This was to be my first wet-suit'ed Ironman length swim since before my bad hip phase. I was looking for a good measure of how my swimming is coming back. The event website said to expect 70F water temperature, which is fine for a tri-suit. Actual temperature turned out to be 79F - too hot! - and so I changed my division at the last minute, to the non-wetsuit division. This also gave me a chance for age group awards, but despite being in good shape, this race tends to draw more than the usual hardbodies, like for example... Beijing Olympic open-water swimmers. It's also a favorite of masters swim teams around the bay area... so I kept my goals personal.

Beijing Olympian Mark Warkentin won the 1.2 Mile Race...

... and Beijing Olympian Chloe Sutton won the 2.4 Mile Race

If I'd stayed in the wetsuit division, my goal would be to beat my '96 Ironman Canada 2.4 mile swim time of 1:11. As a non-wetsuit, my goal was to beat 1:16. I haven't done as much mileage this year as 2 years ago, when I trained with Ferrell for his Ironman and we put in some long pool sessions. So, I didn't know how I'd fare. But I felt good out there, taking a conservative 1st lap and then stepping it up more and more as I progressed through the 2nd lap. I concentrated on good form and didn't go anaerobic, and I think I put in my best.

My 1:16 would roughly correspond (I figure) to a 1:06 if I'd worn the wetsuit, and that would handily beat my (solidly respectable) 1:11 at Ironman Canada 12 years ago. Ergo, I'm not in the grave quite yet!

Here's the results page posted by J&A Productions.