May 30th saw me attack my first paced swim for the Ironman Busselton in December. Perfect conditions for it and open water swim through the surf.
It was fairly flat with a bit of assistance from a sweep however it wasn't anything majorly noticeable. Dean and I had discussed at length before the race what I was going to do. I was to swim it like the 3.8km swim of the Ironman so I would be able to get out of the water and ride a 180 - so this swim had to be comfortable and in no way taxing to my muscles.
We both knew I ran the risk of getting excited and trying to go for the win if possible, but I had to think about the bigger picture.
The start was fairly standard of an event such as this, run down the beach into the waves and quickly out past the breakers. I positioned myself near the far flag to give myself the straightest run. I was also surrounded by national & International level swimmers so knew I would be at home and not get stuck behind slower swimmers.
Before long I found my rhythm, something comfortable around 12 or so in the pack. It was fairly choppy on the way out to the first boy so we kept colliding with each other. Around what I can think would have been 1km into the race I started to move through the pack, feeling comfortable and in no way stressed. I could see a group of swimmers starting to move away and wanted to be with that break away.
Around 2.5km I started to feel sick from the waves and vomited 3 times or so, which didn't make things very enjoyable but it was something I had experienced before and knew it would pass.
I was very surprised at the pace and started to make another move, it was slower than I would have expected from this caliber of field, or maybe I was just in good form. Moving into 3rd position with about 1km to go I could see the leaders and really wanted to push it out to catch them, crossing the line first would be a dream.
However I knew I had a game plan to stick to and within another 100m I was caught by the remainder of the group behind me and was relegated to 6th. Crossing the line I felt comfortable and was elated to discover I had swum 41:37 just over 1:05 pace and was confident I could go on to ride a good 180 after this.
All in all it was a very good hit out and I was very surprised to be able to keep up with these guys and still be a contender for the win. In the end 2 swimmers pulled away quite convincingly and won over me by around 2mins but then there was a very close bunch from 3rd to 7th or so. I guess the 16years of swimming endurance work I have done has built a strong enough base for me to still be a good swimmer off only 2 sessions a week - all the bike and run work keeps me fit.
After this swim I am very confident in the 3.8km for Busselton and would be interested to know what the swim course record is, maybe I will have a shot!
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