Race Result

Racer:	Melissa Hancock
Race:	Jack King One Mile Ocean Swim
Date:	Sunday, June 21, 2009
Location:	Virginia Beach, VA
Race Type:	Swim - 1 Mile
Age Group:	Female 40 - 44
Time:	0:52:59
Age Group Place:	3 / 8
Comment:	High waves, strong current at the end. Great swim!

Race Report:

Jack King 1 Mile Ocean Swim. Virginia Beach, VA

I went into this race feeling pretty deflated after my first DNF the previous weekend. But, a friend was getting married in Virginia Beach this weekend, so I would be there anyway, and thought it might be fun.
I drove to Va Beach Sat morning with the whole family (husband, kids, grammy and aunt Jean) and saw the aquarium and hung out at the hotel beach and pool. Got to sleep in Sun morning, since the race did not begin until 10am. We got to the race site at the beach around 9am and the kids had a great time playing in the sand and water. There was both a USMS swim and a USA swim, so there were a lot of high school kids in the water warming up with us old folks (my friend Jess later told us that she overheard them saying that since the Masters wore red swim caps, they kept thinking the “old people” were buoys during the swim). I swam around to warm up a little, but was still terrified of what I could not see in the cloudy salt water. The waves were pretty high near the shore but seemed to level off out past the buoys.
I found my RMST team mates just before the race started and we wished each other good luck. After the pre-race briefing, the Masters started off the race in one big wave.
We were able to line up in one long line, so no one was in front of me or behind me at the start. When the horn blew, we were off. Even though the waves were pretty high, the first half of the swim was pretty easy. I just swam on as each wave came and lifted me up and down, and they didn’t seem to affect my stroke or speed at all. I think the waves were not as high further out in the ocean, but I was a chicken and stayed as close to land as I could.
After about ¾ mile, both the waves and the currents picked up. I was measuring my distance by watching the hotels pass by on my left. At one point, it seemed that I was swimming directly into the current, and I spent a lot of time swimming in front of the same hotel. It was then that the first group of about 20 high school boys came through. I couldn’t believe how fast they sped past. Luckily, they had respect for their elders, and I didn’t get punched or kicked by anyone. Having them go past made me confident that I was on a good line, if nothing else, so I got my butt in gear and tried to get a little more speed up.
The hotels started moving again after that, thank goodness. I could see a big red buoy that marked the left-hand turn to the finish, and I made my strokes longer as the waves and currents grew stronger. I finally reached the buoy, turned left, and let the current carry me towards the shore. As I relaxed a little, I saw a woman to my left who looked like she might be in my age group. She saw me too, and it was on. We both started thrashing for the shore, and I’m sorry to admit that she beat me out of the water by about a second! Luckily, she was not in my age group, but I’m happy she made me work for those last few hundred meters.
I found everyone from my swim team afterwards, and we all agreed that it was a really tough swim. We all had a terrific time, though. I would definitely do this swim again. It was challenging for a 1-mile, but was a good distance for a difficult swim.