First Open Water Swim

This past Saturday, I went to my first open water swim.  PlayTri holds the swims early every Saturday morning at Lake Lewisville, which is a big lake about 30 minutes away from our house.  Since my parents and Piper were visiting for Easter, my father decided to come along to see the lake and take a few pictures for me.  It was a beautiful morning and the water was perfectly calm -- a perfect day for my first time in the lake.

Participants were split into two groups -- beginners and an intermediate/advanced group that focused more on doing a swim workout.  Since it was my first time, I joined the beginner group.  We practiced sighting to the buoy or the shoreline, swimming with a partner and just being more comfortable in the water.  Yes, it was very different from swimming laps in a pool -- you could see NOTHING but brown when you put your face in the water and it was much colder (temps in the upper 60's) -- but I thought I did reasonably well.  I was very comfortable in the water and was probably the strongest swimmer in my group that day.  Some people really seemed to struggle in the open water, but happily I experienced none of that.  I may try moving up to the next group the next time I go to make it more of a workout.

Listening to the pre-swim talk

Trying to stay warm between drills

Partner swim

First open water swim was a success!