First time swimming in open water, first time swimming for more than 400meters without taking a short break!
Two of my swimmer friends managed to talk me into signing up for this 1.5k open water race, and since I was injured from running, I decided to transition to triathlon early and step up my swimming training, and the race was the motivation I needed!
So three weeks before, I asked one of my friends to give me a training plan that would make me somewhat ready for this. I swam around 2k per session, 3 times a week (except for week 2, all the swimming pools in my city were closed for different reasons... So I missed 2 days).
Pre race: Comes race day, it's raining, with some thunder every now and then. And COLD! Suddenly the race seems like a terrible idea. We change, get our number tattoos on our bodies, the GPS tags around our wrists and get ready to swim, but the race is delayed 30 minutes... I'm already freezing and the race hasn't begun. I look around and see most people wearing at least leg suits, and everyone greasing up. I'm the guy with the boxer swimsuit, and I feel totally out of place. They start showing the race path, I can't believe how far that all seems. They have those big Newfoundland dogs on their boats to fetch us if we're in trouble, so there's at least a bit of comfort. I get in the lake (surprisingly decent feel considering it was 18°C, 64°F) and swim to the start line. I can't help but repeat "what am I doing here", "there's no way I'm going to do all of that without stopping" over and over in my head.
First half: A guy in a coat blows the horn and everybody rushes off, never to be seen again for the whole race. I start swimming at my pace, and have to keep adjusting my trajectory since there are those disgusting algae instead of neat lines underneath me... I feel just fine, not too cold, not too tired, although my shoulders seem kinda numb-ish early.
I reach the first buoy, not before getting passed by pretty much every single woman of the race (who started a few minutes after us), but feeling pretty confident since I'm not tired, and almost at half course. At this point, I'm thinking "I'm going to make it!" and I reach the first half of the race!
Second half: I start getting tired, and have to switch to breaststroke a few times to recover (and a tiny bit of backstroke). The end seems really far, and the cold starts creeping up my legs. The breaststroke seems to help with the cold too. It's getting harder. The GPS tags are really too big for my wrists (yes, they had us put 1 on each wrist...), and I have to stop every now and then to readjust them, it's incredibly annoying.
I reach the second buoy, one more to go before the finish line. The boats are often passing by me, and MAKING WAVES, I hate them so much. I'm cold. My legs are numb, my arms are tired, my form is getting sloppy. Third and last buoy. I can feel the end of the race. This gives me the extra boost I needed to get to the finish line. 34 minutes, and considering I was aiming at under 35, I'm happy!
I probably won't swim in such a cold water without a proper suit again, but I enjoyed it a lot and it does make me want to improve my swimming !
TL;DR: Swam a 1.5k race pretty much alone, in a 18°C (64°F) lake, with my shitty boxer swimsuit, and me happy.