Ironman Mont Tremblant: The Swim

1:05:08

Woke up at 4:30 and just wanted to get up for the sake of getting up. Because transition was so close to my hotel, I went down as soon as it opened, dropped off my remaining bags and added water onto my bike, etc. Then I went back to my hotel and started to eat and put my temporary tattoos on. Thanks Kevin for hooking us up! And thanks Beth for putting em on me!

Then it was time to march over to the swim start. It was COLD out! But oh so pretty with an almost clear sky that would signal a good day ahead

There I met up with my parents, hung out with Beth, put on my wetsuit and made my way into the pen to watch the pros go off.

Good God I look bloated!

(funny story while putting on my wetsuit. I was lubing up my neck, wrists, and ankles with Tri Slide when this woman came over totally amazed at all of this going on. I think because my arms were tatted all up with temporary tattoos and I was using some "magical spray" (oh! It IS Magical!) that she thought I was a pro! ha ha ha haaaaaaaa.....)

It was a very short wait before it was OUR turn! I lined up 2 people back, and to the left. Jeff and Kevin were right there with me (THANK YOU!!! It totally calmed my nerves having you guys right there). Then I saw Sarah walk by. She had this terrified look on her face. Well, I did too. But! She swam a 1 hour flat swim! Woah!

(source) I am screen center. Right behind Mr. Wetsuit-less

Compared to Placid, I wanted to DESTROY this swim! I was ready to leap into battle whereas in Placid I was wincing in anticipation for that clock to hit 7:00:00. I would look behind me at the hordes of people and realized something: They are back there because they aren't 100% confident in their ability to hash it out with us. US! I WAS the fast guy for once! Sweet! That further calmed my fears and revved me all up even more.

We all waited for the cannon to boom, but it never did, so we just WENT! BATTLE!!!

Then the contact started, and then it ended....

I was like, am I off course? Where is everyone?

We found clear water! Within the first 200 yards! It was maybe 5 mins of mayhem, maybe not even that long. Then I found my groove and just started swimming.  It wasn't hard to draft, especially with 100's of swimmers around you. In fact, I never really sighted until I got to about 2 buoys left on the outward bound leg.

On the cross section is where I started sighting and further getting into my groove.

Finally on the last turn, with 1 mile to go (ha!) I was able to stay  as close to the buoy line as possible with no contact. In fact, I saw a group ahead of me that I was catching up to. So I caught them, drafted off some feet for awhile, SWORE I saw Kevin (then he magically disappeared on me) and continued on. To break this long last portion up, I was using the peninsula that you swim around as a bearing for how much further I had left. I could NOT see shore so this was my last major landmark.

Coming into the final stretch, I knew it would get shallow to the left, so I hung to the right has much as possible. For some reason I KNEW I was swimming a 1:05, and just as I was standing up, I heard Mike Reilly announce some random person's name with a time of 1:05:xx. SCORE!

Found a wetsuit stripper, and then started BOOKING IT towards T1. My legs felt SO great! I was cruising with no dead leg to T1 syndrome. It was awesome! And the crowds lining the run were just awesome.

And I had no idea that Kevin was literally right behind me. Next time, we draft off each other!

Stay tuned for T1 and the bike!