Saturday, September 19, 2009

Finished the Dam Swim




Wow...wow...wow! Seriously, I thought running the length of the Lake Murray Dam was pretty cool but now that I have swam the distance, I am really ecstatic. What an accomplishment given that last year I was stopping on a 300 meter swim.

I was experiencing quite a bit of pre-race jitters. I was in with most of my IMAZ buddies in Wave 11. My goal for the day was to complete the swim, which is definitely not my best leg of a triathlon, in under 1.5 hours and avoid a nice volunteer boater/kayaker tapping me on the head with a paddle and pulling me out of the water at the cutoff time. I was not pulled out of the water either for possible drowning or for the cutoff time. If my watch was correct, I swam in right at 1:13. Not the best swim time of my IMAZ buddies but I successfully completed the swim and that to me was success.

Not making excuses but I should probably add that my times might have been a little bit faster had I not stopped so much. I have a horrible habit of playing around when I'm bored and 2-miles swimming is a long time to be overtaken by monotony. I stopped and gave the peace sign to people I knew. I checked out my surroundings several times. I observed a catfish in its last moments on earth and reported it to a kayaker. I encouraged two young swimmers who would take 3 strokes and ask each other how much longer. I think all of these things added time and I hope that I will be wiser at the next event not to do this. Of course, I will, right?

Another success for the day, the wetsuit! What an awesome discovery earlier in the week. Worked like a charm! No problems, a little rubbing where I didn't put Body Glide but overall, no problems. Post-swim report...3 hours of cycling. Legs felt like I'd left them in the lake but eventually they caught back up and I rode fairly well. It was exceptionally hot and the swim left all of us exceptionally thirstier than usual.

IM Augusta 70.3 is one week away. I suppose it's time to get this "party" started!

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