Corona Del Mar 1 Mile Race and Training

After getting back from Chicago late Friday night, my original plans to get in a couple of hours of swimming before the Newport Beach Lifeguard Association's annual Don Burns 1 mile swim were a little foiled. I did do a nice 15 minute swim before registering for the event. At the race I saw a good contingent of Nova swimmers including Jen Schumacher and Coach Ahelee, who shared some of the excitement from Dave Galli's channel swim yesterday.

The race started at 10am and I followed the breakwater and some other swimmers at the start until I realized that I was way wide of the first buoy. After I made the turn south, I made the same mistake on buoy 2. I decided I needed to start buoy-spotting myself unless I wanted to turn the mile and change race into a 1.5 mile effort. I rounded the last 2 buoys a little closer. I had energy to spare and kicked up the pace to finish the race strong. I finished with an unofficial 23:52 and 74th overall (out of 300+).

At the finish line, I ran into Jim Fitzpatrick, who also shared some details of Dave's Catalina swim before we headed out for a 2+ hour training swim in the bay. The sun came out halfway through the swim and 15-20 foot visibility and high 60s water made for a great swimming. Jim's advice and coaching both during and after the swim was invaluable. We made some plans for coming weeks- including a swim during the week in Lake Michigan when we are both in Chicago. Thanks Jim!