Details: So what is it exactly? It's a festival of races just like the name implies. Depends how you look it but there are either 3 or 4 races going on. The first one is a 3 mile swim that starts at 8am. With a check-in period and a 2 hour drive into Connecticut, it's an early wake up day. The course is a swim across the lake. Swim back. That's 1.5 miles so do it again. The second race starts at 11am and is a 1.5 mile swim. Swim 1 loop out and back across the lake. This one starts at 11am. The third race is a 0.5 mile swim that starts at 1pm. You can do any race you want and since they are staggered you can do 1 race, 2 races or all 3. If you do all 3 races, not only do you compete in each, but you also compete in the 5 mile challenge which is a combination of your times across the 3 distances (3.0 + 1.5 + 0.5).
Between each race, you hang out, chill, eat/drink, hopefully win a raffle prize and hopefully get an award. Adele usually places in each individual and the combo tho last year, I think she only placed in one of the individual distance and the combined. That's ok tho as she usually does well in the raffle too.
Donald is excited about it and definitly may or may not be going. Sheesh.
I am excited about it. I have been swimming well but in the last few weeks I feel my arms are tighter and all of next week the JK pool will be closed. What does that mean? It means all the Rif-Raf from the other pool will be joining us and the temps will be warmer. Not good. I tried the astoria pool and it's really cold. I'm not sure it's my solution. Perhaps go and do extra laps in the morning. I just don't know...
These last 2 weeks, we were on vacation and trying to both give the kids a good time as well as go deal with Doctors and such for both well-visits and Jessie's feet. To make things worse, Lee is also switching jobs and the Board of Education/Department of Education is being a major PITA. This isn't the time or place to discuss it but the bottom line is that these 2 weeks were busy... And Saturday just rolled around way too quick.
Speaking of Donald for a second, he was originally planning on going with Eve and his buddy Eric. Eve flaked out but Donald and Eric were determined to go. They would swim with wetsuits even though the water temp was 76 and after the 3 mile they would bike. Donald said that there was no way he would be able to swim 3 miles without a wetsuit so the water temperature wouldn't matter. OK.
Friday night, he called me to find out the address. It's on the website... But I gave it to him a few times. I give him credit for getting it ready the night before but took a while. I was trying to brush my teeth so I eventually got off the phone. He called a minute later again. Needed the address. Didn't understand what his GPS was doing. Wonderful. Then he called the 3rd time. Sheesh. He also called me Saturday morning during the drive. Wanted to know how we were going. Oi...
Anyway, adele and I drove down and eventually got there without issue. A little bit of a walk and we checked in. We got our color coded swim cap and disposable timing chip. The same garbage kind they gave out during the Long Beach Biathlon. Seems like it's the newest fad. It's so horrible that you need to duct tape it together otherwise it falls off. Sheesh. We didn't get a shirt. They had nice ones too. Real nice tech shirts for extra $$. Really wanted one but couldn't get myself to buy one on principle. Stupid of me? I don't know.
It was initially cold. Air temperatures were colder than the water. Everyone waiting for the sun to come out. I brought the big blue towel and set it up right in front of the canopy they had. If it rains, we pull back under the canopy. If it doesn't then we have shade. Waiting for the start and I am starving. Luckily Adele has weight watchers bars in car and she was kind enough to make the slog. As she was coming back I see Sylvia, one of the secretaries from the kids school. Her son and his best friend were doing the swims. Awesome.
Eventually Donald and Eric showed up and we got them set up. Met Eric for the first time. He's an "interesting" guy. He was annoying Adele by not getting the course. She kept trying to explain it and he was just not getting it. It was truly comedic.
The water wasn't freezing but was a little cold initially. Well, it was cold initially and they were getting swimmers in alphabetically V-E-R-Y slowly. Not a good day to have the letter "H" for your last name.
Eventually we all got in and I positioned myself in what I thought would be a great place. Horn goes and we go.
There are 3 yellow buoys on our route. The first one is at 0.25 mile, then at 0.50 and 0.75. Turn at the last buoy. Between them, they had red buoys as well. Nice.
We started and the field thinned out. I didn't realize how much to the left I drifted. Bonus miles... Got to the first yellow, the second yellow and then the third. Rounded the buoy and took a split. I wasn't doing great or anything. I wasn't dead last either. I did see one person ahead and decided to bridge to him. I did and drafted a little and then eventually left him. I got back to the start, rounded the little pier and out again. This time I was determined to swim right to the buoys. They told us initially that the course record was a little over an hour and I did see 2 people coming into the finish. Wow... Then I realized their pace and that there is NO WAY that they are finishing now. OK... Swim on.
Again I rounded the last buoy. Only 0.75 miles to go. Negative thoughts running through my head. I plod on. As I hit the red buoy between the 0.50 and 0.75, I see Eric still going out. That means a few things... Obviously Adele and Donald are ahead. Probably way ahead of me. Also, I wasn't going to let Eric get a head of me. I could see people ahead of me and I tried to bridge to them and I got close but couldn't push myself to close the deal. Eventually I got to the dock and onto the finish chute. I swim past the first buoy of the finish and I goto the second buoy when I hear someone screaming. I look up and it's Adele and she tells me to make the right already. I do and I come out. Donald came out first, then Adele then me. Eric brought the rear.
I went up with Elizabeth and Jessie to look at the food they have. I eat a half a bagel, a half chocolate chip muffin and lots of watermellon. Watermellon was awesome. Gotta refuel right?
My time wasn't amazing.
