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My lungs were burning and I was hating life but I flipped over and started doing slow freestyle with long strokes. A few minutes later, I spotted some clear water and heading over to go even slower and recover. The pack was pretty spread out by this stage (about halfway to the first turn) and I was able to get my breath back. Once I had settled down, I decided to see if there was anyone to draft. It was a target rich environment and I was able to get on the back of a fairly big guy who was cranking along. This let me get my breath back even more. The guy was kicking pretty hard and that threw up a lot of bubbles. I was a little concerned about getting dropped so I will admit that I was hitting his toes fairly often. OK, I was touching him about every fourth stroke (maybe every third). A few people tried to move in but I was able to fend them off. I also got fended off some other swimmers that I tried to draft. By the first turn, I was really warm. Gave a "hang loose" sign to the divers and started heading to the second turn. I resisted the urge to look at my watch but should have checked it as the data would have been helpful. I had my first leg twinge at the second turn. I also had a stitch and was very thirsty. I had a small drink of lake water to see if that would help me out. It tasted pretty bad and I decided not to attempt that again. I had now established my stroke and had my breath back. I figured that if I chilled out that the stitch would go away and after about ten minutes it left. My real concern was that I was hugely thirsty and my quads and hamstrings were sending out twinge signals. I normally don't get that until after a long time on the bike. This was not good. About 75% of the way through the swim, I decided that 2.4 miles is really quite a long way to go and was wishing that it was all over. All of a sudden the sun came out and lit the water. A huge wave of calm spread over me and I spent some time watching my hands enter the water and feeling the flow move across my face. This cooled me down mentally and I felt charged up. I wanted to make up some time and pulled out from the feet and picked up the pace. After about 50m I noticed that I was not dropping the guy so I fell back behind him and started drafting again. No point in wasting energy. My thirst was big and the stich had returned. However, I was managing the pain and it was more of a distraction then a real problem. I noticed that everyone was cutting a straight line to the swim exit and broke off to make a curved line avoiding most of the rocks. It was a good move because I was able to swim pretty much right up to the sandy part. I felt OK but knew that I was well off my projected swim time. I swam as close as I could get, pulled my legs up underneath me and stood up. As soon as I went vertical, my world started to close in on me and I felt really dizzy. This was a huge surprise as I felt like I was moving very slowly for the second half of the swim. I must have been pushing harder than I realised. I was in no condition to run out of the water, so I stripped the top of my suit off and walked towards the bag racks. I get my wetsuit stripped off by the volunteers and continued to the change racks. Next Page |  On my bike. |