2016 Lap-the-Lake Swim 2.4mi

Franklin Lake course 1.2

This weekend  I took park in the 5th Annual Lap the Lake Swim in Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes held at the Indian Trails Country club. This is a  terrific venue and the site of the 2015  Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes Triathlon (usually the following weekend) .  The event has three distances 2.4mi (2-laps) , 1.2 and .5 mile (same exact swim course as Wyckoff triathlon) distances,.

Race Report

me pre-race – in my new Roka Maverick full sleeve suit

This year I elected to do the 2.4mile (2 x 1.2 mi lap the lake ) distance .  I have been meaning to step up to longer swims, and with my open water swimming coming along, close the 31min per 1.2mi distance (at my last Navesink Swim)  I think I’m ready for the longer distance. My goal for this event was around a 1:10 or under. Distances in open water swimming races are notorious for being off by hundreds of years, so exact times have to taken with a grain of salt.But somewhere in the general area of  1:05-1:10 would be good for me..

Lap 1 – 1.2 mile

swimmers pre-race warming up

After some brief instructions and while the swimmers were still milling about the shoreline, the gun went off for the 2.4 swimmers, it seemed very haphazardly, one minute we were standing around next minute all the 2.4 (orange caps) were wading into the water.  Once in the water, conditions were pretty good, very little contact, and I established a nice smooth tempo to the first buoy. Very little crow around the first boy and a i paced off a few other swimmers. i was going pretty well around the long back-stretch of the lake , with good sighting of the red bouys, Teh fourth turn around bouy seemed to take forever, and it was at this point I had to keep reminding myself, one you still need t odo this one more time.  the partly cloudy sun kept the glare mostly are bay, but the goggles did fog up a bit and annoying little leat in my left eye caused me to stop and clear it for a second. Still swimming well, and hitting the buoys on target. It was about this point a few yellow caps , the 1.2 swim leaders started going by..  I rounded the last red buoy and turned right for the shore line. It’s about 300-400yd swim back to the shore and a very gradual slope so once you feel the lake seaweed and sand , your probably in shallow enough water to stand.

Lap 2- 1.2 mile

2.4mi. swimmer finishing second lap

I hit the shore with a small pack of two other swimmers, a quick drink from my water bottle, then a waded back for the second lap. At this point I still felt pretty good, and hung onto the other swimmers as we made our way to the first left hand turn buoy, tried to stay on the feet , but the the pace was a little high for me, so I just focused on swimming my own race, hit the left hand turn buoy and I was still with nearby the two swimmers who came out of the water with me at the half way point.

By now about 1.5 miles in the first signs of fatigue set in , as the two swimmers that I was staying with started to gap me and spread out more. The last two buoys on the back stretch seemed to take forever, I even thought one of them was moving as I had a hard time swimming toward it. But as I turned around the forth buoy, for the second time, my arms started feeling like lead. I have never felt heavy arms, and shoulders before but continuous swimming for about an hour will do that to you. At this point I seriously felt myself slowing, my turnover definitely slowed and I didn’t see anyone around, with all the 1.2 mile swimmers done, and only the remaining 2.4 folks left in the water.. it seemed pretty desolate out there. More than anything it was the heavy arms that really started to irritate me..

Fianlly I hit the last of the turn buoys and aimed for the large aqua-slide flotation on the shore and eventually, plodded my way to the finish, I came out of the water with about 3 other swimmers. Also by the end of the second lap I was actually was feeling pretty chilly even in my full sleeve wetsuit, the poor folks that swam with out the wetsuit, were absolutely shivery coming out of the water.

After the finish I stuck around a bit to chat and encourage other swimmers. A little disappointed with my 1:14:47 performance, but again this was probably longer than 2.4mi based on the finish times. You can see I was almost 4 minutes slower the second lap , I need to work on my endurance for this distance. I’ll take it and work on longer slower swims to get more fitness.

I strongly recommend this event if your just getting into triathlon , particularly if your doing the  Wyckoff triathlon. One of the distances is a .5 miles swim  race distance and the exact same race course as the triathlon and a great way to warm up to the event for first timers.