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Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim
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Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim - Swim
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 Swim
Comments: This was my 3rd open water swim including the two tri's I've completed. I knew coming into this race that I needed to work on sighting and navigating around traffic. I was on the third wave of the day and the 2nd half of the 800m group. First off, they said there will be a Godzilla, a T-Rex, and a Shamu bouy. T-Rex was no where to be found and someone said that Godzilla floated away. Shamu was there but this wasn't the Shamu I was expecting. It's the size of a beach ball. It was so hard to spot from the other bouy. Anyway, they started the countdown before I even got to the start line. Oh well. So I got going and not even a minute into it, I got stuck in traffic. It was mostly the slower swimmers from the wave ahead of mine. And since I was in a bad spot, I was forced to let the faster swimmers in my group go first before I finally got out of there. It was at this point that I felt like getting into a rhythm. I was able to sight every other stroke and eventually every few strokes when traffic finally thinned out. Pretty soon I was all by myself with a handful of swimmers ahead of me. When I started my 2nd lap, I had the same problem of finding Shamu but I managed to spot a few swim caps that were going the same direction as I was so that helped out tremendously. I think I'll be doing more of that future events. I was still pretty much alone at this stage and this is where I kinda freaked out. I started thinking what if that Nyquil is tricking my mind that I'm lost and following the wrong set of people. What if I start coughing because I'm breathing through my mouth? What if, what if, what if. Then suddenly, I find myself staring at last turn bouy and I snapped out of my trance for the 2nd time that morning. I looked up and I saw the volunteers helping people out of the water. I got so excited that I started to run out of breath but thank God the finish was just a few strokes away. When I got out to the finish area, I looked around and surprised to see only a handful of people. I guess I did ok. What would you do differently?: What I would do differently....HOLD BACK ON NYQUIL!!! I did perform better than I expected so maybe I should take the same amount next time. Sighting is still a work in progress as well as managing traffic.  Post race
Warm down: mostly shoulder and tricep stretching. What limited your ability to perform faster: sighting and moving through traffic. Event comments: I'd sign up for this event again. Last updated: 2005-05-16 12:00 AM
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 2005-05-16 4:22 PM |
Veteran  240   Austin, TX |  Subject: Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim |
| 2005-05-16 8:32 PM in reply to: #158588 |
Extreme Veteran 412 las vegas | Subject: RE: Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim congrats on placing third in your age group!! racing all hopped up on nyquil sounds kinda' fun! i might try it in my race saturday and see how it goes!  |
| 2005-05-17 10:05 AM in reply to: #158588 |
Veteran 240 Austin, TX | Subject: RE: Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim Thanks! I'm feeling more and more confident in open water swimming. I hope I can do better next time. |
| 2005-05-17 11:46 AM in reply to: #158588 |
Master 2346 Dayton, Minnesota Bronze member | Subject: RE: Austin Aquatics Open Water Swim Great job! I'd love to do a race like this as practice for a tri! A valuable experience for you, I'm sure. |
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United States
Austin Aquatics
67F / 19C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 8/84
Age Group = M 0-99
Age Group Rank = 3/14
Although I was looking forward to this event, I didn't feel the same enthusiasm on swim day. I had been battling this annoying cough since the late last week and I had trouble sleeping the night before because of it. I decided to take some Nyquil to help me from coughing but I'm pretty sure I had too much. I woke up groggy and very disoriented. I didn't want to admit it and I was quietly hoping that my girl friend would offer to drive out to the event location. Unfortunately for me, she was way too sleepy and wanted to snooze on the way there. That 15 mile drive felt like a cross country drive. I was having a good buzz.
Finally we get to the site. I forgot we had to walk about half a mile which isn't too bad but I was feeling lazy. So I convinced myself that if I walk fast enough, that would be more than enough for a warm up. In fact my gluts are now tighter than they were ever! OK OK...warm up...Well I put on my wetsuit and basically stood and stared at the water. I think I was day dreaming about my new truck. (I traded in my IS300 for a 4x4 Tacoma and I was gonna get it right after the swim.) Of course, the Nyquil wasn't helping at all...or maybe it did. When I finally snapped out of it, the swim was about to begin. All I could really do was stretch my shoulders and head on out to the bouy.