Deer Creek 5K Open Water Swim

On Saturday the 16th I swam the Deer Creek 5K Open Water Swim at Deer Creek reservoir. It's a pretty new event that was just started last year by Jim Hubbard. There were several distances available to swim: 1 mile, 5K, 10K, and 10 mile. I'm not sure exactly how many people entered, but I counted at least 20 boats. There were at least three people that tried for the 10 miles.

We woke up at 5:30am the morning of the race after a short sleep (thanks to Harrison) and headed up Provo canyon. It was really cold when we got there and I am glad that we all thought to bring jackets. I was worried that the water was going to be really cold since I didn't bring a wetsuit. Luckily for me the water was much warmer than I thought, probably around 70 degrees.

I didn't realize what a fast bunch of swimmers I was going to be swimming with. At the start they all took off and I was just taking it easy. My thought was that I would catch some of them when they got tired...well none of them got tired and I ended up finishing second to last with a time of about 1:44.

I felt fine for most of the race, but my arms started to get tired on the way back to the start. It also felt like the water was moving against me on the final stretch.

Each swimmer had to provide a "paddler"; someone in a kayak for support, navigation, safety, and feeding. Sabrina was my paddler and did a good job of encouraging me and of giving me gels and Gatorade while I swam. I have never swam with a paddler before so it took me a while to figure out exactly what I needed Sabrina to do to help me navigate.

Jod and B came up to watch me swim and to take care of Harrison while Sabrina and I were in the water. It's nice to have family that comes to support me in all the things I enter.

When we got home, all three of us crashed for an hour or so. When I woke up I had this song in my head by Midlake:



Here is a map of my swim thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 305 and MotionBased.com. You can also click here to watch the satellite view of my swim on MotionBased.

Here are some things that I learned about open water swimming from this event:

Training:
I need to do a lot more. Seriously, I think the last time I swam before this race was the 1 mile swim at Spudman (and that was down river). I wasn't worried about finishing the distance and knew that I would be able to since Jake and I swam about 2.5 miles a month or so ago. I need to work on my speed.

Navigation:
You can't really tell so much from the picture above, but I was zig-zagging quite a bit and I think, besides a serious lack of training, this was what cost me a lot of extra time. We finally figured out where I needed Sabrina to be to help me navigate with about 1 mile to go.

Chaffing:
This is so stupid. I bought a bar of Body Glide the day before and then I didn't use it. As a result I got some pretty nasty chaffing on my neck, armpits, and some other places that I would rather not mention...

I had a lot of fun and am planning on entering again next year. I would like to try for the 10K next time, but we will see how much training I actually do before then...

P.S. Pictures to come...

So peaceful!

I just love to watch my sweet boy sleep. I think he's teething right now and has been a sad little boy this moring. After a bottle and some teeting tablets he calmed down enough to fall asleep in my arms... (sigh)... and then i laid him down in his crib.
Can I just say again how much I love being Harrison's mom.

Bear Lake

Josh had to go to Bear Lake yesterday for work and invited Harrison and I along. Boy was it a long day of driving but we had fun once we had a little time to hang out.

Josh has been there a few times and i've only been there once. This was Har's first time experiencing a few things.

The Mediterranean ocean like water and beaches. Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes

I have the 2 the cutest boys in the whole world!

Har and Josh love the water.

He loved feeling the sand on his feet

We spent quite a few hours in the car but we had a whole lot of fun being together!

Stephenie Mayer is a Genius

While Josh, Har and I were in Barnes and Noble on Tuesday buying Breaking Dawn Josh said to Har, "Ok now Har, it's just you and me now for a few days until mom gets finished reading her book." I though how rude, but then really... how true. Thrusday I finished BD and it was in some ways the best and in others not my favorite of the 4 book series.
I loved this one because of all the loose ends that were tied up and all the answers to questions were answered and Oh so much more that I would never have dreamed of like.... just kidding like i'd spoil it for anyone still reading!
But I really think that Twilight was my favorite because there was so much EDWARD! then Eclipse came in a close second because there was a whole lot of Edward. Then Breaking Dawn because it completed the saga. And then New Moon because there was too much Jacob and way not enough Edward.
This series definately tops my most favorite reads list!

Great New Band - - Fleet Foxes

This is one of my new favorite bands. They kind of sound like a mix of My Morning Jacket and The Beach Boys with some folk thrown in. They have many other songs that I like more than this one, but this one had the best video and sound quality. The band is definitely worth checking out.

Spudman 2008

This year I was finally able to get into the Burley Lion's Spudman triathlon after three years of trying to get in. After having done the race I can see why it sells out so fast every year, it's a really fun course! The best part for me was swimming down the Snake River.

Here's the a recap of my race:

Swim: 1.5K
This was my best leg of the race, and I felt really good. I rented a tri wetsuit just for fun, even though the water wasn't that cold. I had a good swim time of 15:25 and felt like I wasn't trying very hard. I wished that I would have put a little more effort into it. I was one of the first few out of the water in my wave. I even caught up to and passed a few people from the previous wave. It was a lot of fun to swim down stream.


Bike: 40K
I had a pretty good bike ride. The bike is not my strong sport (neither is the run), but I was happy with my time of 1:08:55 and averaged just under 22 mph. The course was relatively flat (it's in Burley after all).


Run: 10K
I was really surprised by my run. I was expecting to have a pretty slow time since I hadn't done a lot of running before the race. I averaged just under 10 minute miles, which for me is great. The local residents turned on their sprinklers and pointed them into the street for us to run through, it felt really nice after a few miles of running.


Overall I had a lot of fun and am already planning on entering the race again next year (it will be on my 30th birthday!). I had my GPS watch with the for the whole race and have uploaded the data to MotionBased so you can click here to see the satellite map of my race.