My brother (Soretaint) and I kind of inadvertently ended up at the front of the start line. We were on the left, next to the bridge, which was good for navigation the whole swim.
At the start horn, took off and just cruised for a little bit, but felt like I was going pretty fast. Passed the 1/4 mile marker on the bridge at 7 minutes, not real fast but it felt like it didn't take that long. Somewhere about here, I got on a guy's feet and started drafting, slapping his feet every so often. Pretty soon I pulled up on his right side...and it was my brother, John! I knew about the pace he'd be swimming so I settled in beside him and kept pace. Pretty soon I had a slower swimmer in front of me so instead of going farther to the right and maybe losing contact with John, I slid back behind him and came around to his left. Now he could see my beside him. We kept going like this until around the 3/4 mile marker. I was still feeling really good so I started to pull a bit harder and I was surprised to see I was pulling ahead of John. At the 1 mile mark, a little over 31 minutes, I ramped it up another notch and pulled a little farther ahead of him. After the end of the bridge you swim along a rock jetty in fairly shallow water and there's a row of underwater rocks that lead right to the finish line. So I just got on the inside of this row of rocks and started going for it. I lost John out of my peripheral vision and I didn't know if he was behind me or coming up on my right side so I just kept digging. I passed a couple other guys in my age group in here too so there was plenty of incentive to keep going.
Swam into the finish chute and got across the line one person ahead of John. Probably the only time I'll ever beat him in a swim. It was great knowing he was there the whole race though and being able to swim so close with him. He's the one who pulled me along and kept me motivated to keep pushing!

Nothing. By far my best OWS at a longer distance.

Had some food that was provided for the swimmers and hung out waiting for my sister to finish.


Might have been faster with a decent breakfast!


This is a fun swim in a gorgeous lake. Super clear, clean water that was pleasantly warm today. The race organization wasn't that great, with the race starting about 1/2 hour late and their timing system needs some work but it's ok. All in all a fun day.