On Sunday I competed in the Hagg Lake open water swim. I raced the 800 meter event followed immediately by the 2000 meter event. There was also a 4000 meter event, but I had to drive back to work at noon, so I was unable to compete in that.The race went well for me, I felt strong throughout, and it was a great opportunity to get a in a race with my new wetsuit from Orca, the Alpha. I can't say enough good things about this suit, and you really have to try one on to realize just how much of a leap forward Orca has taken relative to the rest of the wetsuit world.
In both of the events I edged out my nearest competitor by about 30 seconds. It was an interesting race in that there were two waves for each event. One wave was the US Masters wave and the other wave was everyone else. I was in the "everyone else" wave, which made the race difficult because I had no idea where I was relative to my main competitors in the Masters wave. I had to stay on the gas the whole time because there could be someone halfway around the course from me that was technically swimming the exact same time. This made for more of a time trial type of effort rather than a tactical swim race, which I was anticipating. At any rate, It was good practice for my upcoming triathlons, which are typically also sent off in waves.
I'll be racing the Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon this upcoming weekend as preparation for the Victoria International Triathlon in Victoria the following weekend. If you happen to be at Blue Lake on Sunday, maybe we'll run into each other. Thanks for following.
-Eric
