Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Jim McDonnell 1 Mile Lake Swim
Date:	Sunday, May 27, 2007
Location:	Reston, VA
Race Type:	Swim - 1 Mile
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	0:33:49
Overall Place:	102 / 183
Age Group Place:	11 / 19
Comment:	Not the ideal circumstances but still a great morning

Race Report:

We had several close friends in for a long weekend visit. In all, there were 8 adults and 8 children (from 18 months to 12 years old) in our house. Lots of eating and drinking. Little sleep. I was able to convince one of my visiting friends, Wayne, to do the swim with me. We woke about around 6:00 am, somewhat bleary eyed and slow moving. A second friend staying at our house, Drew, woke up to come watch the race. We had a small bite to eat, stopped at Starbucks and headed down the road to the swim. We were running a little late so Drew dropped us off and went to find some parking.

I've never done a swim only event before so I didn't know what check-in would be like. The only thing that seemed strange to me was that the rip-off part of the bib went under our swim cap. I never swam with a piece of paper under my swim cap before. It just seemed a little weird. I ran into some familiar faces. James, Mike Tine, Stacy Taylor and Mike Smith were all volunteering. Jamie, Katie, Tony P and several others were doing the swim(s). It was fun yapping with everyone before the race. After a few minutes, it was time to get queued up. Mike Tine made sure we were in the right spot. I was in wave 'M', Wayne was in wave 'N'. After several minutes of yawning it was time to swim. Before I knew it, I was diving in the water. It was a little crowded at first, I tried to speed up a few times to squeeze past people. Shortly after the start of the swim, I couldn't control my breathing. This never happened to me before. I started panicking a little. I just couldn't breath slowly. The water wasn't cold, my wet suit, while uncomfortable, wasn't bothering me. I'm not sure what caused it. I guess it could have been the slight hangover and severe sleep deficiency. I tried to roll slowly to give my self extra time to breath but it didn't work. After a few more strokes I finally just put my head up and tried to catch my breath. After a few deep breaths I started swimming again. I tried to keep a slow stroke to get comfortable. After 10 or 15 slow stokes my breathing calmed down and I felt good for the rest of the swim. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. There were several times that I actually felt like I had good technique. A few times I think I actually sighted well. Other times I felt like I was fighting the water and several times I lifted my head way up to site. Overall I was very happy with my effort and my time. It was great seeing everyone. Maybe next year I'll be in better condition at the start of the race! Oh yeh, I beat Wayne by 24 seconds :) .... although I have to fess up that before this swim he did not swim since last September. Oh yeh, another thing, after I got out of the swim, I pulled my cap off to look for the piece of paper in my cap. As I was looking in my cap a volunteer pulled it off my bald head. I still think the paper in the cap is a little weird.