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I headed down to Charlottesville on Friday night, and stayed at a very cute place I found on AirBnB. The little apartment above a garage I rented for the night had all the necessities for the pre- and post-race: comfy bed, kitchen to prepare breakfast, floor space to do a morning yoga series and loosen up my hips and shoulders, and a good shower to get lake gunk (and permanent marker) off my skin.
The 1-mile race that I was competing in didn't start until 10:30 am, but there was a 2-mile race starting at 8:30 and I wanted to get the lay of the land. Turns out it was a great idea, because Chris Greene Lake is beautiful, and we had some nice, mellow weather after a a couple days of rain. Also, it was a relatively small event (about 200 swimmers between the 1 and 2 mile races) and everyone, as I've found to be the norm at open water gatherings-was really friendly. Also cool was seeing swimmers of all ages, including 2-mile swim, Brad Phillips (who swims at Virginia) set a new course record--breaking one that had stood for 25 years!
A bit after 10:30, I joined my fellow swimmers in Heat 6 for the start. CGLS is an in-water start, and the heats were of 10 people, 30 seconds apart, which is nice. The cable is basically a giant lane line, so my goal was to use it to site (it was on my left, which happens to be my stronger breathing side) throughout, but to stay 3-4 yards to its right.
Honestly, this part didn't go too well. Sometimes I was 10 yards off the cable, at one point I was right on top of it. Still trying to figure out how to swim straight in open water! I felt a little slow as a result, but certainly had the endurance to keep going after 1 mile, and probably could have kept up my pace for a second mile. (Something to aim for later this summer!) Which was good, because in the final 200 meters, I had someone following me who kept hitting my feet (despite loads of open water around us). Finally, I just dug in and sprinted the last bit to get away from her. When we were in the chute, she apologized--saying she was struggling to swim straight too! I took it all in stride, remembering what Denis Crean from One Wave always says "Open water swimming is a contact sport."
So, how'd I do. My goal was to come in at 35 or under. Unfortunately, I missed the mark on that one (forgot to start my watch at the beginning of the race, so I just had to pace off of feeling--which I'm learning like swimming straight, is something I'm not quite sure how to do. But, I did finish 3rd of 4 in my division, so I won a medal!
It was a fun way to wrap up the Chris Greene Lake Swim, and I celebrated this milestone in my training with lunch at one of my favorite eateries in Charlottesville--Eppies--before heading back to DC.
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