The next race was supposed to start at 11am but they were clearly running 30 minutes behind. Still, finally they got us back into the water. Again we are cold. This time, I positioned myself better. Not on the left but way on the right. We start and I feel my arms and shoulders. They are tired. Still, I continue on. The watermellon which was amazing, started coming back up. Not good.
Almost to the last buoy on the going out side. I am swimming with another guy. He set his towel next to ours. I recognize him by the bathing suit briefs he wears. I turn first and I leave him. Onto the middle buoy. Straight to the first buoy. Who suddenly turns up from the right? The bathing suit brief guy. I pass him and bridge up to the next group. I push and pass people and make sure I am on the right side, the inside of the turn to the finish. There's a woman to my left and and I pass her but she then decides to fight so we fight. But I'm on the right side, the inside and that's what counts. I make my move and come up the finish chute before her and another guy. As I come up the chute, I see a woman lying on the ground in pain. I hop over her and Lee tells me it looks like she has a cramp or something. She goes to help her and almost immediatly comes back. Turns out the woman didn't have a cramp. Her foot is broken. She took her air cast off. Awesome.
I turn to say good job to that woman and it was a young teenage girl. Felt bad but the truth is, this is gonna sound bad but it isn't, if I would not have passed her, then it would have been disrepectful. I treated her just like any other swimmer. I know it sounds bad but if you ever competed with someone, then you'd understand especially if you realize that it's me who is saying it.
Again my time wasn't amazing. I was happy though that I was able to pass some people. Made a dent into people.
This time I wasn't going to eat. No way. I knew that the next swim would be tough. One big fight and all. It is what it is. Wasn't looking forward to it.
I don't remember when exactly but Elizabeth showed me a woman who got a black eye during the swim. I'm not sure which race it was but the whole day was definitly very physical especially the 0.5 mile.
As I came out of the water, I met Jeremy. Elizabeth and Jessie were swimming. I took a wrong turn and landed badly on my foot. Ouch. Went straight to the food tent. It was hard not to eat before but now... New batch of burgers had just come out. I inhaled 2 burgers and a ton of cold Orzo pasta with vegetables and a 3 bean, Chickpea, Feta Cheese and Avocado salad. Not my kind of salad but it was amazing. Loved the food.
Sylvia's son did well. Placed definitly in 1, but probably more. That's cool. I heard Sylvia say something like "that's why I come to this... To see you win". That's cool. I get it. But... Later Sylvia comes over to me and says "that he's actually much slower than he used to be...". Hm... I get it, ok? She's a mom and showing off, but gloating in front of other people...Again, I get it but I also made sure to get out of there. I was not happy to be there or rather happy to not be there.
Result Recap:
So, that's the cold facts of what happened.
And now for the rest. I wrote and re-wrote this race report in my head so many times. I went from a very positive report to a very negative report to a neutral report and constantly jumped around. Truly depended on my mood at that point and what I remembered. Why? Because of my time. Unfortunatly, that answer is to short and perhaps meaningless. Was I annoyed because of my time compared to my peers or my time in relation to what I could/should have done? I'm not sure.
Truth is is that I was competing with "real" swimmers not weekend warriors. They were fast. There was an 11 year old girl that beat all of us in the 3 miles. So should I really be annoyed about my time compared to others? And my time? Wasn't terrible really. I usually end up with a 32ish minute mile and my 1:40ish for the 3 miles is comparable. Perhaps the same could be said for the 1.5 and 0.5. Actually, I was faster at the 0.5 mile race and that was at the end. Of course, there are tons of other possible reasons but I won't bore you with it. I was hoping to do better for me and compared to other people. I didn't. Lot of unwritten feelings here but hopefully they are subtly conveyed.
Gonna take some time away from the pool. Not swimming in the mornings this week as school is starting and we need to figure out the timing. No Monday night swim due to Labor Day. Not going to swim Wednesday night either. I think Monday night will be at Jessie's school. Going to come back to the pool next week with a beter attitude and work harder at it. Not ready to give up but I'm taking a break. Not the best timing as I still have the Liberty Swim coming up and the Aquarun but I think it's needed. We shall see. Adele got me a swim parachute. Was afraid to use it yet due to this swim. I guess now I have no excuse.
This was a great race, with a great venue and a great lake. Support was amazing and the food was out of this world. They cheaped out on the shirt but still. They raffled 80 Timex watches and of course Adele got hers as usual and of course Donald did too. I think I would have preferred to do the 5 miles straight. Adele said it would have been too boring. The loops were already boring but I think it would have been easier on the body to go straight versus stop and let the lactic acid build. Of course, those with weak stomachs also couldn't refuel like others so that sucked.
I slept on the way home. Don't know how Adele drove. I was out for an hour.
Had a hard weekend overall. Saturday due to race woke up at 2am. Sunday due to running in Oyster Bay woke up at 3am. Sunday was 4 am. Ran a lot this weekend. Tough 18 miles on Sunday then Monday was 6.25 with Heidi and Hammad and then 4 with Jeremy.
Things will get better.
Thought of 2 interesting things...
| Place in Swimmers |
# of Swimmers |
Place in Males |
# of Males |
Place in Age Group |
# in Age Group |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Mile Championship |
30 | 53 | 20 | 29 | 3 | 6 |
| 3 Mile | 57 | 88 | 36 | 49 | 11 | 13 |
| 1.5 Mile | 72 | 150 | 42 | 75 | 12 | 22 |
| 0.5 Mile | 47 | 106 | 27 | 48 | 4 | 11 |
Glad I did it. I know that even tho I am flirting with long distance, I'm more of a sprinter and this shows it. Still, work needs to be done.