Well today was the 2010 USMS (United States Masters Swimming) 6k Open Water National Championship, in Windsor, CO. Me and two friends decided to give it a go and see how we did... 6k is a lot longer than 2.4! But on to the race...
The air horn went off and we (the wave of men under 45) took off. Right away a guy jumps to the lead so I get on his feet, if he is willing to lead I am willing to follow. A minute later another guy that started off to our right angles over and takes the lead. A couple hundred yards into the swim and we are a little train with me sitting in third place. Perfect... until #2 starts losing #1's feet. Decision time... Do I 1) Stay on the feet I am following and chill as we are early in a long race or 2) Try to close the gap on #1... I chose 2...
So I go around #2 and jump on #1's feet... for a few seconds as he is pulling away. But we are coming to the first buoy. We round the buoy and with my pre-race scouting (and actually talking to the people that set up the course) I knew exactly where to site for the swim. #1 well he didn't and swung out of the line. I continued to buoy #2 (yes I am using a lot of numbers in my race report... you will have to deal with it as it's my race report) of 3 (3 buoys... keep up) in my line. As we approach buoy #2, #1 (swimmer) starts angling towards it and as I took the shorter line the gap between us closed. He's faster but I sited better, almost a wash. We round the buoy and in talking with the course official I got a tip on sighting buoy #3 and took a peek and perfect right where he said it was. #1 obviously didn't see it and once again swung way out of line towards the buoy. This leg of the triangle course was choppy and I was expending a lot of energy out by myself. a few thoughts of slowing down entered my mind but I knew #1 was off course a bit and not too far ahead. I wasn't looking back so I figured if he kept swimming extra I might be able to stay near him. As we approach buoy #3, swimmer #1 angles back in and isn't that far ahead of me again. I chuckle as we round the buoys heading back towards buoy #1. That is probably the last laugh I had in the race.
The distance from buoy 3 to buoy 1 is a bit and swimmer #1 picks it up. I truly am in no mans land and probably took it out a little too hard, especially considering this is the longest straight swim I have done. Ironman swims are basically a formality. Don't get me wrong they are long (ish) but 50 minutes in the water vs 5 hours on the bike.. come on. Well 6k is more than half again an Ironman swim (55% more actually). So the question is... how much more is 55%. And honestly before and during the race I didn't know (or care) how much further it was than I was use to racing (or probably trained for... catching on to the title?), but now as I look back...55% more is a lot.
Lap two was basically me watching #1's green swim cap slowly pulling away, but I was still nailing all my sighting!
Lap 3 starts and I start assessing myself and come to the conclusion that lap 4 is going to hurt. To add insult to injury I got passed heading back out to buoy #1. Around buoy #1 and heading towards buoy #2 I take a few backstroke pulls and see another green cap right behind me. We make our way around buoy #2 and head through the choppy part to buoy #3. The green cap behind me is now the green cap next to me, on my left hand side. I'm left handed... I breath to the left. He's right handed (probably) and breathes to his right (confirmed) so we spend a couple hundred yards... stroke, stroke, hi, stroke, stroke, hi... We hit buoy #3 and start heading out towards lap #4.
As I am nearing buoy #1 for the last lap the arms turn to noodles. Not sure how many people have experienced this but it's like my arms are a millimeter thin and all wavy. So what do you do, you go back to basics. Think about your form. Hands catching water... check... elbow bending to get good pull... check... rolling into next stroke... check... it's not pretty but you keep moving. On lap #4 two more people passed me moving me back to 6th place, but this is the furthest swim race I have ever done, I am a triathlete not a swimmer (that actually hurt to say a little bit), I haven't trained for this distance.. and this is a national championship I'll take 6th!
On lap #4 I round the last buoy (right #3... good you are paying attention) and site the finish line... 'A Green Cap!!!!' I see a green cap between me and the finish line. 'One of those guys that passed me must be getting tired!' I drop my head and hammer (i.e. flail MORE) and catch the guy... then he peels off to start his 4th lap as I must have been lapping him. So I try to keep it going to the finish. Through the finish line buoys and 'Ahhhhhhh'. 6k Swim done! Time 1:22:48...
A friend asked if I wanted to try the 10k Swim at Horsetooth later this summer. My response was not PG-13... but now... 'Ummm coach?'
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