Horsetooth 10k Swim

Sunday was my first attempt at swimming 6.2 miles straight. I can't say I've ever had this on my life's goal list BUT when I got injured running earlier this year swimming and cycling were the two things I could do without pain. So, since I assumed my triathlon/running season was over before it even started I decided to choose something that would keep me in shape and give me a goal to work towards.

I love to swim and was seeing some great improvements after starting Dave Scott's swim sessions at FAC. I was getting in close to 20k a week in the pool and feeling like I could do it.

Well, I ended up going through PT and healing up my ankle (not 100% but close) so I could run and still do my triathlons I planned. Of course, this put the 10k swim lower on my priority list but I was still committed.

Given that the race was just 1 week after Boulder 70.3 and that I'm not a SWIMMER (I'm a triathlon swimmer) I wasn't expecting to break any records or even finish in the top for that matter. Have you ever seen real endurance swimmers? They don't look like the toughest, fastest thing you've ever seen. A good reminder not to judge a book by it's cover! For me, I just wanted to finish the damn thing. I wasn't sure what to expect really. I've never been horizontal in this position for this long-well except for maybe in the bedroom but that's about it and that's an entirely different post :)

I wasn't even nervous about this event. I get nervous before triathlons when I'm trying to do well or want to win but this I just wanted to finish and it was "just" a swim after all. All I needed was a swimsuit! Simplicity! The water was 70 degrees on race morning and we were off right at 7am.

There isn't much to tell really, other than I swam for 3 hours and 14 minutes! Exciting stuff I know. I swam for 1 hour before I stopped to check the time and get some food. The first 30 minutes kinda sucked because my left shoulder was bugging me and I just didn't feel fluid. Once I started focusing on my stroke and my catch it opened up and I was really feeling like this wasn't so bad! When I stopped Kevin tried to hand me my gel flask (I can't touch him so he reach it over to me on the oar) and PLUNK-straight to the bottom of the lake! I thought the dumb thing would float! Ooops! Thankfully I had asked Kevin to put a couple extra gels in his pocket. I had my water bottles tied in so we were safe there. I couldn't stop for too long because I started to get chilled so I kept it moving. This is were that extra layer, or two, of body fat would have been helpful! I get it now!!!! Another 30 minutes, stop for food. Another 30-40 minutes, stop for food. At this point Kevin told me we had passed the 4 mile mark. I was feeling great.

I could see the buoys up ahead that indicated the start of just 1.2 miles to the shore. Once we got to the 1.2 mile buoy I seemed to just stop. Maybe this was the swimming wall (like 18-20 in a marathon????). I felt like I was going backwards. I was bored too so I started to count my strokes 1, 2, 3, 4....500 sight. 1, 2, 3, 4....500 sight, on and on. At this point my shoulders were getting tired and my lower back was tight. Few back stroke strokes and repeat.....Every time I would sight it seemed the shore wasn't getting any closer. That was the looooongest 1.2 miles of my life. Come to find out it was longer than 1.2 miles, a head wind had developed, boats were creating bigger wakes, and a slight current had moved in. None of this really matters because we still had to swim 6.2 but when you think you just have 1.2 to go and it takes you 45 minutes-NOT COOL!

It's funny how my attitude and thoughts changed through out the swim. For the first couple hours I was thinking "this isn't so bad", "this isn't nearly as hard as I expected", "i might go for a bike ride later today, it's so nice out". Last hour it was more like "hell no I'm not riding my bike, I can't wait to lay on the couch", "man a shower would be nice", "I wonder if we can stop for a burger and shake on the way home?", "get me out of the damn water!!!!"

Finally I made it to shore and standing up was a bit awkward! I finished in 3:14:12. I predicted 3 hours so all things considered I'm happy with it. It was a totally new challenge for me and something totally out of my normal athletic realm. Besides being really stiff today and having a headache I feel pretty good. I was expecting to really hurt when I finished.

I would definitely do this event again. In fact Jenny, Melissa, and I are already talking about our swimming adventures for 2011! This time though I will definitely be training more specifically.