Lake Quassy Swimfest 8-30-2014

My two goal races for this year were the Worlds at Montreal and to swim the 5 miles of the Quassy swim Fest.  Yesterday, was Quassy.  They had a record number of swimmers. The 3 mile went off around 8:30.  My plan was just to do a leisurely swim.  I started feeling nauseous on the first return lap and the new googles i had bought, while clear were squeezing my head.  I tried to untighten them, with limited success.  At the halfway point, I stopped at the float where I had my drink bottle and drank as much as I could, and also work on the goggles.  I was feeling very weak and had doubts that I could continue.  My friend Paul, swam by and offered encouragement, and i let go of the raft and started the second loop.  I felt a little better, but fully expected to vomit when i finished.  A long swim race is just about keeping going. my arms felt fine, i was just body weak, and a little quesy.  For the most part, the water conditions were fine.  There was some chop on the far side of the lake, but it didn’t bother me two much.  I stopped and treaded water for about thrity seconds on the far side of the lake and also did a little backstoke.  I finished in 1:45.39, eleven minutes faster than two years ago.  (I am a much better swimmer today). I was 69 of 88.

I got some food -- a half bagel, half banana and some pretzel sticks along with a bottle of waterm, then tried to take a brief nap in between races.  I was worried how the mile and a half would go.  There were again a record number of entrants for this race, and there was some banging at the beginning, but it soon broke up.  My arms were quite fatigued at first, but then I got into a goodrythm, plus I was sighting on the far beach rather than the buoys, and i think that kept me straighter.  Also, instead of sighting every third stroke as I did in the first race, I sighted every fifth, then sixth, then seventh, then eight until I found myself going off target, then I woukld drop down and start again.  I got quite a good rythmn going.  As we neared the end, I acrually picked up speed and put on a good sprint to the finish.  I came in in 48.46, a good six minutes faster than my previous best in the one and a half mile.  (Note:  it is hard to compare open water races to each other, but my margins of speed were great enough that this is pretty valid.  This lake race is also much weasier to measure than ocean swims. I was 70 of 150.

Finally, in the last race, I went out even, then came home at a good clip, again putting on a sprint at the end for maybe the last 200 yards, trying to do my Katie Ledecky impersonation of the hip driven.  I finished in 14:44 and even picked up a third place finisher medal for the 35 and over wet suit division. I was 39 of 106.

In the 5 mile division, I came in 36th out of 53 with a total time of 2:49:09.

Here are the final results:

Results

Overall, I very successful conclusion to my first year of dedicated swimming.

I have nothing set in the scheude now except some possible meets in the late fall.  My goal will be to work on all aspects of my swiimming, particuarly my freestyle kick, and the butterfly, while still maintaining some sprinting focus.  I would also like over the next year to swim and get an official time in all events.

I will post a goal list when I have it finished.  Here is a picture of me, Galen and Holly who are our masters coaches and Mike Barry and Paul Epstein..

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