Whidbey Adventure Swim

Last Saturday was the big day: a small group of us drove down to Whidbey Island to swam the Whidbey Adventure Swim. I was the only one who swam the long course (2.4 miles), everyone else opted for the short course (1.2), although they had all done the long one in the past. I have never done this one before, and it's a really lovely swim.

The day before the race, it rained in Bellingham quite a lot, which made me extra nervous about cold temperatures, but the more important factor on the day of the race was the wind. It was pretty choppy, with a N/NNW wind that they said brought in cooler waters.

I have been waffling back and forth for the last month about whether or not I should drop down to the shorter distance. When we got to the race venue and looked out over the water, I instantly said I was dropping down to the shorter course: It was WINDY--and the waves were not small. But when it came time to pick up our swim caps and gear, I just...couldn't switch. "Eh fuck it", I told myself, "I can always turn around and come back, or walk up the beach".

The air temps were cool, but the wind made it feel colder, so I was happy I brought my puffy jacket. Only a few other swimmers wore sleeveless suits; most were either in full suits, many of them thermal, or a handful of folks had gotten waivers and went skins (no wetsuit). We were not there aggressively early, so it wasn't long before I started pulling on my wetsuit.

When they made the 5 minute call, and we slowly made our way in (no sense in freezing before the start). I lined up somewhat in the middle, found that by some miracle, the water did not feel particularly cold to me, and then the gun went off. During my last couple swims before the race, I started developing leaking issues with my goggles. Usually after a minute or two of fussing with them, I get them to work properly. Well, race day was no different. I tried to quickly fix them a few times, before I finally just stood up out of the water and seriously fixed them (yes, it was shallow enough to stand for the first bit of the swim). New goggles have been ordered!

I got going, in absolutely no rush whatsoever. The waves were BIG! It was not a washing machine (the waves were coming from one direction rather then many), but I still swallowed more salt water then I would have liked, and I fully punched the water so hard at one point that I thought I had hit someone. Just a wave!

There were a few people around me at one point pushing me off the course--I just stood up and walked around the back of them. For the most part though, I swam alone since I stopped at the beginning to fuss (and I am slow). I got to the short course turn around VERY quickly, it seemed like the course must be short! I thought the race was going to go much faster then the 90 minutes I had originally guessed. My normal 2.4 mile Ironman time is a little less than 80 minutes, so I added 10 for currents and waves to arrive at my guess. So it seemed fast, at first.

But only at first. There was a set of red buoys in between the yellow turn buoys, and it seemed to take twice as long to go half the distance to get to the red ones. I'm not sure if currents were at play, or just the initial excitement wore off, but it was slow going. But I was not in any pain, and I did not feel the tightness in my lats that I had gotten during my last 2 swims (I did some foam rolling the night before, and apparently it works!?). I also was not cold; even though the water was 2 degrees colder then what I was used to, it somehow felt warmer--I know that salt water feels warmer than fresh water, but I was surprised at how not cold I was.

Again, it took roughly a million years to reach the turn around buoys--I stopped a couple of times to just look out over the waves, it was very hard to see anything consistently. I was mostly following the splashes of the handful of other swimmers I could see. The second half of the course had way fewer kayakers, so I could not use them as a general guide either.

It was after the turn around that I starting having some problems. The main issue was that I could not see anything. There were long stretches where I could not see any kayaks or other swimmers, much less the buoys. I figured as long as the shore was on my right, I would at least be heading in the correct general direction. I stopped MANY times to just have a look--and even then I could not see where I was going. So I just swam and hoped someone would notice if I were wildly off course.

My other issue was extremely painful chafing on the back of my neck. It felt like something had gotten off and there was velcro on my neck, so I stopped a few times to try to see what was going on, but it felt correct. So I guessed it was just the salt, and I hoped the pain would get so bad it would go numb (it did not). It was getting somewhat harder to breathe, I think just because I was growing tired, and having battled the relentless waves for over an hour. I felt my form fall apart, and it felt like I was just punching the waves trying to make it back.

I also REALLY had to pee, but for some reason I find it very difficult to pee while I'm swimming or floating. At the final turn, I was SO excited to stand up so that I could pee (however with all the people at the finish line staring at me, that didn't happen). I floated on my back for short while, enjoying being done and the warmer water at the finish. I guess it was a RACE so I should not have dilly dallied at the end, but I did not care.

My finish time was 1:33, so I was spot on with my prediction, even with all the stopping and finish line back floatong. I'm guessing I could have saved maybe 5 minutes without all the stops. But, a fast time was not my goal.

Overall, I'm happy with this outcome--just giving the full distance a go despite my anxieties, and not letting anything really stress me out while swimming. And best of all, I got to hang out with my swim buds, very grateful to have folks to swim with! Onwards to Catalina!