The Tale of the 10K – Fontana Lake
I didn’t write this up at the time, so this is from notes I took in a variety of places.
This is the 10K I almost didn’t get to do – the water was almost above the USMS limit of 85 degrees. Thankfully, there WERE torrential rains the night before (and cloud cover the day of), and that’s probably the only reason the water was cool enough to swim in. If “cool” is the right word. It’s not.
The first lap was awwweeesome. Faster than my 5K at Seven Lakes, and twice as easy. I was really ready to kill it on the second lap… until my damned foot started cramping. I have never had trouble with this before. Then again, I’ve never swum this far before. And certainly not in water this warm.
Even with the intermittent cramping, I felt pretty good until around the 7500. That’s when my body said, “OK, we’re done with Coach Bescher’s workout now… where are the Gold Group’s 100’s on 2:00?” But I hung in there to go a total time still under 3 hours – all things considered, I’m pretty happy with that.
Caption: Game face or what-the-heck-is-going on face? (BTW, if anyone knows how to captain Media&Text in wordpress, please let me know!)
Until that 7500 mark I really did feel like I could do this all day, and at that pace. I was right beside a woman who was doing the 15K and I was really impressed by her pacing… but when I thought about it, I wouldn’t have been doing anything different at that point had I been doing the 15. Interestingly, we lost contact at the 7500. Part of it was me slowing down a little, but I wondered if she, like me, likes to take off for the back half. Maybe I’ll see her at the party tonight and ask her. (I may have seen her… but I didn’t recognize her.)
[2020 Commentary – in one of those small world moments, I realized while talking to Jenny Smith about the Channel in January 2020 that it was HER! She is awesomel I have not yet asked her if she likes to negative split 🙂 ]
The absolute best thing about this race was that while I was swimming, I started to feel much better about the Channel. I still think the Channel will be work, but it is demystified – I don’t need magic (other than some luck) to swim 22 miles. I just need to be smart and dedicated and to take one stroke after another. Happily, that’s something I’ve always been pretty good at.
Two things were also made clear to me during this swim: 1. “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana is a great song for pacing myself (and very appropriately water-themed). 2. I know virtually NONE of the words. I should probably fix that before the next one.
I also have a note to myself that “You’re the Best” from The Karate Kid was great for the first lap; didn’t work for the second. Felt too aggressive. Good to know? As if I can control the songs that get in my head. Well, sometimes.
And the last of my phone notes (I usually spend my swim time contemplating life, the universe and everything, but my notes show that instead I was getting philosophical in the car on the way… of course, there’s reporting bias there – I can’t take notes on my phone while I swim. Some day technology will allow it and I will rule the world with my brilliant swim-thoughts mwahahahaha!)
Musings on the way in the car:
Old people have to believe In themselves… no one is lining up to believe in you; your parents, coaches and mentors have passed on – and the older you get the worse it gets. On the other hand, at least for me so far, I get better at believing in myself.
The pool is the seed. Oceans and lakes, they are the flower.
