Lake Quassy Open Water Swim Festival 9-3-2011

I love open water swimming so the Lake Quassy Swimming Festival is one of my favorite events. Swimming the 3 mile race year was one of my goals for the year, but given my limited swim time this summer (only 1 West Hill swim), I decided it would be best to just do the mile and a half and try for the 3 next year. The course is a straight out and back. (Those doing the three mile go out and back, then out and back again.) My plan for the 1.5 was to swim the first leg easy, and then gradually pick up speed on the way back. Before the race, I bought a new pair of goggles at Cornerstone because my current goggles were too scratched to really see well out of. Other then getting water in one eye to start from an errant arm of another swimmer, the goggles were great, and I saw quite well, sighting every other stroke. The buoys were visible and well spaced. I was in a small pack of swimmers most of the way out, including some guy doing the breast stroke the whole way, who I could not shake. On the return trip, I was largely by myself for the first half of it. I got a sharp cramp in my left calf, but since I don’t kick much, I just let my wet-suited leg trail along behind me and eventually, the cramp went away and I was back as good as new. After the last buoy I went into a full sprint. It was suddenly very crowded with swimmers. There were nine of us who finished within 20 seconds of each other. My time was 52:33, which was one minute faster than I swam last year.

The first year I only swam the half mile and was surprised to discover I had come in second in the wet suit division. Last year after the 1.5, I also did the half mile and was a full minute slower than my previous time. I realized then why I had had placed the year before. Most of my competition had already swum 4.5 miles that day while I was fresh. I only did the 1.5 this year, and after finishing, headed right up the hill to the food where I had a hot dog, a yogurt, an oatmeal cookie, a bag of chips, some pretzels, and a Danish, along with a bottle of water. After I finished that I went back up the hill for seconds, and on reaching the top of the hill, felt momentarily light-headed, enough so that I had to sit down for a couple minutes. Then I refueled with a hamburger, two more cookies, another yogurt and bag of chips, along with another water before heading home. I drank much wore water later that day, but that night for the first time in a long time I did not have to get up to pee. (Who says there are no benefits to dehydration?) I think while you don’t realize it, swimming can pretty significantly dehydrate you. Next year I will have to figure out a way to properly hydrate for a three mile swim that at my pace will likely take two hours.

This year 83 did the 3 mile, 113 did the 1.5 and 84 the 0.5. 35 did all 5 miles. Last years numbers were (91, 122, 96, and 35). Someday I would like to take on all three. I think would be quite an achievement.

At the race, a man was passing out flyers for the Connecticut Senior games swim event in May in New Britain. He cornered me and encouraged me to participate. They have no 3 mile swims on their event list, but they do have the 50 yard free, which sounds good to me.

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