Race Report: Green Lake Open Water Swim (again) 2018

Green Lake Open Water Swim (GLOWS) was my first open water swim event, and has become a family tradition.  My Sister-In-Law swam it long before I did (well, by "long" I mean a few years, it hasn't been going on that long) and now my nieces swim it. (Earlier Race Reports, 2010, 2012, 2007)

GLOWS is a family friendly event with a choice of the half mile (one way) or the mile (round trip) in a small protected (if a bit dirty) lake in the middle of north Seattle.

The first time I did GLOWS, I panicked in the water. I was training for a triathlon and between the cold shock and the adrenaline I had a hard time recovering my breathing. I remember thinking, in the middle of the lake, "this is how a strong swimmer drowns".

Now, with a lot of open water swimming under my belt, the half mile distance seems "cute" and compared to Alki, Green Lake is not cold at all!! I guess this is a sign of improvement.

The nieces were doing the half mile, and my sister-in-law was going to swim with the younger one.  The older one is a lifeguard now, so she was on her own. I arrived just as they were getting on the shuttle, wished them luck and went to get my gear and find my brother.

We watched the half mile swimmers get closer and closer, until we could spot the family. All swimming together and looking strong. After cheering them to the finish, and glowing like the proud auntie that I am, I got my cap and goggles on and got ready for my swim. I told the spouse to expect me in about 45 min, and that I might be the last finisher.  In my mind I thought 42 min was more likely, but I didn't want to be embarrassed if I was slower.

The water felt great. About half way through the swim the sun came out and turned it into a glorious day.  I got my rhythm pretty quickly. One of my goals was to increase my front crawl as a percent of my swimming. I'm usually a breast stroker. So I bounced back and forth between the two strokes.  As a right side breather, with the buoys on the left, sighting was hard. With breast, you can sight every stroke. Not so for crawl. I'll need to work on sighting in crawl if I'm going to get serious about it as a stroke.

As the pack spread out, I found myself just behind a woman in a shorty wet-suit with a pink cap on (not the green cap handed out by the event). She and I were amazingly well paced with each other. She'd pull ahead a tiny bit when I'd switch strokes, but I pretty much kept in her bubbles the whole way. I may Facebook stalk her and see if we can swim together in the lakes some time.

I felt great the whole swim.  I noticed the lead swimmers coming back when I was more than half way across. And saw the last swimmer behind me when I was well past the turning point. I spent some time singing and some time just reflecting on how lucky I am to have a body that can swim, and live in a culture that promotes this type of community activities, keeps its bodies of water reasonably clean, and makes it safe for participation.

As I got near the end, I considered working to pass the woman I'd been swimming with. But decided I didn't need a full sprint to the finish, so finished at a steady pace, and with her about 20 seconds ahead of me.  The biggest shocker was the time clock when I finished. 37:40.  Even faster than my hoped for fast finish time!  My confidence and speed today let me see that I really am an intermediate open water
swimmer.