Race Result

Racer:	Dario Tirado
Race:	1 Mile Bay Challenge
Date:	Sunday, June 10, 2007
Location:	Stevensville, MD
Race Type:	Swim - Open Water (Other)
Age Group:	Male 35 - 39
Time:	0:42:46
Overall Place:	213 / 360
Age Group Place:	21 / 28
Comment:	Race result stresses the importance of open water swimming skills

Race Report:

The weather and water conditions were good for the 1-mile swim. The temp was in the mid 70s with a partly to a mostly sunny sky at race time. The water temp was very comfortable at 70 degrees for this wet suit optional swim.

The race course started and ended at the beach next to Hemingway's Restaurant marina on the bay. The swim took place on a one lap triangle course in calm waters.

The swimming waves were broken down in 100 person groups but wave placement was based on registration order (first 100 folks to register go in the first wave, the next 100 people who register go in the second wave, etc.) and not on swim times.

I had swam a 1:06 flat at Reston's 2-mile lake swim two weeks earlier without any taper or an all out effort so my goal of 31 minutes or faster looked pretty reasonable even though I hadn't tapered for this race either.

As we headed out there was a lot of bumping going on even as I started towards the back of my wave. I slowed down and moved to the outside to get away from all the bumping. I also had trouble sighting the markers after starting the swim.

I came to a complete stop in the water more times than I can remember in an effort to get my bearings right. At one point a volunteer in a kayak had to yell at me to get me back on course.

As a newbie, triathlons in general and especially open water swimming has a whole new set of racing skills involved that I need to build and have confidence/comfort with to be able to put together solid race efforts. Today I let myself get distracted from all the bumping (having people literally swim right over me was also werid) at the race start and I ended up not concentrating on my game plan (pace, sighting, etc.) but instead I was focusing on slowing down and getting as far to the outside as possible.

I'm looking forward to my next open water opportunity at the Little Pepper Sprint in a couple of weeks.