of you ladies.  I decided to try singing to myself because I was starting to pay too much attention to the pain.  For whatever reason, the song "Strawberry Wine" popped into my head.  I repeated that damn chorus and first verse all the way to buoy 7. 

Which I ran into.  Head on.  OMG, not only embarrassing, but I pulled a hamstring somehow in the process.  So now I'm dealing with bilateral shoulder pain AND swimming along with one leg bent up all funny.  I can't imagine what it looked like.  Awkward, I'd guess.  We headed towards 8.  I fell off the pace, probably due to semi-fixating on my various ailments.  At my next feed stop, which was about 5 minutes past the 7 buoy, R looked at the GPS and was like "You have 0.9 miles to go."  For whatever reason, that completely reset my mind.  Nothing that had happened previously mattered.  I heard 0.9 miles and was like "That's like 1500 (ish).  That's like ... not even half a masters workout.  I can TOTALLY throw 150% into 1500 yards."  So off I went again.  Apparently I was swimming a little drunkenly at this point, but whatever.  I soldiered on and next thing I knew, I was rounding the start/finish buoy to the beach.  Unfortunately, no one had ever mentioned where the finish actually WAS, so R and I were like, arguing over where I should be aiming.  LOL  But I got there, took a minute to stand up (so I didn't fall over) and then walked up the beach to the volunteer handing out electrolytes.  R landed, and I walked over there.  And sat down because I was on the verge of falling down.  So I *know* I did 100% effort.  I had absolutely no more gas to give.  

There's more to tell, but it's boring to tell, as it's just clean up and recovery.  Total Time: 6:27:13 with PPM of 38:20.  Result/Place: 5th in AG.  No idea where I was overall.  Probably top half of the bottom third?  Maybe?  Casualties: both shoulders - one of which won't allow my arm to go above elbow level at the moment.  Gear: TYR black hawk polarized goggles (highly recommend).  UA/Thermos bottles with UCAN.  Toddler food.  Old Town Dirigo 120 kayak.  Stupid event-specific latex cap.  Badger Sport sunscreen (which held up MOSTLY well, all things being equal).  Seattle Sports Deluxe deck bag.

[irene adler]

I am completely in awe. Way to go!!

[ktzmoh]

That's amazing! You did so well. I ant believe you fought your way through that with shoulder pains n the first mile! Awesome.

How did you like ucan? I know you've been training with it for a while and I'm kind of curious to try it.

[chw57]

You are incredible. I just can't wrap my head around swimming that far. Amazing job!!

[juliabug]

I cannot fathom swumming six and a half hours, and I enjoy swimming. You are an incredible athlete. It is amazing to me that you even decided to train for this long of a swim and then go on to achieve your goals. Congratulations!

[bostonmichelle]

Congratulations!!! You're amazing. I can't imagine swimming for 6.5 hours. I hope your injuries heal up quickly.

[sadlebred]

Love your recap! Congratulations!!!!

[cinco]

Awesome job! You are amazing!

[cole]

You are so strong and amazing!! Congrats, what a great recap. I hope you start feeling better soon!

[mysticmuffin]

Congratulations! I am in awe of you sticking to your guns through that pain and discomfort and doing what is IMO a super human amount of swimming and achieving your goals while doing it. Rest up and I hope your aches and pains subside quickly.

[Vally]

Wow !! What an amazing accomplishment, and tremendous effort to get it done, congratulations !

[wambam]

Excellent work! You are a hero, truly.

[woowoo]

Wow. Just....wow. Congrats!

[wawa]

This is amazing. Doing that kind of swim seems completely superhuman to me, doing it while in pain from the first mile? I...can't even.

You are a rockstar. Congrats!!

[hurricanedrunk]

Wow I am in awe of your awesome job! Excellent recap and way to push through the issues with your shoulders for a strong finish! Congrats!!

[venice2007]

Congratulations! This is incredible!

[jene]

Congratulations, you are incredible!

[emilyj]

This is just so so so awesome. Congratulations on the race, and pushing through the pain and getting out of your head.

[Mushe]

You are the bees knees, mrs.jacinthe! I am so proud of how hard you fight for these amazing feats. It sounds like such an emotional experience, so hopefully you're not too hungover-feeling from that. I love that R is right there with you, cheering you on - and maybe next time will wave before you expend so much energy.

[bluelikejazz]

I'm so jealous! That sounds amazing! Congrats!!!!

[cookies]

Amazing. Seriously. You are unbelievably strong. Congratulations!

[karenj]

You are awesome

[katandkevin]

Congrats!! You are awesome!

[taratru]

Omg you are so amazing. Even my 12 year D is like "woooooowwwww". What a brilliant accomplishment.

[hannahb]

Love this! Congrats again!

[shauni27]

This is so amazing. I've been bragging about you all weekend.

[melmel48]

Holy smokes! You conquered for sure! I am in complete awe that you did all of that while dealing with multiple injuries. Rest up and feel better! Congratulations. 

[clseale]

So damn impressive! I can't even wrap my mind around that. I told DH what you were doing and when I said the distance, he just sort of looked at me like I must have said something wrong. I just looked back at him and said, "I KNOW!" LOL Congratulations!

[katinthehat]

This is amazing. You are amazing. Just, wow.

[labbie]

Wow. Congrats on an amazing feat. Your determination is so inspiring to me. I hope your recovery is off to a good start and your shoulders feel better asap.