So after racing a two mile open water swim in Greenwich Ct on Saturday, I drove home with dad. Rather quickly…why?
Because he wanted (and we both qualified) to swim the open water 5k in VA Beach. I had said I was doing both a 2 mile and 5k swim that weekend, but a lot of people took that (I would have too) as a 2 mile swim and a 5k run.
Oh no. 5k swim for me!
————–
I apologize I have very few photos from this one. I’d say I kept it short for that purpose, but I like to keep all my blogs on the shorter side anyways. 
So after getting home from NY at 10pm, I headed straight to bed so I could wake up to get to the 5k in the morning. Dad and I got to the beach really early (an hour before the race) and got our caps, checked in…all the normal jazz. I napped on the beach while he warmed up.
At 9:30, it was time to begin the race and we all ran into the water. Getting out to the first buoy was a struggle, and I got kicked in the face several times. It was actually really painful and I thought I might have gotten a bloody lip.
The first half of the race was pretty simple. Just swim in a straight line for 1.55 miles until you see the buoy, round the buoy, check in at the station to make sure you aren’t dead (grab water) and go back in. Similar to a water stop in road races, they have this set up in longer swims. Also to make sure you aren’t swept to sea I guess.
I got to the half way point in 36 minutes exactly grabbed some water and went back in. It was a bit of a rip current going back in and rounding the buoy…but it happens.
The second half was a similar as the first. Though for the second half, I was all by myself and no swimmers around. (Why!?) Because I was at the slower end of this race and most of them were far ahead. This was a champion style race and so most people had tapered and trained for this all summer. Me? I qualified in June then did a few swims but obviously didn’t swim everyday or anything.
I ended up going right by the ending buoy and the lifeguard on a paddleboard had to tell me to go straight in. I had gotten close to 300 yards out so I didn’t see the buoy which was 50 yards out. (I don’t know how that happened!).
I swam to the end and finished in a time of 1:10.55. (Which is roughly high 22 minute miles). It was actually a PR for me, even getting off course a bit.
**Also, I apologize for not reading your blogs. I use bloglovin.com and it has said I have no new posts in the last 2 days. I guess I’ll have to go manually look until they fix that bug. 🙂
Questions for you:
Have you ever gotten off course in a race?
Have you ever done back to back races? (ie: a road race Sat and Sun…swim races…)
I can’t even imagine doing this, way to go girl!
wow. Good job hitting a PR with very little training. What an awesome way to spend time with your dad, too. p.s. I would’ve eaten every thing in sight I’d swam that much over 2 days!
*knock on wood* I’ve never gotten off course in a race.
I have, however, done back to back races. You should go to http://www.1stplacesports.com and check out their Tour De Pain races. I did the Extreme one. (am 10k, pm 5k, am 1/2 marathon over 2 days). Fun stuff!!
Oh wow! Thanks. That does seem super cool!
Jeez hollz! That’s a fantastic time! Well done 🙂
Haha I get off course all the time! I have one ridiculously hilarious story to prove it too. Great job in your race Hollie!
You’ll have to let me know about that one!
WOW you did a great back to back!!!…a 5k swim is way tougher than a 5k run, people forget the difference in running&swimming.
I’m pretty sure I went off course at every single open-water Tri race I did last year. My favorite off course accident was at Wildflower when I turned and swam towards the wrong buoy…it was just me and the lead kayaker, and he started hitting me with his paddle! I laughed the entire last-half of the swim portion of the race.
I hope you’re having a great week!!
xoxo!
I remember thinking it was going to be another swim, because I was just about dying at the thought of swimming 5K in open water.
I’ve never done back-to-back races but that’s more because there aren’t that many on a Saturday in the UK. I’d like to give it a try though.
I only went off-course once in a fell race that required some naviagtion/orienteering, but wasn’t advertised as such (it was supposed to be a well-marked trail race). I went half a mile in the wrong direction before I realised and had a bit of a meltdown about it, because I was absolutely exhausted by that point (mile 12 in a half-marathon fell race is not a good time to get lost) but luckily another runner found me and pointed me in the right direction. That fell race scared the crap out of me – it was raining really heavily and several experienced guys tripped on the slippy rocks on the sheer downward inclines – seeing a guy who looks like he knows what he’s doing’s knee explode with blood at mile 3 wasn’t that encouraging for a novice! Still the first and only fell race I’ve done, or plan on doing 😛
You do so much stuff! Awesome job, girl! I want to be doing stuff like this some day. Maybe not a 5K swim… 5K run.
I’ve only done back to back running 5k’s on a Saturday and Sunday so it wasn’t too bad! You killed this 5k open water girl!! maybe one day we can run the same race or swim the same one 🙂 that’d be amazing!
Great job! Good thing they caught you before you swam off to Europe or somewhere ridiculous 🙂
Teehee! Blogging from Europe would be optimal for me! 😉
Considering I can only swim a glorified doggie paddle…this post amazes me and I think it’s awesome you’re such a great swimmer. Congrats on the PR! 🙂
They actually have aid stations in an open water swim? I never knew that.
This is fantastic Hollie, and I didn’t even know this long of distance swims existed…? Dumb I know haha. Great job on the PR, despite not having a lot of training! You are a supaaa starrr 😉
They actually have a 10k too! There is a swim around Manhattan which is 28.4 miles! Oh my stars!
haha, I can’t believe you did a 5k the day after Greenwich. And its funny that 3.1 miles took less time than a “2 miler” the day before.