Open Water Swim Report

[The AD]

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



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!



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!

[summit]

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!

[Rusty Nails]

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

[optics]

Congrats, AD.

That's awesome.

[The AD]

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.