I swam 2 miles in an open water event at a lake outside of Louisville today. I suppose I should have been a little more intimidated by it. Although my swim workouts are usually around 2 miles total, this was the farthest I'd swam at one time. But for me, this wasn't nearly as intimidating as the 1.2 miles I swam about 3 weeks ago in an aquabike race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike). That lake was pretty deep. This lake was fairly shallow and you could touch the bottom at the beginning of the ¼ mile loop and at the turn around. In fact, a number of people used it as a resting point – which was rather annoying to those of us who wanted to make believe we were in a deep lake or river.
There is something discomforting knowing that, unlike biking or running, you can't stop and take a breather. Usually in open water swimming, there is nothing under you or a wall to grasp; you have no choice but to keep swimming. But because I knew that in this event I could take a rest every 400 yards, it really wasn't that scary. Other than the murky water, it was like being in a long swimming pool. I fully expect swimming up and down the Ohio River to be completely different (and terrifying).
It was still a good experience though. After clearing myself of the crowd, I became somewhat comfortable in being able to keep my direction (despite the murky water) by sighting landmarks and swimmers to my side and in front of me. However, the 70 swimmers at this event doesn't come close to the over 2,000 swimmers at Ironman Louisville. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle over 2 miles of battling swimmers and a current and keeping my direction.
I also handled my first good kick in the face – didn't panic and kept swimming without breaking a stroke.
Also on the good news side – no goggle leakage and I came out of the water feeling pretty fresh (I don't think I smelled fresh though – probably smelled fishy).
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