In transition I found Mrs. Scott and she was ready to go once the pump guy with a huge fro made sure my tires were pumped up. It seemed like he put a lot of air in those tires and I was a little concerned that he might have over inflated them being that it took about 50 pumps but everything seemed fine so we ventured over to the beach to get away from the mosquitoes. I took two bites on my neck and JB told me it looked like I was attacked by a vampire, maybe I will be in the next twilight movie. On second thought being a vampire would be tough today with that bright sun about to burn us up.
As we waited for the race to get started we chatted it up with a few athletes to pass the time and met a nice couple from lake placid.
The Swim:
The swim took place at chankanaab park, which is normally off limits to swimming. It was a real treat to be able to swim in a normally secluded area. The ocean floor was about 75 feet below us and everything was very visible. The visibility of the ocean in this area is about 200 feet!
The park
As we walked onto the pier for the swim start the dolphins were jumping out of the water in the “swim with the dolphin area” which was enclosed within the pier. I had the opportunity to swim with these dolphins the day before and tried to convince them to help me on the swim today but my dolphin is about on par with my Spanish and I think something was lost in translation. One athlete was about to jump into the dolphin cage thinking it would get him to the swim start. That was before he saw them swimming around, that would have been a shocker.
The pier
I gave JB a high five as he jumped off the pier and I positioned myself under the pier a little bit away from the main pack. Although I tried to start near the back I found myself right in the middle of a large swim pack. No big deal I had enough space and figured after a few hundred yards the spacing should be okay. As they started the countdown I noticed that my Garmin fried when I hit the water. This threw a little wrinkle in my plan for the day as I planed on going strictly by heart rate data on the bike and run. Deep breath and it’s time for plan B. I would have to take it easy and just listen to my body to judge if I am pushing too hard. I relaxed and I had my plan, today I am the zen master. Not knowing my heart rate, pace, or time could actually be a benefit if I can keep myself under control and not worry about what kind of pace I was holding. I took a few more deep breaths and at the sound of the gun we were off!
As I suspected the first part of the swim was a little rough. Being under the dock not only did I have to avoid the mass of bodies fighting for position, but also the concrete pillars supporting the dock. I set myself up between a few people just kept swimming out to the first turn buoy. I kept my elbows high on my recovery to avoid any blows to the head and all things considered the start went pretty well. There was some rubbing and I took a few feet and fist shots but nothing bad enough to force me to break stroke. The first turn buoy was about 300 meters from the start and the swim was into the current. As I approached the first turn there was a large gap to the inside and the group was taking the turn wide. Must be that everyone took the advice of the day before and decided to take the turn wide. I adjusted my course and made a tight turn around the buoy with no contact. The next turn bout was about 100 meters away and directly out from shore. The spacing of swimmers had spaced out by this point and the swim was pretty easy going. However due to the current I kept getting shifted to the inside of the buoy. I had to adjust course a few times to make the turn. During the turn the current actually pushed me into the buoy as I rounded for the long stretch.
This next part of the swim was great. We were swimming with the current so I was taking long easy strokes and covering a lot of ground at a nice pace. For this part of the swim I found some feet and just enjoyed the scenery. I saw a few star fish, two stingrays and countless other fish. I even heard the dolphins talking as we passed back by the docks, I think they were apologizing for not being able to escape to help me out. About halfway to the turn I swam into a few jellyfish and took a few nasty stings on my head, arms and legs. They were not anything to slow me down, but they did sting. (On the bike I noticed one that was a little deep and had a little blood oozing). A little hydrocortisone the next day cleared up the rashes and remaining stings. At the next turn we rounded a submarine that normally gives tours of the area and headed back towards shore and then one more turn towards the docks. This final stretch of the swim was against the current. I drafted some feet of an athlete that was kicking a nice stream of bubbles and cruised back to the exit.
About 100 meters from shore there was a rush of cold water. I thought to myself that I think sharks like cold water and low and behold there he was, a 7’ reef shark hanging out near the ocean floor. He did not seem interested in the swimmers which was a good thing because I have been perfecting my eye gouge and gill punch.
The eye gouge
Soon after the shark sighting I saw the stairs and climbed out and back onto the pier.
The exit
Running into transition there were tons of spectators lining the way cheering. Being that this was a non-wetsuit race I planed on swimming somewhere between
With a big smile on my face I ran threw the showers, grabbed my bag, got a little sunscreen and hopped on Mrs. Scott for the second leg of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment