Of course the risk you run by having a open water swim race in Ontario on September 20th is… well, you could freeze your butt off! Sure you might luck out and have one of those beautiful sunny fall days… but what are the odds? Doesn’t matter… we got it!
It was perfect… sunny (25C) and the water temp was even nice (58F/14C)! Funny thing was that it was really windy, but the Quarry is so sheltered that it didn’t really matter… just a great day and a great swim… perfect way to end the 2014 open water season!
I was helping my son move that morning, he just got a new condo right between the Skydome (yes, I’m one of those guys that still doesn’t call it the Roger’s Center!) and the ACC… great apartment! But I digress, the only reason I was telling you that is that is why I did the 2k rather than the 4k… because it started a bit later, so I could get there on time. So after a nice warm up of moving furniture all morning I got there just in time for the race.
So yes, the air and water was nice, but I still wasn’t going to get in and warm up… better to risk it and take the plunge, so to speak. Given that I wimped out of the 4k, I figured I would atone for that by at least doing the 2k naked. Sure I’d be slower without the wetsuit, but better placing. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Miguel sounded the gun… and I went charging in with a ton of others! At 58F/13C the first dive in is a bit of a shocker, and the hundred meters are “brisk”, but at race pace 58F is just about the perfect temp and you warm up pretty quickly. I find it’s like a lot of the numerous variables in any kind of a race… wind, shoes, drinks, etc… if you don’t even notice it, it must be fine. And after a couple hundred meters I didn’t notice the water temp, one way or another. I was just focusing on the race.
I found a couple of guys my speed to swim with. Or rather, they found me. And drafted off me for the first half of the first 1k loop. But I got wise and dropped back and drafted off of them for a little rest. We came around the corner headed for home and naturally I figured that because these guys were my speed they were probably good open water swimmers too. They weren’t. We were about half way back when I sighted. Only to find out the strong wind had blown the 3 of us way off course! Rookie mistake. By them and me. They should have accounted for that and sighted more often. I shouldn’t have hung my hat on them!
But at least I showed a bit of veteran experience in the same spot on the second loop. The 3 of us were still together when we made the same turn that put the wind to our side again… blowing us off course again. But I knew they’d be wiser the second time and correct. As I said before, they weren’t that experienced. They didn’t correct again! But I did. I probably saved at least 100 meter on them!
However, I was beginning to feel the effects of about 1.5 km at race pace… and no training. They still beat me by a bit. But the gap was 100 meters closer than it would have been. Some consolation at least!
It was great to see so many LOSTies, we made up a very good percentage of the swimmers! I love racing and I love swimming, so I can’t complain. Great day!
Thanks Barrie, Miguel, Katie, Sean and all the others for a fun race and great wrap up to the summer of open water swim racing!
Cheers,
Rob