Saturday, September 04, 2010

Lake Quassy Swim Festival 9-4-2010




Swam the mile and a half and the half mile.

Results

There were record numbers of swimmers compared to last year.

91 swam 3 miles, 122 swam 1.5 miles, 96 swam 0.5 mile, 35 swam all three events compared to last years respective 68, 94, 70, and 28.

It was a very nice day, clear sky, slight breeze. They said the water temperature was 77. The difficult parking situation was resolved by having us park at Lake Quassy and then catch a short five minute ride on the Quassy Queen, a small ferry, that took us over to the sailing center dock. It ran throughout the day and was very convenient.

Last year, I did only the half mile. I hadn’t known you could do more than one event. This year I did the 1.5 and the 0.5 mile with the thought that next year with enough West Hill or Terramuggus practice, I will try do all three.

Eating my breakfast at 8:00 AM, (pouring syrup on what my daughter called a dinosaur pancake, which she insisted I make for us -- one pancake filling the whole giant pan), I thought of the 3 mile swimmers who were already in the water. While I was glad I wasn’t in the water then, by the time I arrived on the ferry, as I watched the last of the 3 milers come in, I sort of regretted not trying that distance this year. I think 3 miles is quite an accomplishment for any swimmer.

Registration was quick and easy. It cost $65 for the two races for day of the race sign-up. It would have been only $45 if I had signed up before August 1. $60 for early signup to do all three versus $90 day of the race. People doing all three races got one color bathing cap to identify them. I got a red bathing cap for the mile and a half and a light blue on for the half.

The mile and a half swim is basically a straight line across the lake and turn around close to the far shore and swim back in a straight line. The three mile is two out and back laps. The buoys are well spaced so the sighting was fairly easy for the most part. I was confused a little on the way back because the mile and a half swimmers had red bathing caps that made me briefly mistake one wayward swimmer for a buoy. The swim back was choppy, but I just turned my head father back to breathe and had little problem other than an occasional splash in the face when trying to sight. My goal was to do the swim in less than an hour so I was quite pleased with my 53:33.

They had a nice food spread so I ate some pretzels, yogurt with M&Ms, orange slices, a banana, some chips, an oatmeal cookie, a brownie and Gatorade. They also had Subway sandwiches as Subway is one of their sponsors.

The half mile swim I decided to go out steady and then try to race it back in. I was surprised at how fatigued I felt once I started swimming, and it made me appreciate how those who had done all three races must feel. While I think I could finish the three miles okay, the mile and a half following a three mile swim has to be very tough. I was glad the half mile following the mile and a half was only a half mile. Even though tired, it was great to be swimming. As I have said before the most enjoyment I get out of this whole triathlon experience aside from crossing a finish line is open water swimming in cool clear water, just gliding along enjoying the view of lake and land. Quassy is such a great place to swim. They have open water training groups in the summer and if I had the time and weren’t concentrating on my riding, I would definitely try to join one for at least one of the summer months.

I was a little disappointed with my half mile time. Even though tired, I put on a hard sprint starting at the last buoy, but my half mile pace was still slower than my mile and a half pace. I was out of the water and up the steps in 18:50, but the results were recorded as 19:02. Instead of electronic chips, we called out our numbers as we came out of the water and they were typed into the computer. Even at 18:50, it was slower than my last year’s time of 18:15, although clearly I was much fresher then.

I got some more chow, and waited around during the raffle hoping to win a Lake Quassy Open Water Sailing Festival T-shirt, but they did not call my number. They seemed to have quite a delay in getting the half mile results, so I ended up catching a ride back on the Quassy Queen before hearing how everyone did. To my surprise I came in second last year in the wet suit division, but this year there were many more wet suit swimmers, including several very fast ones.

I already have this race marked on the calendar for next year.

(Also, while there I found out they have started an annual one mile-swim held earlier this year on July 30.)