So, I've signed up for a couple of open-water swims this summer (the total will be 3, once signups open for the 3rd one), and I'm very excited and very nervous, as I haven't done a "race" with other humans in ... like 20-odd years.
I've been diligently working at my endurance and speed for several years after that long hiatus, but the kicker is that my freestyle/front crawl is still quite pear-shaped (I can do 100yds at a steady, not fast pace, and 200yds in a pull-set), and breaststroke is my pick for any kind of distance. Last year I spent a lot of time in the local lake tooling around the periphery of the "adult only" area (About 6 rounds equals 1 mile) making reasonable time, and my warm-up in the pool is a nice 500yd BS. I'm not breaking the lifeguard test requirement of 500yd in 'm not taking 20 minutes like I did when I first got back to swimming either.
Long story short, while I've signed up for 1/2 miles in all of these races (and might even be middle-of-the-pack, judging by other folks' times in past years), I just don't think my freestyle will be up to it. Is it ok to swim breaststroke, as long as I keep knees and feet out of other people's way? I have seen nothing on the race websites forbidding it or requiring a specific stroke, but I wasn't sure if there was a sort of gentlemen's/women's agreement that you just don't do that.
(also, any other advice for my first time in 20ish years "competing" with a bunch of folks would be appreciated. One is a lake swim in early June, two are ocean swims in relatively calm coves later in the summer. They're all in Massachusetts.)
Well! That went off better than I anticipated. The water wasn't especially cold (a little chilly as you got toward the deeper spots), around 65F. It was a fairly small turnout (they said 115 participants), in an "aquathlon" (swim/run), the 1/2 mile swim, and the 1.2 and 2.4 mile swims. The 1/2 mile had a field of 21, mainly first-time open water swimmers (the announcer asked and nearly everyone raised their hands). I was lucky enough to have a friend on-shore to cheer me on and guard my stuff and my emergency medical info. As far as the swim - the buoy looked ... sort of far away at first, but I just got my head down and figured if I kept going I'd get there and around it eventually. I didn't feel like I was absolutely hauling ass (I was trying not to, in fear of losing momentum), but shockingly, I did much better than I thought I would! When I did 800m in the pool, it was 19:41, and my result in this race was 17:29.6! I turned in 14th of 21, which wasn't bad, in particular since there were just two of us not wearing wetsuits. It was a very nice, supportive environment, the announcer had words of encouragement for everyone coming onto the beach, down to the very last of the 2.4 milers. One lady swam at least part of the 1/2 mile backstroke! Bold move, got to applaud that.
There was some cool swag and while I felt wasted coming up on shore, I was elated to have finished, and EVEN MORE elated to find out my time! And yes, I did the whole thing breaststroke. And then of course later in the day my brain was like hey, dude, that was only 880 yards, like, we should go swim some more today.
But now I'm just plainly excited for my next race, in August. I might be addicted, send help.
Well! That went off better than I anticipated. The water wasn't especially cold (a little chilly as you got toward the deeper spots), around 65F. It was a fairly small turnout (they said 115 participants), in an "aquathlon" (swim/run), the 1/2 mile swim, and the 1.2 and 2.4 mile swims. The 1/2 mile had a field of 21, mainly first-time open water swimmers (the announcer asked and nearly everyone raised their hands). I was lucky enough to have a friend on-shore to cheer me on and guard my stuff and my emergency medical info. As far as the swim - the buoy looked ... sort of far away at first, but I just got my head down and figured if I kept going I'd get there and around it eventually. I didn't feel like I was absolutely hauling ass (I was trying not to, in fear of losing momentum), but shockingly, I did much better than I thought I would! When I did 800m in the pool, it was 19:41, and my result in this race was 17:29.6! I turned in 14th of 21, which wasn't bad, in particular since there were just two of us not wearing wetsuits. It was a very nice, supportive environment, the announcer had words of encouragement for everyone coming onto the beach, down to the very last of the 2.4 milers. One lady swam at least part of the 1/2 mile backstroke! Bold move, got to applaud that.
There was some cool swag and while I felt wasted coming up on shore, I was elated to have finished, and EVEN MORE elated to find out my time! And yes, I did the whole thing breaststroke. And then of course later in the day my brain was like hey, dude, that was only 880 yards, like, we should go swim some more today.
But now I'm just plainly excited for my next race, in August. I might be addicted, send help.
