OK, so today I got my butt down to Lake Anna for a while to do some open water swimming. Now, it’s been well over 20 years since I actually swam in something other than a pool (not counting floating about at the beach), and it was in the dead of night… Daytime is quite different! At night, your brain doesn’t expect to see anything above or under water and doesn’t care. Daytime? Your brain wants to see…
The water was too warm for a wetsuit - probably over 80, but that’s fine, I was actually comfortable. Now, Lake Anna is more of a boaters/fishers place, so the swimming area isn’t huge, but it’s nice - little beach, snack bar, guarded and cordoned off so you don’t have to worry about getting too far afield from shore. $6 entrance for parking & beach fee.
The swimming area is cordoned off into 3 areas - the “shallow” line runs to about 2 feet, then the next section goes to about 5 feet deep, then there is the “deeper than I am tall” section. I stayed in the middle section, cause I actually felt more comfortable around more people (the back section was totally empty), which surprised me, cause at the pool I want everyone as far away from me as possible.
Getting in the water, first there were little fish - small, maybe 4-5″ long, - very cute little things, bluegill I think. Those didn’t bother me, but the largemouth bass that then wandered by my feet damn near did me in. Once I got past the fish and into deeper waters where I couldn’t see my feet anymore, it was time to attempt swimming, and I had the required open water freakout. Once you go head down, all you can see is green (bright green at least), and my brain basically short circuited and went “OMGWTF, we could just see our feet 30 seconds ago!!” But it did get a little better, I found out I can actually sight (being able to bring your head up and look forward above water to check your location while still moving forward) and spent some time on alternate “head above water” strokes to remind myself I CAN do them if I have to, and flipping over and going along on my back whenever I felt strange.
I don’t feel bad about the open water freakout - pretty much everyone runs into it, I’m just glad I know what it feels like and I have a plan in place to deal with it on Sunday, and I am REALLY glad I made the time to go down there before the race. I made a nice afternoon of it - took lunch, chilled on the little beach and read and worked on my tan sunburn. (Actually I did remember my sunscreen, but I missed a couple spots on my back.) Figure if I do this once a week for the rest of the season, I might actually be semi-comfortable with OWS by the time Reston rolls around in September.
We got an email today w/ a reminder on the wetsuit rules - if the water temps are under 78, it’s totally wetsuit legal. 78-83 is legal, but you’re ineligible for awards. 84 and above - no wetsuits whatsoever. They’re going to be sending something out tomorrow w/the latest lake temps, which makes me think we may be heading towards non-wetsuit legal for the swim. The downside for me of non-wetsuit legal is the loss of the nice additional buoyancy & speed that comes w/a wetsuit. However, the upside is that I would actually not freeze my ass off in the water, and most folks seem to find warm water to be icky, but I find it absolutely lovely.
So, I’ll be VERY interested to see what the temps at Lake Montclair are - granted, it’s tiny compared to Lake Anna, but it’s also over an hour north and doesn’t have a nuclear reactor next door to it.
Interesting thing going into Lake Anna - there is a sign that says, “You are less than 10 miles from the North Anna nuclear facility. In case of an emergency…” and then you can’t read the rest of it, cause that’s the point where your car goes past it, cause the print is too small and it’s too wordy to read quickly - so I just figure the rest is “lean over and kiss your ass goodbye.”
