06/26/10 - Boulder 2 mile reservoir swim

Last weekend I took the whole family out to Boulder CO to look at houses for our upcoming move, while out there I decided to find a local race to to.  It ended up be an BAM (Boulder Aquatics Masters) open water swim. We drove out and arrived Friday evening with enough time to look at a few houses and walk around Pearl street and have dinner in downtown Boulder.  The swim was at the Boulder Reservoir a few miles northeast of Boulder, I was amazed how many people were out on the water already water skiing, rowing, and other sports.  The lake swim had options of wetsuit, no wetsuit, 1 or 2 mile, the water at 74 or so was nice for me since the midwest water is over 80 right now.  I choose to wear the wetsuit and do the two mile swim. After a little warm up and the kids playing on the beach it was time to start.

The course was a 1 mile loop done twice for the two milers.  There were about 50 people that showed up to do the race, a pretty good turnout and was very well organized.  We started and I was quickly out in front by the first turn buoy, but there was one other person right on my feet.  After swimming a few more minutes I realized it was a women and without a wetsuit.  We were out in front after the first 1/2 lap by quite a bit.  I lead the whole first lap thinking to myself I will just drop her at the end of the 2nd lap. But starting the 2nd lap she began to pass me and really pull after each turn buoy.  I could tell she was a very good open water swimmer.  She lead the 2nd lap and I still figured I could just pass her up at the last 500 meters or so.  It was nice to not have to spot for most of the 2nd lap.  I put in a little pass at 500 meters to go, but she matched pace no problem.  It turned into a sprint to the finish, we came out of the water at about the same time, but I think she beat me for sure.  Since she was not wearing a wetsuit and I was breathing pretty hard after while she went for a 3rd warm down lap.  We were ahead of the rest of the pack by about 4 minutes, we finished in 40:16.

Notice how tired I look compared to Christine.....it must be the altitude...ha ha

Come to find out that the women who beat me was Christine Jennings who happened to place 2nd in the national 10k open water championships a few weeks earlier, so 2 miles was a walk in the park for her.  We hung around the beach for a while and spoke to as many of the locals as we could to gain more knowledge of the different areas surrounding Boulder.  It was a great race to do as we met a bunch of new people and gave us something to do sat morning.  The rest of the weekend we took the kids to Rocky Mountain National Park two days, did a long single-track trail run, had a 4 year old birthday at 8k', and pretty much confirmed what we already knew....Boulder CO will be our new home as soon as we can complete the sale of our home in IL.