Race 23: Catfish Crawl

Date: July 23, 2011
Distance: 2.4 Mile Swim

With the longest ever open water swim ahead, I wanted to make the distance in something other than a pool before the big day. Although this was not a triathlon, it was still a necessary race and experience for me going forward into longer distance races.

I chose to wear my sleeveless wetsuit again, but this time with the lake swim it was much warmer, and getting adjusted to the water took almost no time at all. There was a small shock when the water reached my bare arms, but I settled in and did some warm up strokes before starting my two lap swim in open water.

I attempted to stay in the middle of my age group, and pushed though the kicks and the swinging arms to try to replicate what an Ironman swim would feel like to start as much as possible. It was fairly hectic, but would calm down pretty quickly with only 30 or 40 swimmers starting with me. I was able to keep a slow and steady pace though out the swim, and didn't really ever feel to tired. When I exited the water I felt a little dizzy from being horizontal for an hour and 24 minutes, but would quickly regain my balance and feel fairly ready to tackle a long bike ride later in the day.

Links:

Website: http://www.usaproductions.org/events/swim-series/catfish-crawl-southbay2
Official Results:  http://usa-productions.racemine.com/USA-Productions/events/2011/Catfish-Crawl-Open-Water-Swim/results