Sunday I participated in an open water swim event. Now, I've done OWS events before but this was my longest one to date! I completed the To the Bridge and Back 5 mile swim with Carol! Too bad Team Rabbit couldn't wear ears on their swim caps... Hmm. Anyway, it was a success! You can read our Bridge and Back Rap here!
I had decided to wear a wetsuit because it was such a long event. In hindsight, I wish I'd gone without! It was a fairly warm day and the water temperature was 73 degrees or so. Definitely do-able without a wetsuit. Since I had full sleeves on, my shoulders are a little tired still, two days after the fact.
The course was literally 2.5 miles up the James River to the World War II Veterans Memorial Bridge - and back! There were specific buoys along the way which helped gauge where you were on the course. At 1.5 miles there was a pontoon boat where we had been instructed to NOT touch the boat or get DQ'd! Yikes!! In the swim portion of a triathlon you are actually allowed to touch boats as long as there is no forward motion. But this was a swim event and that wasn't allowed! Anyway, at the pontoon boat the volunteers there would hand you water, Heed, gels, or crackers. You could stop there on the way out and back and everyone was so nice! And I may have had the song "Pontoon" in my head once or twice. I actually was singing "Midnight at the Oasis" because I thought of the pontoon boat as an oasis for the swimmers!
And of course what ELSE went through my head during 5 miles of continuous swimming, were the words of Dori!
Happy and Healthy Training!
Next up: CanLake 50K!
2 comments:
Happy to see the nearly naked mile on your calendar. I might sign up for the Fairfax 4-mile on new year's eve.
PS - this is Kim Westrich. My name didn't show up on my comment :)
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