Open Water Swim Report

I swam a one mile open water swim this morning. I usually train a lot harder in swimming over the winter and cut back in the summer, but I still get in around three times a week and like to do the occasional open-water swim. It's totally different than a pool event.

So this morning was the Emerald City Swim at Seward Park in Seattle. It was a great turnout. I think there were something like 300 swimmers in the mile event (there's also a half-mile). I ended up 11th overall, and first in my age group (30-34). Next year I'll do better! It sucks I missed the top ten.

My wife came to watch and snapped a couple pictures. Here's the start

http://home.comcast.net/~seussnelson/images/swim01.jpg

Part of the fun in these races is trying to get going at the start. It's just a mad thrash for a couple hundred yards before you can open up into your own swimming space. It's a triangular course, so you have to look up all the time and aim at the buoys you need to swim around.

A swam at a good pace, but definitely didn't have much left at the finish. As you can see I was damn tired!

http://home.comcast.net/~seussnelson/images/swim02.jpg

That woman was actually behind me, but tried to sneak ahead in the chute! She probably drafted off me the whole time :) No women beat me, so that's nice. I think my time was 22:32. The winner was 21 something. There were lots teenagers swimming. Most of them have just finished up their summer swimming season, so they do this as a fun event. Anyway, that's probably my only competition for the summer, so I'm happy with it.

Michael Phelps eat your heart out!

Congrats! Cool! Open water is fun.

Did a half mile swim in Officers Gulch on Thursday. 54F.
Of course... it was underwater and we were wearing about 110lbs of SCUBA gear. No pics... it was dark! :D

Damn AD, that's a smokin' open water mile time. Haven't swam serious laps in well over a decade. My aging ass clocked 27 minutes in the pool this summer. My brother and I have a tradition of swimming across the lake at home (1/2) and back -- he always makes me look slow. Even when he's outta shape he can swim me into the ground. Anyway, totally cool. We'll hafta talk swimmer/dork stuff on the chairlift this winter.

Rusty

Congrats, AD.

That's awesome.

Summit: 54 degrees, huh? That sounds like Puget Sound up here. My swim was in Lake Washington and I think the water temp was around 70.

Rusty: I was out of the water for ten years after college and got back into it two years ago. It's been a lot of fun. And if you can still get in the pool and swim a mile you're not doing too bad, regardless of the time! It definitely isn't a sport you can do well without training--at least anything over about 50 yards. I was always a distance swimmer, but it's tough to commit enough time to REALLY swim well in distance now.