OWS Challenge & Aquathlon: Oh Buoy!

After my rather...umm....dramatic swim at Redman 70.3 last year I decided that I would like to gain more experience with open water swimming in a race situation.  I got a big dose of experience at the Texas Man Tri in May (hello chop!) and I eagerly signed up for the Open Water Swim Challenge & Aquathlon in mid-July.  This race is produced by our friends at Tri-Now and I wanted to do it last year, but it was cancelled thanks to the spring floods.  I chose the Olympic distance, which consisted of a 1500m swim followed by a 10K run.  Because life is...well...life, I didn't get a chance to do any open water swims between Texas Man and the Aquathlon, but that is okay as my goal was getting a good experience in a race environment rather than swimming a fast race.  There were no bikes at this event and I felt like I was forgetting something as Mr K and I headed out on race morning.  It reminded of just how much "stuff" bicycles add when they are involved.

Big smiles from Mr K, Marshall, and Keith

The weather wreaked havoc on the race crew with the big storms that came through the evening before the race.  Thankfully Frank and Marshall and the crew worked tirelessly and were able to get things prepared our race to go off on time.  The weather was pretty good for a July morning  and they water was just about perfect without any chop. There were several swim distances that day including 750m, 1500m, and 4K and there were various buoys noting each distance.  Since I was swimming the 1500m, I would do two of the smaller loops.

My swim wave went off first and I just worked on getting into a good groove.  There area was big enough that there was not too crowded and I never did swim into too much traffic. The course was set up like a big square that we basically had to swim out to.  I made it "up" the first side of the square and turned at the buoy and began to look for the next buoy.  We were swimming directly into the sun at this point and my goggles had fogged up, so I was having a really difficult time seeing.  I could not see the buoy, but I was hoping the others around me could and I could follow their lead for a little bit.  It was then that I heard swimmers talking to each other and I realized that they couldn't see the buoy either.  I wasn't sure what to do at this point, but remained calm and tried to work out a plan.  I could see the a couple of kayaks ahead and I knew that I could pause there long enough to clear my goggles.  The kayaks kept moving away from me and I could hear that they were also trying to tell people where the swim course was.  Eventually I reached them just in time to hear one of them say "I am the buoy! I am the buoy!" I was very thankful to make that turn once I reached them and cleared my goggles.  Now to finish that loop and do it one more time.  Thankfully, by the time we came around the second time the buoy had been placed and things seemed a little more normal.

Big smiles on the run (Pic: Carin S.)

I happily got out of the water and headed on to transition for my run.  I did not know what to expect as I have never gone directly from swimming to running like that.  It was a challenge to get going at first, but I settled into a groove.  The run course was two loops of the park path - park of it on sidewalk and part of it was a crushed granite type surface.  There was a good amount of shade, which I was very thankful for.  I didn't pay too much attention to my pace, rather ran by feel and kept things nice and even.  I was happy to see that my pace was trending faster with each mile while my heart rate was staying fairly controlled.  I had not been doing any speed work at this point in training and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Because it was two loops, I saw many runner faces multiple times and it was fun to cheer on my friends who were also running.

I promise there were more than 2 of us (okay, so there were 3...)

I gave it my best for a strong finish (and my fastest mile of the race), but honestly had no idea how I did. While I feel fairly confident about my run, I know that I am not a fast swimmer so I had no idea how I placed amongst the others.  I didn't see any other women my age on the run course, so I took that to be a good sign.  I was thrilled when I checked the results and found that I was first in my age group.  (Never mind the slight detail that there were only 3 people in my age group...) with a total time of 1:32:30 - 37:00 for the swim, 52:56 for the run, and 2:32 in transition.

This race was super fun and provided another good experience in the open water - add "can't find my buoy" to my list another with high chop and lost nose clip. I always come away from these wishing that I was able to spend more time in the water and knowing that I am better for having another one under my belt.