Background

For my entire triathlon career, swimming has always been my weakest discipline. Having never swum as a kid, I was truly starting from zero a few years ago. I’ve made progress, but I’d be lying if I told you I was a good swimmer.

That said, I do find open water swimming to be a lot of fun! I’m just slow. 😂

Sometimes when Katy takes her SUP out on a lake, I’ll grab my swim buoy and just swim beside her for a couple of hours until she heads back to shore. An added bonus is that if I swim up to her while she’s munching on a snack from her backpack, she’ll feed me in the water.

Here in Nashville, we’ve got a fantastic race organizer called Magic Sports. Over the years, I’ve done every single one of their triathlons. Their race in Nashville is my favorite Olympic distance triathlon in large part because we get to jump off the side of a huge party boat. They are good people.

So when I got an email last winter that they had a new race, I was intrigued. But it wasn’t a triathlon. It was an open water swim and nothing more. Instead of getting out of the water and dashing for my bike, I’d get to…just stop?!

They offered a bunch of distances, one as short as just half a mile. But come on. If I’m going to drive down to Birmingham, I’ve gotta do more than that. I could do a mile, which is around the distance of an Ironman 70.3. Or I could do two miles! That’s nearly the distance in a full Ironman.

Or I could SWIM A 5K. 😦

The farthest I’ve ever swum in open water was 2.4 miles in Ironman Chattanooga. That’s a current-assisted swim too. This would be 3.1 miles in a lake with no current. Yikes!

Obviously I had to do the 5k swim!

Race Week

Only lunatics sign up for a 5k swim. I assumed most everyone else would actually be talented swimmers! While I had no chance at a podium or any age group awards, I was guaranteed a PR since it was my first time swimming 3.1 miles.

Normally I feel some race week jitters with Ironman events. But for this, the best word to describe how I felt: curiosity.

I hadn’t really done any swim-specific training for this race. I’m currently in the middle of a training block for Ironman 70.3 Boulder and didn’t want to alter that. But on the flip side, a 3.1-mile swim wasn’t going to have any negative impacts on Boulder. So let’s see what happens!

Katy signed up to volunteer on her SUP. On Friday after work, we headed south for Alabama. My race day eve dinner was a chicken sandwich from Buc-ee’s along the way. When we got to our hotel, I set out my race day morning Pop-Tart on the desk. It may not be a triathlon, but some race day traditions transcend whatever the disciplines might be that day.

Race Morning

We were staying at a hotel about 15 minutes from Oak Mountain State Park. It didn’t take long to get over there. Katy had to be there before I did because she needed to prepare her SUP, go to a volunteer check-in, and get out on the water. So I had over an hour of just hanging out on the shore of the lake.

There was no bike or gear to set up in transition. Just a backpack with my wetsuit, goggles, and some snacks.

It was SUCH a nice morning! We had slightly chilly air temperatures, but the water temperature was 74°F. Unlike most Ironman events, we could warm up in the water if we wanted. That’s always a bonus, but especially today with the air temperature in the mid-50s. Getting into the water to warm up felt like settling into a comfortable bath opposite the chilly air.

While I waited, I noticed Katy had been positioned near the swim start.

There were 35 of us who signed up for the 5k distance. At around 7:55 am, they had us walk into the water. Right at 8:00 am, they told us to start. And off we went.

Swim

There are a lot of lines on that map, but for me, all you need to know is that I would have to swim the largest loop twice.

While this was technically a race, I had no intentions of trying to swim at a race effort today! My plan for today was to swim at around a 2:00/100 yard pace, which is solidly within a Z1/2 effort. At that pace, I should finish in just a little under two hours. I assumed that would also mean I’d be one of the final athletes out of the water. While the 5k swimmers got to start first, we also had the longest distance to cover.

If I’m being honest, the first lap was a bit sloppy. It was my first open water swim since Ironman 70.3 North Carolina last October. My sighting from buoy to buoy wasn’t great. The air temperature to water temperature contrast also caused my goggles to fog up quite a bit.

But otherwise, it was a largely uneventful and enjoyable swim on that first lap! The water felt nice and with only 35 of us out there, this was the complete polar opposite of those crowded Ironman events.

For whatever reason, the green extension at the top of the course felt like it took forever. Maybe it was because we had more turns compared to the rest of the course, which was just out-and-back. So even though I was still swimming, the landscape around me didn’t change anywhere near as much.

While all of the swimmers were on the far end of the lake, the official race photographer snapped a bunch of terrific photos of Katy. She literally got photographed more than I did on this day!

Something unique about this race was the aid station raft. I’ve never had a swim long enough to need one before!

It was optional and athlete-provided, but we could put anything we wanted in the raft. As we finished our first lap, we’d swim around the raft. I didn’t overthink it. I just put a bottle of BodyArmor in there and wrote my name on the cap. I figured my body would appreciate some carbs and sugar at the halfway point. The raft is to the left of Katy, in front of the large blue turning buoy.

The water was about neck-high, so I was able to stand as I chugged the Body Armor. It was an efficient 30-second stop. I simultaneously consumed liquid and got rid of other liquids. 😂

As I set off on my second lap, Katy ended up having to help the race director out. Many of the athletes on the shorter distances were cutting the final turn short. Instead of keeping that final buoy on their left, they were turning and going straight for the finish line. Katy had to play linebacker/help direct traffic.

As I expected, the second lap was a bit of a slog. One thing that went better was my sighting. The skill had come back to me after a winter of pool swimming. I realized I’d probably added about an extra 1/10th of a mile on that first lap. I was just like, sheesh, this is already my longest-ever swim, and I’m accidentally making it even longer!

I was fine in terms of stamina, but my arms were getting a tad sore from that same motion over and over again. When I hit 2.4 miles, which is the distance of the swim in a full Ironman, my brain basically said, “OK! I’m tired of this.” Mentally, I was ready for something different, anything different. My shoulders were burning a bit too. But I still had about 0.8 miles to go.

Eventually I got back to Katy, waved to her, and headed for the finish. Even though it was my first time at this distance, a PR is a PR! I was glad my next move was to get a Coke and some chips. My bike and running shoes were back in Nashville.

Final Thoughts

As expected, I was one of the final swimmers out of the water. But hey, I’m under no illusion where my swimming skills are. I had a lot of fun. Like all of their events, Magic Sports did a terrific job today. Not that I had any issues, but a volunteer was never too far away if I started to tire or get into trouble. And the aid raft at the halfway point was a nice touch.

It was also fun to do a race where my time and age group rankings truly didn’t matter. I’m not saying I don’t love racing and feeling those competitive juices. But it was really refreshing to go do a race truly just for fun.

There were no medals for this event - just event t-shirts for everyone and beach towels if you landed on the podium. BUT! There was beer back at a Taco Mac (!!!) next to our hotel.

Never say never, but unless I get peer pressured by other athletes to do this again, I think this might be a one-and-done experience of swimming a 5k. As always, I appreciate that Katy comes along with me to all of these races.

Up next, I return to being a triathlete. I’ve got the Music City Triathlon in Nashville at the end of May and then head to Colorado in mid-June for Ironman 70.3 Boulder.