My First Open Water Swim Competition

Waiting for my turn to swim

What can I say! It was totally awesome. I grew up swimming in open water, but this is the first time I actually focused on swimming 2000 meters continuously (no stopping, standing, hanging onto the side of the pool, or flip turns). It's so much different from swimming workouts in a pool! The event I swam in is the first in a series of five put on by DCB Adventures. They did a great job with the event. I can't wait for the second one, which takes place at the end of May. I'm hooked!
I came in 1st in my age group and 7th overall in my division (non-wetsuit), and beat my time goal by 3 minutes! It's always fun to swim an event the first time, 'cause your time is always a personal best!

My Masters swimming buddy, Ken, decided to swim the event with me and I finished just a couple of minutes ahead of him. We were both so stoked to have done it. There's always a bit of trepidation when attempting to do something new for the first time. But, as Jake said in Avatar -- "I was born to do this". I can't wait for the next swim in the series.

I ran into a professional photographer, who was taking pictures of her finance who was competing in the 1K swim and she agreed to take pictures of me and will get in touch with me once she has them available. So stay tuned for an update.

Here's a nice aerial view of the 1K course. I swam two laps in my race.

Here are a couple of pictures I took using my cell phone during the start of the 1K race. Click the images for a larger view.

Last minutes instructions from Dave Benjes of DCB Adventures

Go!