JIM MCDONNELL 5K

When  I was first laying out my race/season, my coach suggested I find at least one, if not more, open water swims of at least 2+ miles. He really wanted me to have experienced a full Ironman distance (or more) open water swim before race day. He was ecstatic when I suggested a 5k, even if the timing was a bit early (we were originally looking for a late June or July swim, which still may find it's way on the race schedule). I completed a few pool swims of 4-5k leading up to the race, but as I was driving out to the lake on Saturday morning, I was weirdly more nervous for this race than I was for Columbia last weekend.

I signed up for the wetsuit division, I wanted to wear my wetsuit for over an hour, as the longest I have ever swam in my wetsuit prior was a half-ironman swim (1.2 miles). There was some debate of wearing it once I arrived race morning and they announced the water temp at 76 degrees (rumored to actually have been closer to 79 or 80) - but I went with my initial plans. I have a sleeveless wetsuit and this was a 5k - I wasn't planning on sprinting for over an hour and wasn't that worried about overheating. Timewise, I was thinking anything from 1:15-1:25 was possible. Despite my earlier nerves, I was totally relaxed starting the race - had fun joking around about pee and other appropriate things with Katie and Mindy.

Photo Courtesy of Thom

Photo Courtesy of Thom

As you can tell, I pulled out the mirrored goggles, trying to be smarter than last weekend, but it would have been useful to perhaps wear them in the pool once before this race, as they were REALLY tight and started to give me a splitting headache in the middle of the race. Maybe by August, I'll have the goggle situation figured out.

Race plan was to descend the 3 ~1ish miles loops (each loop was a bit longer than 1 mile to add up to 3.1). I wanted to swim my OWN race and not get caught up with those around me - focus on sighting/finding feet and discovering a comfortable 'ironman' open water-pace that I could descend from.

Loop 1 was uneventful. Was with a group for about half the loop, got sick of a spastic woman swimming over me/hitting me every 10 strokes, so I simply slowed down a bit and let the group go. I really wanted to focus on swimming MY OWN race. Looking back, this was a mistake, because letting the group go essentially left me in no-man's land. No one around at all.

Loop 2 I totally lost focus. I was sorta bored, lonely and my googles were WAY too tight on my head. I flipped over a few times to adjust them, waved at a support kayaker and made him laugh, and started to get frustrated with myself for not being able to pick up the pace and just FOCUS. This is where I also started having daydreams such as 'I have to swim this far and then RIDE 112 MILES??' Not productive.  I swam a little wide on the this leg back the start, and someone swam by and I finally picked up some feet. These feet were perhaps a little too slow, but I was happy to have something to focus on, so I was content to sit in and let her lead the way.  A quick glance at my watch showed I came around loop 2 in around 53 minutes, which put me right in the range I had estimated.

I breathe to my left and site forward - it's awkward looking.

Loop 2 - all alone.

Loop 3 I stayed on the bit too slow feet for awhile, then jumped on some better feet that came up beside us. These feet were PERFECT. I had to focus to keep up the pace, but I was able to put my head down and reagain mental focus. Probably stayed on these feet for about 1/3 mile before the guy decided to stop and tell me "You're free to pass if you want." Oops, I guess I tapped his feet a few too many times?? But this is open water swimming, and I actually was being very conscious about NOT hitting the feet because they were SO PERFECT and I didn't want them to speed up or take off and leave me in the dust! I started to tell him 'No, I don't want to pass' but I decided it was better to just put my head down and swim. I took a much better line on the last leg than the previous 2 loops, and felt strong and smooth coming in to the finish.

I finished in 1:19:56. Smack in the middle of my estimated time. I was mildly successful in my goal of descending the loops, with loop 1 and 3 being almost the same time and loop 2 being ~1 minute slower.  Doing some estimating, this pace would result in a Ironman swim I would be very happy with.

Oh, and I got a medal and some prunes, which the Race Director was really excited about.

Photo Courtesy of Thom