Greenwich Point One-Mile Swim Race Report

The Greenwich Point One-Mile Swim was yesterday, and in doing it, I finally felt like I put together a really good race this season.


Preparation

I had a knee injury early on during the season, a plica.  And while that never stopped me from riding, it kept me from doing as much running as I'd planned to do during the off-season, and it got me in the pool more than usual.  Nothing wrong there, but after a while I decided just to make the One-Mile Swim one of my "A" races, especially since I'd already built a base in the water.  But then I got a brace for my knee, and it got better, and eventually I backed off on the idea of focusing so much effort on the One-Mile Swim that I would actually taper for the event, but I did make an effort to stay in the water and keep swimming a lot.


Race Day

Went to sleep Friday night excited but tired from a long week of work and family.  Still, I slept fitfully because I was excited about the race, and when five o'clock finally rolled around, I pretty much bounced out of bed.  I had a little sinus headache, but my body felt okay, and that was what counted.  So I took a couple of Advil, grabbed a Power Bar and a banana, grabbed my stuff, and headed out.  Sally and the girls stayed asleep, so for this race at least, I was flying solo.

Greenwich Point is about a half-hour away from my house in Stratford.  I got there at around six-thirty, got checked in, laid my mat out on the sand, and started doing my typical yoga routine.  Went through a series of Sunrise Salutes, Downward Dogs, Front Folds, etc, and then stretched out my shoulders and my back.  Then I got in the water about seven, giving me about a half hour to adjust to the water and warm up.

The water was COLD.  Maybe seventy degrees.  It wasn't dangerous or anything, but it took a few minutes to adjust to it and get my breathing back under control.  I swam maybe three or four hundred yards during my warm up and then got out and sat down to wait for the race to start.  Spent that time talking to the other race dudes about triathlon as a vehicle for dealing with mid-life crisis.

*sigh*


The Race

The race went off in three heats.  First there were the twenty-nine and unders, then the thirty to thirty-nine year olds, and then the forty-plus crowd.  With the youngsters off right at seven-thirty, I got in shortly thereafter and splashed around, and then at seven-thirty-five, we were off.

My heat was a smallish heat, but looking around, I saw several good-looking swimmers.  Once we started swimming, however, I pulled out in front of the pack pretty easily.  One guy took off ahead of me, and I tried to draft for a while, but he wasn't holding a very nice line on the nearest buoy, so I eventually cut away from him and just started swimming on my own.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the dude probably swims Masters, but that he doesn't do much rough water swimming.  Rough water is kind of its own art and science.  In any event, he pretty quickly out-distanced me, eventually building a lead of about four or five body lengths by the middle of the race.  I'd have caught up if I could, but y'know, sometimes the other guy is good, too.

In any event, I cleared the first two buoys, turned for the long swim parallel to the shore, and settled into a rhythm.  The next two buoys were spaced far apart but after that the last three on that line were close together, and almost before I knew it, I was turning for home.  The buoy marking the entrance/exit chute looked small from the far end of the course, and having turned, the sun was now on my other shoulder, and suddenly I was the one having trouble holding my line.  On the other hand, I saw the guy who rabbited out in front of me and noticed that I'd closed the distance some.  So I put my head down and swam, but it was a lot of ground to make up, and I didn't think I could actually close that distance.

That proved to be correct.  I got to within two body lengths by the end of the swim, but my man came out of the water a little cleaner than I did, and I wound up about thirty seconds behind.  Second in my age group wasn't too bad, and my time was very good--a full minute faster than I'd thought I might go--but still, it would have been nice to win.

Greenwich Point One-Mile Swim: 18:54.

My goal pre-race was to go under 20-minutes, and I did that easily.  Beyond that, I was second in my Age Group.  I don't have my overall place yet because the results haven't been posted, but it was a good swim, and I felt good doing it.  Yay me.