Lake Crescent Ultra Swim – Race Report

I’m tempted to start this and say that the swim was bitter sweet… After two weeks reflecting on the swim and reaching out to mentors and friends I’ve shifted back into my normal mindset of really appreciating a good training swim. I’ll start with my thoughts on getting back into a positive headspace. For many people who take on triathlons swimming is not their strongest suit and I fall squarely in the back of the pack with those particular athletes. I am not very fast in the water, I deal with an innate fear of deep water, the dark, wildlife in the water and anytime I touch an object in the water it sends a chill through my entire body.

My first Ironman my goal was literally to not drown and make the 2-hour 20-minute time cut off for the 2.4-mile swim which I came in at about an hour 57 minutes. The swim across Lake Crescent was I thankfully don’t have the fear of drowning that I used to as I have gotten much better at pacing and breathing techniques. The distance which was just over three times the Ironman distance was pretty much on pace with that first swim at about 50 minutes per mile. The two things that at first made the swim feel bitter sweet was that I had hoped to cover the 8 mile route in approximately 5 – 6 hours and secondly I ended up underestimating the distance and my Garmin said that I had covered 7.4 miles but likely only about five in a half miles in actual straight line distance and still had approximately 3 miles to go to my intended destination at Log Cabin. There was an alternative landing location that would only require a half mile swim widthwise across the Lake to land at the Lake Crescent Lodge.

Out of the four open water swims I have done in my life over an hour I have to this day never landed at my intended target. 1) I had one 4-hour swim where my task was to just swim around in the San Francisco harbor and make one landing on far side of the San Francisco bridge early on. The other three where I missed my intended destination was, 2) The Alcatraz swim where me and the other swimmers got caught in an Eddie and the boat picked us up and dropped us back off in the main area. 3) The Dungenous spit in Washington across the Strait of Juan de Fuca where after seventeen in a half hours I had crossed to the Canadian shores and got caught in the waters off Trial Island and pushed around in the currents until being pushed back out into the main straight and deciding to have my crew pull me into the boat at around 11:30pm to head to shore after missing the lighthouse landing by 670 feet according to the instruments on the boat. 4) Lake Crescent Crossing. I attempted the full length of the length and made it a little over 2/3 of the way across the length of the lake. All three times not making the destination because of either time constraints or currents.

The Lake Crescent Swim started with my good friend Kyle Downs picking me up at my house and we picked up some burritos and headed to the far end of Lake Crescent at Farholme Campground. We unloaded his kayak and I put on my wetsuit and we were off with a smoke covered sky due to the wildfires that have swept the WestCoast in this past week. On the way out to the lake we looked over the water to see if the smoke was clinging to the water surface or if it seemed to be staying well above in the treeline. To our joy it seemed to be staying off the surface of the water and we determined that we were comfortable enough to start the journey.

The swim went like many of my swims where it is actually really comfortable and a peaceful experience. The beautiful water and scenary around us mixed in with the rhythmic stroke, stroke breath, stroke stroke breath and switching sides on average every fifth breath. Getting used to feeding every hour on the hour. During the upcoming crossing in Catalina the plan will be small feedings every 30 minutes kept to as short of a stop as possible.

For my good friend Kyle and me it was a day filled with laughter and a bit of eeriness with the layer of smoke looming far over our heads. The swim which spanned over seven miles was for the most part comfortable and about as smooth as possible in terms of ultra experiences and I’m always grateful for friends to accompany me on these epic adventures regardless of how the des

The main things that I am keeping an eye on after the swim were that my calves seemed to cramp up more than usual and I had about a dozen cramps that seem to be triggered whenever I stop for feedings, it’s essential to take the time to put myself in a good headspace before getting in the water and clearing all major concerns or the fears and anxieties seep in and make the experience a much larger mental fight, and as my friend and current Uberman record holder stated you have to be focused on WIN – What’s important now.