Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Kinetic Half Ironman Swim report :)

I wish I could say that this past weekend I did the full 70.3 at Kinetic but I only did the 1.2 mile swim as part of a relay team. I wanted to do the swim to get my feet wet (haha?) before Eagleman on what a 1.2 mile swim feels like in open water since swimming is my weakest leg of triathlon. We all know how crappy my first open water swim was so I really needed a confidence booster. I had no time goal really because I had no idea how long it should take me or if I would have a panic attack and have to doggy paddle the whole thing. I know I needed to make the time cut off of 1 hour and 15 minutes because I did have a relay team that would like to do their part of the race. Man, how embarrassing if I made my team DNF because I freaked out in the water.

Whitney (who did the run part of a relay) and I woke up ass early, 4am to be exact, and headed down to Lake Anna for the 7 am race start. Since I was a relay I was the very last wave of athletes to get into the water and because I was frantically looking for my friends to wish them a great race before they tackled the whole thing, I had to rush to get my wetsuit on. Oops.




Have you ever tried to put on a wetsuit? It's hard. That is my "oh crap I have to be in the water in 5 minutes and I don't have this stupid thing on yet" face. As for Whitney's face...I don't know have an explanation for that one!

I headed down to the water and dunked myself in to get used to the temperature. I also placed myself towards the back of the pack and on the left hand side in an effort to avoid getting kicked in the effing face again. And then I looked out at the course and realized how freaking far 1.2 miles in the water looks. We were swimming half way across the lake! I freaked out a little. I am glad I had this freak out before Eagleman. I didn't have time to calm myself down before the horn went off and everyone ran down the beach and dove into the water. So, I went with the flow.

I breathed every stroke and sighted every 8 or so strokes. Sighting was kind of hard because it was foggy, so I sighted the pack of swimmers in front of me and hoped they were going in the right direction :) To my surprise I was feeling strong, not freaking out, and passing a ton of people! Before I knew it I was at the first yellow turn buoy and then the second turn buoy. Whenever I would get nervous I would drill myself on my GRE study words. What? Listen, I have a lot to balance and if I need to study while swimming, then so be it!

I am thrilled to say that I freestyled the whole thing, didn't stop at all except for a pause in my stroke to make sure I was still going the right way, I had almost no contact with other swimmers (except for the dude I elbowed in the ass...I'm sorry) and I got out of the water feeling strong. oh, and it only took me 39 minutes and 53 seconds. Not the speediest of swimmers, but I'll take it!



I spent the rest of the day screaming my face off for Emily, Emily, Katie and my other Team Z teammates.


Head over to their blogs to read their race reports...Emily (all the way to the left) PRed by 32 minutes or something crazy like that, Emily (second from left) won the 21-24 age group, me (green jacket) ate hot dogs after the swim and cheered for these girls, and Katie (right) got the finish line of her first 70.3 with a huge smile on her face screaming for dry socks. Way to go, ladies!

12 comments:

  1. Girl, that was more than just successful. You killed the first open water wetsuit swim and you will have no problem at Eagleman.

    Also, seeing your smiling face so many times during the race was a lifesaver :)

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  2. I think doing an OWS as a relay is actually a really good idea - my first OWS was part of a relay and if I didn't have a team waiting I would have definitely climbed out of that stinky water.

    Nice job kicking ASS on your swim! Hooray Eagleman!

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  3. Thats an awesome open water swim! Nice job!

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  4. That is great for an open water swim! I am trying my first open water swim this weekend & I couldn't be more excited

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  5. Great job on the open water swim. No foot in the nose = :)

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  6. Nice job on the swim! That is a REALLY respectable time! I think I did that time @ my first Olympic swim :)

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  7. The wetsuit dance is the best part of pre race people watching

    Congrats on the swim and the confidence boost it provided. I agree with Jon, very good time, keep practicing OWS and Eagleman will be a breeze for you

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  8. Yeeeay, and then we got to have a fun girls night at your house! Very successful weekend had by all :)

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  9. Haha, great recap, Lauren! I love the studying while swimming...it's a great way to multitask AND keep your mind busy so it doesn't freak out:).

    PS, at Nation's tri it was pouring rain and even though I was standing around waiting for my swim wave for TWO HOURS I decided a half an hour before I needed to pee again, and then proceeded to stand in the world's longest porta-potty lines for 25 minutes. Thank goodness some guy finally let me go in front of him. Then I had to rush to put my wetsuit on AND my skin was wet from the rain. It was horrible! I was totally freaking out! Haha:)

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  10. Awesome - great swim girl! :)

    Putting the wetsuit on is usually harder than the swim itself! :)

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  11. It was great to meet you in person - awesome job in the swim!!! Good luck in your last few weeks of training for Eagleman - you will do great I am sure!

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  12. Wow. As if a 1.2 mile swim isn;t painful enough, you study for the GRE at the same time - now THAT is agony.
    Great job on a strong swim - good luck with Eagleman.

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