Coral Reef 2 Mile Swim Race Report

I've had my eye on this race for some time now although I can't really remember when / how I found out about it. This race has been running for 14 years and has been a popular event since day one. Last December I decided that 2009 would be the year for me to do it so I found my ticket on points and put the wheels in motion.

I arrived on St Croix Thursday night, a little more than 2 days ahead of the race. It was a long journey; 14.5 hours in the air and waiting in airports / airplanes. The Buccaneer Resort is a spectacular place, and it has been involved with the event since its first year in 1996. More on the Resort later.

I managed to adjust to the time difference pretty quickly and I only really felt some travel fatigue on Friday. On Saturday morning Olympic Gold Medalist Misty Hyman and Pan American Gold Medalist / Open Water guru Alex Kostich offered a clinic / presentation for first-timers. It was helpful to get some insider information on the course and a few pointers on Open Water swimming in general. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Christiansted (aka "town"), which in hindsight may not have been the best idea as it was really hot and humid.

Race registration at the hotel was very smooth and painless, followed by a very informative presentation on the race "course". They used Google Earth to show us what we would be seeing during the swim, which is huge, as knowing where you're going is a very important thing in the ocean. One wrong turn and you could end up in Puerto Rico ... we were told where each buoy and boat would be and how to approach them with the final buoy being the most important; keep it to your LEFT as you head back into The Buccaneer beach or you may get DQ'd. Sure enough, when I got back to my room, I noticed that the final buoy was already in position (click to enlarge - it is the TINY orange spec above the palm on the left)

I've tried a couple of times to recreate the Google Earth show but it is still a little too complicated for my attention span. But, I can at least show the approximate "route", going from right (east) to left (west):

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 am. As we weren't scheduled to start until 8:15, I wanted to make sure I had a decent breakfast - a bagel, some pineapple, yogurt and a coffee. The weather looked good (sun with clouds) and the conditions looked interesting; windy, whitecaps and very definitely a strong current. As I ate my breakfast I noticed that that last important buoy was, well, gone.

We got marked with our race number, loaded into cabs and headed to the starting point. Before we knew it, we were off. We had to swim a couple hundred meters out to a boat and then make a hard left (west). The prevailing current in this area is from east - west, so the current was in our favour. However, with the wind there were some pretty big waves blocking my view and I ended up going off course on this section as I couldn't even see the next boat. After a few minutes of swimming, I was completely alone (or it at least felt that way).

I knew I was headed in more or less the right direction (just a few degrees off) so I kept going. My blueseventy Element mirrored goggles proved to be the best equipment choice I'd made; dark enough to prevent eye strain but not so dark that I couldn't see. Once I spotted the "aid station" boat I was able to get myself back on track (and find some more people). After this point the waves seemed to really pick up; at times it was great body surfing and at other times I was inhaling great lungfuls of very salty water. I think all my swimming around Vancouver really helped as I felt right at home in the rough conditions. I found out later that a number of people got seasick.

The final buoy (the one that we HAD to keep to our left) was replaced with a sailboat - again, not easy to find a skinny mast from several hundred meters away but I managed to keep it in my sights. I knew the last leg into the beach was going to be a fight as we would be swimming perpendicular to the strong current so I decided to save my legs for that stretch.

As I rounded the final boat, I was able to take a quick look back - there were still a lot of people out there! I couldn't rest too much as I was in fact getting pushed to my right (east) almost as much as I was moving forward. I ended up right over top of a fairly shallow reef which made me really nervous a few times. The swells were quite big and I was worried that I was going to get dragged along top of it. I had little choice but to make a hard left and swim directly into the current for a few meters. This turned out to be a good decision as the water was a bit calmer away from the reef.

Heading into the beach I spotted another female swimmer and I decided I needed to get ahead of her. With her as my target and the constant push from my left, I had great motivation to swim hard. I had what I felt was a strong finish (I finished a good 3 -5 minutes ahead of my "target"). The finish chute was amazing; I think every Resort guest was there cheering, a steel pan band was playing reggae, a photographer captured every finisher, and there was water, fruit and poweraid at the ready.

I wasn't wearing a watch, but I could tell from the number of swimmers finishing after me that I had done quite well. I had to wait until the awards banquet to find out my official time & placement:

Time 1:19:06

Overall place: 11

Female place: 8

Age group (19 - 39) place: 4

35 - 39 age group place (had there been one): 1

My time was not quite what I'd expected, but as the winning time was over 1 hour and I was only 14 minutes behind an Olympian, I'm feeling good about the outcome. The conditions were challenging as well; Alex Kostich has won the 5 Mile race 10 out of the last 11 races. His time this year was almost eight minutes slower than his fastest.

This event is amazing - the location is stunning, the race is very well organized and supported and the atmosphere was both relaxing and tense (hard to explain how it was both). I hope to come back in a few years to do the 5 Mile race! Anyone care to join me?