THE SWIM
I look to my right, I look to my left, I
still can't believe it's so UNCROWDED here in this little Secret Spot.
I line up in the second row, and eyeball the folks in front of me and
to my side, trying to figure out if any of them are "stupid starters",
people who have no clue how fast they are going to swim relative to the
field, and are way too far up front. I look behind me for the even
worse species, those who don't realise how fast they really are, and
are about to swim over me in the first 200 meters. There's hardly
anyone back there, either!
The gun goes off, and I run into the water, dolphin dive behind the
lead swimmers' feet, and take off. In keeping with the "less is more"
philosophy I've adopted for this race, I have not checked the water
temperature before the race. During warm-up, it felt down right
perfect, maybe a touch above 65F. Just as I'm learning to value the
warmer temperatures, I'm also learning to enjoy the colder water - the
faster/harder you swim, as well as the better your wetsuit, the warmer
you are going to get. Overheating can be a big problem on the swim,
oddly enough. I have a few close encounters with ungainly swimmers, but
I maintain my two strategies for dealing with conflict in the water: I
keep my attitude cool ("don't take it personally"), and if I just can't
live with my neighbor, I move. Also, if someone insists on swimming at
my exact speed, I pull up, and tuck in behind for a quick draft for
50-100 meters, then motor ahead to a new pair of feet. Works every time.
At the first buoy, there's always some guy or gal who's been swimming
blind, and doesn't realise we are TURNING here. I have to nudge them
left, or they might keep going all the way down the lake and run into
the seaplane about a half mile ahead. We swim into the sun for about
200 meters, which makes sighting VERY easy - you can actually do it
with your eyes closed, the sun is that low and that bright.
I cruise onto the sand for the first loop, and sneak a glance at my
watch as I cross the timing pad - 32:30 or so. WELL, that's odd -
faster than I've ever done a half ironman or Olympic distance swim,
much less the first loop of an IM. I start to sing praises to my
coaches, who are having me do 20% more swimming that I've ever
done before. This one little fact sets the tone for my day, telling me
I do have some racing speed in me, and I might as well move into
full-on Race Mode as far as mental attention is concerned - don't want
to
make any mistakes if I've got a good day in me here.
The second lap contains little to snare my attention. Just stretch out,
slow down the stroke, and look for good feet to follow. I'm out in
1:06.15 - a new personal best for an ironman swim, and a faster pace
than I've ever done an Olympic distance, too. I attribute most of that
to the tremendous draft 500 people in front of me make; the water is
moving forward in a bit of a current from all those bodies churning up
a wake.
Remembering my IM Wisconsin experience, where an over-eager wet suit
stripper ripped my shoulder strap, I talk the helpful volunteer through
a slow motion yank off of my suit. Grab my T1 bag from the ground, and
whip around into the change tent. I don't know it at the time, but I'm
second out of the water by 5 seconds, and first out of T1 by over a
minute. I'm leading the race on only 7 weeks of training, and a
one-week taper.