Madison Mile

I did not sleep well last night, waking up every hour, feeling my usual pre-event apprehension. I was again still undecided about doing a "race." I forced myself to sign up last week, believing it would make me go. Between the $40 fee and the $15 I had to pay for a one-day US Masters membership, that's $55 I would have blown off, by not going. While I swam a lot over the winter I haven't been swimming so much lately (26 miles since January 1, but only 2.5 miles this month, and 0 in May) and my easy mile in 40 minutes at Cornerstone last week was pretty slow even for going slow. My record in the pool is 34 minutes trying to swim fast. I did a 17:06 in the half-mile at Niantic last August.

Of the three triathlon events, I am clearly much more comfortable with swimming where I am a middle of the packer(I am a back of the packer in running and the bike -- last year I used a hybrid), still I had apprehension about how cold the water would be, how far out we would have to swim and whether or not there would be any choppiness.

In the end I went because I knew if I didn't, well that would be the beginning of the end. (I did my first 10K run on June 1, and now I need to do my first open mile swim, before taking on my first 25 mile bike.) If I don't go, I am moving away from my Olympic Triathlon Goal instead of moving toward it. Just get up, get in the car and start driving down there and don't turn around.

Once I reached the Madison Surf Club, and stood above the beach, I felt pretty good looking at the course -- it seemed well marked with six big buoys -- straight out, angle off to the left and head out more, pass another buoy go horizontal to the beach, pass a buoy, then angle slightly right, pass a buoy and head on in. I had been worried the farthest buoy would be straight out, barely in sight.

I had already decided I wasn't going to worry about time, just go easy, notch a mile open-water swim and set a time I can beat the next time out. The other good thing was I was in wave 2 of 10, so I stood to be on the beach before the last wave hit the water if all went well.

I went down and tested the water. They said it was 63 degrees. It just about took my breath away, but after a few strokes, I slowed down, caught my breath and calmed down and just stroked easy for about twenty five yards, then headed back in. It was cold, but it was doable.

While waiting for the start, I laid down on my towel with my head on my backpack and felt the sun in my face. It was great -- my first beach time of the year. I decided this would be my race time mantra. To get through the race I will just picture my reward, laying on the beach when it's over feeling the sun on my face.

The US Masters 44 and under went first, and then five minutes later my group US Masters 45 and over went. It was low tide so at the start we walked/ran out. I dove in to swim a little later than I should have -- less to swim, plus I didn't have to hit that cold water with my whole body quite so early. At 6'8", I can walk/run a little father out then most.

It was pretty spread out and I hung back to not get in the scrum, so soon I was swimming on my own. I noticed right away that what had looked calm was a little rolly (certainly compared to Cornerstone). Small waves would hit me, but I was able to handle them by just turning my head a little more behind me to breathe. It did prevent me from attempting any bilateral breathing and I fell into a breathing off the right side every stroke. So much for the bilateral practice that I thought was going so well.

I got by the first buoy okay, but then I seemed to be swimming by myself and not making a whole lot of progress. Every time I looked up, I had to relocate the buoy.

In my previous open water races as part of a triathlon I was always right in a pack and didn't have to worry about sighting at all.

The buoys were pretty far away and it soon became clear I wasn't swimming very straight. A couple times the race kayakers had to shout at me to head to my right or head left.

It was a beautiful day, the water was very refreshing -- only occasionally would I swim into a real cold patch.

I stopped periodically to readjust my direction. It just seemed to take forever. By the time I was halfway, I felt like I had swum 2 miles already. At one point I kept looking around and couldn't see the buoy. A kayaker had to point it out to me and only then on lifting my goggles could I make it out. I didn't have to worry about having a race mantra to occupy me. All I was thinking was I hope I'm headed to the buoy, and hope I'm headed to the right one.

I swam in fairly strong, coming in racing with the male high school swimmers who had started much later. Hopefully none of the cheering crowd could see that I was two and a half times their age with my 49 year old greying at the temples hair under my blue swim cap.

I didn't get an official time while I was there, but my guess was is it took me 50-55 minutes. Yes, that long.

I spent all that time in the pool this winter working on keeping my head down, looking at the bottom of the pool, when I really should have been doing sighting drills, swimming more with my head or at least eyes out of the water looking ahead.

Well it at least gives me something to work on for next time.

I did lay on the beach for about five minutes, and felt quite satisfied I had done the race. Good for me for not wimping out.

***

Here are the preliminary results. I came in at 51:52, 232 out of 277 in the masters, male and female group.

Madison Mile 2008 Results

The curious thing is the winning time was 26:06, which is really slow for a mile swim, particularly a supposed national championship (although with a few exceptions most of the swimmers were from Ct and neighboring states). At the race I did see a guy there who often swimms at Cornerstone the same time I do, and who swims much better than me. He was telling another guy he thought the course was long because it had taken him 40 minutes.

I compared this year's times with last year's times.

Madison Mile 2007

Last year's master's winner won in 21:28. This year it took the same guy 26:42.

Last year's USA winner (18 and under) was in 18:42. This year's winnwer was in 23:37.

My guess is the course was on the long side this year by about 20%.

If so, that would have given me a mile in 41-42 minutes.