I did go up to the front - right of ski jump. There were A LOT of men out there. I was a little nervous as they seemed to be pretty aggresive. Several were doing some warmup strokes and just swimming right into you 10 minutes before the race! SO rude! There was a cluster of pink caps just a little closer to shore, so I moved over closer to them. They could have been aggressive too, but I felt better.
I could see the clock from where I was, so when I saw it say 9:45, I turned around and started to kinda get horizontal for the cannon blast. It just went off and everyone went. I swam with my head out for a little bit - without really thinking - but it was a good decision! I did not get kicked! It was crowded, but everyone was pretty much going straight. There was someone trying to swim over my bottom half, but I just kept going. I do kick when I swim, but I don't do anything purposeful. I tried to slow down my kicking a tad so as not to hurt the person, but I wasn't giving up either. They didn't really feel like they were faster than me. They gave up or moved on to someone else. It wasn't long before there was no one around me. Either I outswam everyone I started with - or they moved to the buoy line and I did not. I decided to stay wide through the 1st turn. This worked out perfect for me. I had no contact at all.
After the 1st turn, I moved in a little. I was near people, but still no contact. The next turn I took wide as well and was fine. I did try to move in on the backside. This was fine, but there were a lot of people slower than me and it seemed I was doing a lot of maneuvering around people to pass. So - I made my way back out a little bit, but not as far as I started. This again was fine.
The 2nd loop, I did swim closer to the buoys. It was starting to thin out a little. I did have more contact here - I even took a slight foot to face (although it was more of a startle than a full on kick). Some arm collisions, but that was mostly it. My legs were cramping a little, so I stopped kicking. I also concentrated on trying to draft to conserve some energy. This worked well.
When I made the final turn towards shore, I started kicking again and turning over my stroke a little faster. This felt good. I did not push the swim as hard as I could have, but I was okay with it. In the general scheme of things, I knew I wasn't going to be fast enough to be the 1st woman age-grouper out of the water (the 1st female and male swim times won a $2000 prize package from TYR swimming - pros were not included). I also didn't think the extra effort was worth the couple of minutes I would have gained.
Getting out of the water was great! I ran to the strippers - got my suit off - saw my family and up the helix I went! I thought the helix would suck. It is a long run to the transition room. But it was so fun running past the crowds!
I got my bag right away - ran out to the changing room and a volunteer grabbed me and had her hand on my back guiding me to a chair on an end. I came out of the water seconds ahead of my friend Elise, and we didn't see each other! How can that be??? I did have my back to the rest of transition and you are so focused on what you are doing and not forgetting anything! I'm sure she made it out of T1 before me. I stopped to pee. I also did a full change. My volunteer rocked! It was like she was reading my mind - knew what I wanted before I asked. Helped put my sports bra on - opened my butt butter -- just everything! The sunscreen applicators were not as generous as I had hoped. I think that also ended up hurting me in my hydration. I did run in my shoes all the way down the transition to my bike - which was near the bike out on the opposite end of the terrace. I didn't want any rocks stuck in my shoes. This wasn't bad at all. I don't know why people are bothered by it actually. I was feeling good and ready for the bike. I was having a lot of fun at this point.
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