Pre-Race

They weren’t joking about the seaweed/seaplants, ohmygoodness!!  It was wrapping around my arms and legs and covering my face!  I did very shallow strokes and NO kicking the entire time until finally I was clear of that area.  It took me a while to get into a rhythm as I usually freak out a little at the beginning of an open water swim and have trouble putting my face in the water.

Soon I got into a groove and was breathing to my right (clockwise course, so no need to breathe bilaterally) every three strokes.  Before I knew it, I was almost done with the first loop.  I waded near the shore where the enter/exit point was, called out my number (they didn’t have timing mats) and was back in the water again.  I checked my watch before heading out and saw it was around 18:40ish…woo-hoo!  If I keep the same pace I could PR!

The second loop was uneventful, just the battle with the seaweed/seaplants during the swim near the shore (I definitely yelped a few times under water when I really felt it tugging on my limbs), and soon I was out of the water and running up to transition.  I checked the clock and it read 38:xx, yay!  I will take a one minute PR 🙂

Once I got into transition I quickly pulled off my wetsuit, put my socks, bike shoes, glasses and helmet on and I was off!  Speedy transition for me (at KS I think I walked to my bike row, went to the wrong row, walked around…well in short, it was slooow).

Swim time: 38:51.03

T1: 1:59.52

The Bike