I have my first ocean swim race tomorrow (Sunday), the Playa del Run, a 1000 meter swim followed by a 5K run. Using it as a “trial run” before my first tri in 5 weeks. A little nervous, probably will be more so tomorrow morning, especially since basically I had to re-learn proper freestyle technique all over again this year. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
I just did the Multisports.com Splash n Dash today. It reminded me how much fun and challenge there is to open ocean swimming. For your first ocean swim I would suggest that you try to observe the other swimmers warming up to see if you can notice which way the current and swell or pulling. If there is more than one start wave you can really get a good look at where the water is taking people. Adjust the point at which you enter the water accordingly. You want to let the current help guide you to the turn buoy if possible. The correct starting position, 50 yards one side or the other, can make a huge difference.
Have fun,
Gary Mc
Gary,
Thanks for the advice!
if you haven’t done any ocean swims before the salt water in your mouth while swimming will probably be a shock, just be ready for it. If the waves are up try to lift your arms a little higher out of the water to avoid getting swamped. good luck, ocean swims are the best, come to Hawaii and that’s all we have:)
Well, I did it – my first ocean swim competition! Only 1000 meters, but I learned a lot that will hopefully help me in my first tri next month.
Definitely different out there. Waves were almost non-existent, which was a plus. I hadn’t done anything other than an “Ocean Swim 101” clinic before today. I definitely have to get used to sighting and swimming in a straight-ish line. I only took in a little saltwater thru my mouth, so I guess that’s a positive!
I ended up with a much slower swim time for 1000 than I would have had in the pool. Have to figure that out, but some of it was directional, and some of it was probably just not being used to swimming in the ocean. So I plan on a bunch of ocean swim sessions over the next several weeks just to get used to it all. I should warn Aztec that his “worst swimmer” title is probably in jeopardy.
It was an Aquathon, so at the end of the swim I had a 5K run. Good opportunity to practice a transition set-up in a real race setting. I was tired when I first came out of the water, but felt good as soon as I started running. Even if my swim was woefully slow, I can at least tell myself that of the really slow swimmers, I was one of the faster runners!
Kind of funny – they had a lane marked to the first buoy, then before we started, a lifeguard boat moved to the middle of the lane. They told us that there were jellyfish to the right of the boat, which was the shortest path to the right turn at the buoy, so they advised we stay to the left of the boat. So of course, many of us used the boat for sighting on the way out. Unfortunately, the boat moved all the way left after we started! Makes sense not to have the boat right there in the middle, of course, but many of us were laughing later about how we had followed the boat.
All in all, it was a lot of fun!