The Iron Distance Swim

The iron distance swim is a 3.8km (2.4 mile) swim that is the first discipline of the three in an Ironman triathlon competition.  While I don’t consider myself ready to do a full ironman competition within the next year or so, I have been curious to test my abilities to complete the full distance of each discipline as an individual race event to get the feel for the full ironman event.  

I’ve been putting in a lot of work on my open water swim this summer and felt I was ready to give this distance a shot.  I’ve been comfortable doing the 1.5km swim for the olympic distance triathlons recently, and have regularly been completing training swims of 2 to 2.4km, so this month I signed up for my first iron distance swim competition.  

My first attempt at this distance was the annual LOST race, which is held every second Saturday in Aug at the LOST beach in Oakville. http://lostswimming.com/  This swim is a 3.8km point to point swim along the shoreline of Lake Ontario, ending at the LOST beach, lighthouse pier near Navy St in Oakville. http://lostswimming.com/lost-race/ 

This year it was held on Aug 8. Normally, this time of year, water temperatures in the lake are in the range of 15-21C. However, this year proved to be an exception to the rule, and regardless of what swimmers plan to do, mother nature ultimately has the final say on the matter. With a recent dramatic plunge in water temp (50F/10C) it was too cold to do the full 3.8km iron distance, due to hypothermia risk. Race organizers instead offered 500m and 1km distance swim races instead. I was disappointed, but did the 1km swim anyway.  I suppose cold water swimming is a more traditional Canadian experience and will help toughen me up mentally for less favoubrable conditions I'm sure to encounter in the early spring.  It was a bummer not to meet my swim distance goal at this event, but I did have a challenging swim with some good friends regardless. Here's hoping for better conditions next time.  I would really like to complete this full course in the near future and will try again when the opportunity presents itself.  I'll be back to try the LOST swim again.  

*****

With the LOST race being somewhat of a bust, I decided to register for the Toronto Island Lake Swim (http://www.torontoislandlakeswim.com) the following weekend (Aug 16), which also offered a 3.8km swim.  I was familiar with this course, as I did the 1.5km race here last year.  Fortunately, mother nature was more conducive this weekend, and with warmer water temperatures (65F/18C) all swims were a go!  

While the weather and lake temperatures cooperated, the challenges with open water swimming are many, and one variable that still offered swimmers a challenge this day was the swell.  It wasn’t so noticeable from shore, but once a few hundred meters into the swim it was obvious the swell was a force to be reckoned with this day.  Going out to the first set of buoys I didn’t notice it so much as I was still trying to find my rhythm, but after making my first turn I could tell I was being tossed around by the swell coming from the deeper part of the lake.  I had trouble sighting the buoys and keeping a straight path.  I even felt my neck pulling slightly as I had to stretch further to take clean breaths between my strokes.  But I adjusted and swam on.  I was determined to stay the course and see this swim though. And I did. I paced at 22:43/km, and it took me 1:26:22 to complete the full 3.8km distance.   

I didn’t realize how tough the swim was until after I looked up the race stats the following day.  Of the 26 females who entered the 3.8km wetsuit division, only 20 finished, there were 6 DNF.  That swell was too much for some of the racers.  I ended up finishing 4/9 in my age group, and 13/26 in my gender division.  Not bad for my first attempt at this distance. 

I’m pleased with this result, and will hope to up my position in the Global Swim Series (http://www.globalswimseries.com/) in future sanctioned races.  Currently, I hold a position of #294 in the female wetsuit division - http://www.globalswimseries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/FW-8-12.pdf - with final standings yet to be updated. Not too shabby for my first year competing in the Global Swim Series at this distance category. 

Despite the challenges often encountered during open water swimming (e.g. weather, temperature, wind, swell, waves) at least there were no dangerous aquatic life I had to contend with over the past two weekends! No sharks in Lake Ontario ;)  With that being said, I've really come to enjoy the dynamic environment presented with open water swimming, and have come to enjoy it much more than doing laps in the pool.  I'll be sad when the swim season comes to a close in the autumn.  But there are still several weeks of good swim time left which I plan to take full advantage of.  If you're looking for me, just check the lake and look for the yellow swim cap.