Hey folks! With all the open water events that our members have done this summer it’s finally time for the annual fall classic, the 10th annual Upstate Splash at Lake Jocassee!
Asheville Masters swimming has a fairly large contingency headed down to South Carolina, likely 12 to 15 people !
We will all be arriving Saturday at the Devil’s Fork State Park with restrooms, concessions and rentals, and grassy perch to view the beautiful lake. Please look for each other and let’s gather!
If you need to give up your number for any reason in the next two days, please let the race director, Steve Scott know immediately by sending him an email here: upstatesplash@gmail.com or text/call him at 864.349.7615
Steve can get your race number used by someone on the waiting list which was 80 people deep recently. More race info here!
The reason this event is capped at 175 entries is the parking situation. The event organizers strongly encourage carpooling.
I can take 2 to 3 people comfortably in my vehicle, if anyone else is willing to take passengers, let’s exchange this information at Friday’s morning swim and we can use the dry erase board to coordinate.
When all of us are tired and done and headed back to the Asheville area, our hard-core, multi-event open-water distance swimming crew of Misty Varnell and Adrienne Kramer, and their paddlers (our lanemate) Laura Stuck and Lisa Kiebzak will all be heading to Knoxville for Sunday’s 10k / 6.2miles swim, Bridges to Bluffs! Have fun and a great time y’all.
A few race tips:
Saturday morning food/beverage – Stick with your normal routine with what you consume before a normal morning swim practice or what you have already experimented with on previous race mornings that worked well! An event/race morning is not the time to make changes.
What do I eat? I stick with black coffee and water right up to race time, and MIGHT have either half a banana OR a Clif bar max, I typically don’t need anything before I swim morning workouts, but I’ve done so many of these open water events that I know I can tolerate that little bit of food early if needed, and for me at least 2+ hours before the race.
Orange juice and all acidic beverages are out!
You might not sleep too well the night before with nerves and that’s OK. You might have to get up to go to the bathroom another time if you’ve been hydrating, just know you’ll still do great!
If it’s warm enough – which it usually is – to warm up prior to the swim, go ahead and do that as long as you can get warm and dry before the event begins. If you want to wait to warm up during the event itself, really focus on relaxing your legs, do not overuse them. A gentle 2-beat kick will suffice while you continue warming up and often the entire race unless you want to pick it up purposefully. Spend the entire first leg (half a loop) warming up.
Remember sighting does not need to be focused, you just need to see the color of the buoy and know you’re headed in the correct direction. Sighting should also be done while holding your breath in the instant your eyes are looking up and then rewarding yourself with a breath in its normal spot to the side.
It is perfectly OK to flip over to swim some backstroke and maybe a little breaststroke to get those hip flexors and hamstrings loosened up or if you need to take a longer look for a course marker buoy.
Please remember: while doing this event and other Open Water, it’s always your responsibility to STAY ALERT AT ALL TIMES TO ONCOMING SWIMMER TRAFFIC!
I went head to face with another swimmer at Lake Lure earlier this summer (no real damage), and last summer our friend Susan had a head to her face directly at this event (black eye, cuts)! So, please BE AWARE of and keep alert at all times!
If you’ve never used the baby-shampoo/water spritz (with a 1:10 ratio) treatment as an anti-fog for your goggles before a race ask one of us about it, it works amazingly well.
And lastly you may already know I’m a huge fan of expressing gratitudes while swimming open water! It started as a way to work through my fears in Ocean and Chesapeake Bay swims and races. It’s quite natural for most everyone to be challenged by this at some point.
Expressing gratitudes works 100% of the time because one cannot simultaneously have fearful thoughts whilst expressing the gratitudes!
The list of things for which to be grateful for is likely long. I start by thanking the water for providing buoyancy and silky smooth movement around me and also thanking the marine life that I’m sharing space with! Read more about how water responds to us in this awesome book here.
Also, when expressing gratitudes about how awesome it is to be healthy and fit to do this event and to feel so good while doing it – this usually becomes self-fulfilling because you feel better and better in your event as you express these thoughts!
Works 100% of the time.
Let’s go !
Asheville Masters Swimming 