I swam in my first open water swim last weekend in Austin, the Capitol 2K in Town Lake. I think the best thing about it was seeing the look on native Austinites' faces when I said I was going to swim/had swum in Town Lake: instant, visceral horrification. The reason is, nobody EVER swims in Town Lake (which isn't really a lake but just a chunk of the Colorado River)—but the reason for that is it's illegal, something about strong currents and sewage runoff. When did a little fecal coliform bacteria ever hurt anyone? Oh, right..

Anyway, this being my first open water swim, I had no idea what to expect. I knew there would be a swarm at the beginning, and I'm happy to report I didn't get kicked in the face and I didn't feel any noses break on my heels. It felt like I kept a pretty good pace despite not having a wall to turn off of every 25 yards. And I only got one mouthful of water when the wind kicked up some chop.

I radioed my number ahead, and Molly spotted me as I went under the bridge:



I finished in 38:16, 55th overall out of the 211 that finished (8 didn't finish in under an hour and were disqualified), and third place out of 14 in the 30-39 Mens' division. If you cull the high schoolers who were competing in the state Open Water Championships, that's actually 27th. So forget I said 55th. I can swim 2K in 30 minutes in the pool so I was a bit disappointed with my time, but I just got an email telling me I get some kind of token award for third place—that makes me feel better. I'll do better next year (if only because one of the guys who beat me was 39 this year).

It's odd that the participants skew to older: Both the Mens' 40-49 and 50-59 categories had more than twice as many entries as mine did. The two guys I fought to the finish line (one of 'em beat me because I tried to swim around the finish line marker—I need new goggles) turned out to both be 40-49 and got fifth and sixth place. Laura thinks it's the midlife "oh crap I have to get back in shape" push, and I can't think of any other explanation. Whatever it is, I sure hope I can still keep up with those guys ten years from now.