5K Open Water Swim (May 21, 2006)

5K Open Water Swim (May 21, 2006). At Lake Travis. It ended up being sort of a "tactical" race, which was a new experience for me. After the first few hundred yards, the really fast swimmers had gone ahead, and I settled in with a group of five guys. The pace seemed a bit slow for me when I was following the group, but I wasn't fast enough to break away from them. So I just settled in and drafted for 2 miles. With about one-half mile to go, I tried to cut to the right and take off from my little group. Only one guy stayed with me, and he followed my feet until the last 100 yards, when he sprinted away. I ended up finishing in 1:21:23, 7th place. This was 4 minutes slower than last year, when I was in a faster pace group and working harder. But I was pretty happy with this effort, since I had a good last half mile. I have been doing mostly just short swims lately, focusing more on biking and running.
Results of 5K open water swim