One Mile Swim in Maine: The Lobsterman Triathlon

September 10, 2018   17 Comments

I will do just about anything for lobster including swim in the ocean for a mile.

On Saturday, I participated in the Lobsterman Triathlon as part of a three woman relay team. I swam a mile in an ocean bay and my friend’s Amy and Sarah did the other parts. Sarah rode her bike for 40 kilometers of rolling hills and Amy ran 10K (also rolling hills).

Why did we do this? The adventure!!!

I have never swum in the ocean in what they call an “open water swim”. There is a course with big orange buoys and you swim around them until you get back to the beach.

Here I am before the swim in my nifty wetsuit:

Hot, right? I hear that the fall runway shows in Paris will be featuring the same look.

I am quite nervous in this photo as I have never swum a mile in open water. When I was practicing, I was in a pool with things like lines and walls. Open water is quite different.

This is a photo of me somewhere in a sea of white swim caps.

If you look closely you can see the big orange buoys that I will swim around and other swimmers out there getting it done. I was in one of the last waves to swim.

I can tell you that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t die because they had multiple kayakers watching the course. Also, if you needed to stop, you could hang onto the kayak and take a break. As long as the kayak didn’t bring you in - you could still compete after your break.

The distance was .93 miles and I was very conservative for the first couple of buoys and then I realized something fundamental.

I was having fun!! Here I was swimming in this green water, with the sun above me and the smell of the salt air - and I was cruising along. I was being patient with myself as I got acclimated to the conditions and it was going well.

Really, really well.

Here I am at the end of the swim - starting to walk up to the hill that would take me to Sarah who was waiting for me to start biking.

Notice how there is a young man next to me in the water. He had started after me but we reached the beach at the same time.

Did he beat me up the hill? Heck, no!! I dusted his butt as I booked up the hill to Sarah. I don’t know why but I had enough energy to spare after swimming a mile to run.

Sarah then rode for an hour and 50 minutes and also had to go up the same hill. Here she is dismounting and getting ready to walk up and hand off to Amy.

Amy finishing her run!! She was diagnosed with acute bronchitis a day after she did this. Don’t ask me how she ran a 10K with bronchitis because I have no idea.

Here we are with our medals. Everyone gets a medal for finishing.

Finally, we got to eat lobster.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday and I kept in shape with training for weeks before we did it.

It really helps to have a goal to keep you from staying stuck to the couch.

Relays are also a great way to get involved in an event if you can’t do a sport. You like biking? Find someone who can swim and run! You can even divide up a sprint triathlon as part of a relay.

Getting outside, meeting new people, engaging in exercise, challenging yourself......what is there not to like? Oh and eating lobster. YUM!

I encourage you to find a "dream" event and do it. It doesn't matter what it is - it can be a walking 2K to support an animal shelter in a costume (with apple pie at the end) - just get out there.