Finally. Race day. Two months of work comes down to this… And it was a blast. It’s a lot more fun to push yourself when there is someone just ahead of you to catch. And with 338 particpants this year, there was always someone just ahead of you. This year we had 7 people not finish – almost double of last year. Perhaps as the race grows in popularity you get more and more people not realizing what they are getting into. On the flip side there were 3 kids (yes they are kids ) in the 11-12 age group that not only broke the 1 hour mark they were under 50 minutes grabing the 37th, 39th, and 40th spots overall. 40 year olds fine, women ok, but it’s a little disheartening when an 11 year old is leaving you in his dust.

As for my race, I was glad the water was surprisingly warm. We’ve been having a uncommonly mild August and honestly my biggest concern going into the race was that the water would be freezing. Thankfully this fear was misplaced. Going into the swim, I positioned myself at the back of the young-guns wave i was in since I would be doing the breast stroke and didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. The funny part was the fact that while all but one of us started off with the great speed and effort of free style swimming at about the 100M mark about a third of the young guns rolled over to either their back or side to continue. Most would roll over again when i came to pass with my slow and steady approach, but then would soon be back on their side or back as i waved good bye. I ended up passing 13 of the 54 people in my wave (20-29 year old males) of which I am quite proud. I had gone into the swim event with my strongest stroke to avoid fatigue not win any medals, so smoking a few young guns was a nice bonus. Also of note is that 2 of the people in my wave that smoked me on swim speed never finished the race… peak to early guys? :D
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