Ozark Open Water Swim Race Recap

Saturday was the Ozark Open Water Swim at Hickory Creek park on Beaver Lake.  Hickory Creek is towards the southern end of the lake and is somewhere I had never been to swim before.  The weather had taken a huge cooldown and I woke up Saturday morning to an air temp around 54 degrees.  Brrrrrr!!!

A Chilly Race Morning!

The swim offered three distances to choose from 1K, 2K, or 4K (.6mi, 1.2mi, or 2.4mi.) The swim benefits one of the local youth club swim teams.  One of the event sponsors was Proctor & Gamble so the schwag bag was full of goodies! Registration was pretty easy except for one little annoyance...the park entry fee was not included in the cost of registration.  As you got body marked, the volunteers asked for your $3 park entry fee since Beaver Lake is part of the state park system.  I think for a registration of $30 they could cover that fee for you. 

Check out the race schwag!

The air temps were chilly but you could tell the water wasn't going to be all that cold from the steam coming off the lake.  My friend Anjeanette was doing the race too.  Neither one of us wanted to take off our street clothes until the last possible minute.  We loaded up one bag with our towels and things and headed down to the lake shore.  Several of the Masters Swimmers that I know from the pool were there and a strong showing of local triathletes too.  It was fun to catch up with everyone while we waited for the race to start.

The race was an in-water start and was an out and back course.  The 4K racers simply did the course twice.  I took a few seconds pause after the whistle start to let the melee clear out some.  It helps to wait just a second or two if you don't like getting kicked or trampled in the water! My sighting on the way out to the turn was great but once we made the turn I struggled a little since the sun was in my eyes.  I was near someone at pretty much all times but didn't feel crowded or get run into that much. 

The race finish line...and the long run out of the water!

I came into the finish knowing that we had walked out 25ft or so before starting...meaning a run out of the lake to finish.  I was in line with another participant for the last .4mi or so and we both popped up at the same time to start running into the beach.  He totally kicked my butt...I just wasn't comfortable running with all the rocks and things in the water.  Either way, it was a lot of fun and we both got a chuckle out of the finish. 

It's all Good even if I was outsprinted out of the water! Need to work on lake exits!

The age groupers (kids race) started just after I finished so it was fun to watch them all start.  Those kids can swim like fish! We watched for a little while and then headed up to the restrooms to change into dry clothes.  I think my finish time was around 44 minutes for 1.2 miles which I'm really happy with.  I was doing the race for exercise and didn't really realize that it was a race until that morning. 

Post race with Anjeanette