mini race report from the Cap2k in Austin yesterday:
frickin' COLD
full report:
We have regular access to spring-fed pools that are ~67-70*F year-round, so nobody was worried when the 'official' temp from LCRA was 66-67 yesterday morning. However, the water was much colder than that, some were saying around 60-61. It was not a fun temperature.
for this race we jump off a dock located on a small island that serves as a dog park that is just below the large dam separating Ladybird Lake and Lake Austin. We have 300-350m from the dock to the starting buoys that about half the swimmers use for a warm up. The other half take a couple of pontoon boats straight to the start.
That 300m swim was pretty agonizing. The water was so cold that I could not keep my face in the water, and I was worried I would be doing a lot of stopping during the race. So cold that I got that full-body burning feeling on the outside. So cold that my hands and feet were instantly numb. So cold that I was having to catch my breath and settle while treading water the first 50m. One of the younger kids literally turned back to the dock while complaining he couldn't breathe. Lots of panicked yelps from the group that took the ferry to the start instead of acclimating to the water.
Due to recent rain, the dam is pretty open and the flow is high. So a faster race, but also very hard to keep everyone behind the start buoys. The starter could tell everyone was freezing and rather than corral us back behind the line he just blew the horn so everyone could start generating heat. It took a lot of folks by surprise.
I managed to start in a pack of high school girls (this race also serves as the Texas high school open water championship). The fastest girl was dead center of the river, but from experience I know the water is a little smoother and the current faster on the right side (the race bends slightly to the left, so you can technically swim the shortest distance-- also the only way the course is actually 2000m-- or stay right of center and swim in better water and swim closer to 2200m), so she's about 15m to my left and surges about 2 body lengths ahead. The rest of the pack slowly faded back. I was surprised by this, because usually there are 3-5 people who just bury the field in the first 200m.
Another reason to stay right instead of center: follow the party barge. There is a large boat available for spectators to watch the race from, which stays about 50m in front of the lead swimmer. While you can't really get a draft of it, it will block the wind that typically blows up the river, so getting behind it, if you're close enough, cuts down on the chop.
Anyway, I was pretty confident that the lead girl would eventually pull away from me and I'd probably also get caught from behind by some other high schooler who took awhile to warm up but about 2/3rds of the way through, the girl veered over in front of me and then continued to swim right. By the time she got course-corrected by a kayaker, I had a 3 body length lead and she was now outside the best line. About 300m from the finish, we pass under a pedestrian bridge and highway overpass. I think she got confused there as well; we have to go through a certain set of the bridge pillars (on the right side, marked with buoys) and then turn left toward the finish at the rowing center on the north shore. I managed to hold the lead for the win.
TLDR: stole a win because the faster high schoolers didn't know the course or were very good at sighting. (or disoriented from the cold)
Due to the current, the times are blazing. ~2200m swim in 21:43.
results:
https://cap2k.weebly.com/...ults_cap2k19_all.pdf PS there was lots of shivering at the post-race picnic. Many heavy layers of clothes worn on a nice, warm, sunny morning. Ironically, they were serving sno-cones for dessert.
+2 mile run back to the car.
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