About two weeks ago, my coworker Strider convinced me to partner up with him for his canoe club's Season Kickoff Ocean Relay. I'm not much of an athletic competitor, but at the time it seemed fun.
I much prefer to work out on my own, at my own pace with absolutely no witnesses to mock my slow progress. Strider told me that his canoe club event was going to be a super friendly and low key race. It's more of a meet and greet to start the season off in high spirits and to introduce newbies to the club and the sport and to hopefully recruit some new paddlers.
Strider and I arrived at Canoe Beach a little after 9 am. Strider unloaded the gear from his truck, then we registered for $5 each, got our team number inked onto our legs with a permanent marker and headed to the beach.
Around 10 am, the race organizers showed us the maps of all four legs of the race and outlined the course for us.
I told Strider that I would do the first and fourth leg: a quarter mile swim and a one mile run. Strider would do leg two and three back to back: longboard paddling for one mile followed by a one man canoe sprint for two miles.
Standing on the beach and looking out towards the swimming buoy, I felt that their idea of a quarter mile was a lot longer than any quarter mile I had ever seen. I started to get nervous. I snapped my goggles into place and stood in line next to the other swimmers.
When the air horn sounded, I plunged into the water with 25 to 30 other swimmers. This was the first time I've ever raced in open water, and it was the first time I've swum competitively since I was in middle school.
I feel like I'm a strong and accomplished swimmer, but I certainly had overestimated my abilities prior to this race.
I didn't get pushed into the bottom of the pack, but I swam hard and exhaustively to stay in the middle. At a few points, I swiveled onto my back to catch my breath. Even swimming backstroke I made good time and passed a few swimmers to the buoy. I finally rounded the buoy and made the long return back to the beach.
The shore looked so very, very far away.
I managed to focus more on my form on the swim back and decided to slow down my pace. I began to focus on using proper technique so I wasn't tiring out my arms, legs and lungs. Once I slowed down a bit and focused on taking a deep, even breath every three to five strokes, I was able to make some better time. I passed two or three more swimmers on the stretch back to the beach.
I had never been so relieved to see sand. I started walking before I was really out of the water and slipped over some big rocks, so I kicked back into a few swimming strokes to land me on the beach.
I ran up over the rise and through the starting flags to tag Strider.
Strider is a beast. He powered through his two events like it was no big deal. On both events he sailed past fleets of our competitors.
Once he was out of the water from his second leg, I put myself in position for the beach run.
I'm not much of a runner. I can do a mile--just not very fast. And not after doing a quarter mile swim, but I had Strider at my back, cheering me own, so I had to push through.
I kept my pace nice and steady and passed one other runner on my first leg. The leg back of the first lap was a little hard. It began to dawn on me that I was already getting tired, and the last thing I wanted to do was slow down and walk, so I slowed my pace a little and kept plunging onwards.
The start of my second lap felt stronger although my calves were already burning from running on sand. I tried to stay on the harder packed stuff along the waterline, but every once in awhile I had to inch back up into the softer sand to avoid running through water as the ocean lapped up onto the beach.
As I rounded the flag on the far end of the beach to make my last leg of the mile run, I saw Strider halfway down the beach clapping and cheering me on. I picked up my pace and started really running for the finish line. As I passed Strider, I pushed even harder and sprinted for the finish flag.
With our powers combined we managed to finish first among the coed teams that were competing today.
It was a great event, and it was even more fun running into so many of my friends there. After the race, beers and snacks were provided, and everyone got to hang out for a little while.
I had a fun time, but I'm completely worn out. Work should be fun tonight...wish me luck!!
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