5k swim race RR: I am alive

And it was not that bad actually. I was slow, but it was not as bad as I expected it to be.

1:42.25. Very slow but I am glad I did not have any problems going the distance. I knew I can go the distance (I can do anything, really:), plus I have zero respect for any distance,) I just was not sure how swimming 5k would be. Because that's a loooong way to go. especially for somehow who started swimming last fall and the longest continuous swim was around 50min.
It was not bad at all. It did not seem long at al. I was actually surprised when I saw the finish line. I was like, hm, we are there already?

Of course, my arms hurt and I probably won't be able to lift even a pen tomorrow but I did not find swimming 5k too long. Which is good for IM swim, right?

I started decently but then I had to stop because my googles started to leak. I adjusted it and took off again. Of course by that time I was the last female (they had waves and female were last) because everyone passed me while I was fidling with it.
But I start catching people and then was shoulder to shoulder with one lady for some time until we got to this channel that connects lakes we were swimming in. Those channels were filled with seaweed, especially as you go closer to the bank. And this lady somehow "pushed" me into those seaweeds. I was like, come on, don't you see that you are forcing me to swim right into those seaweeds? At that point I got little pissed and decided to start drafting off her. You push me into seaweeds, I draft behind you.
And I drafted behind her the whole time. She was going at decent pace, probably faster than I would have done if I went alone. Well, I was not actually drafting properly because she was not the best OW swimmer and she was kind of zig-zagging and so was I so I was very ofter not in her draft. But at least she kept my pace honest even later in the race when my arms started to feel tired. Without her I would not have swum that fast (well, fastish).
We were not swimming fast, but it felt like a decent pace.

I actually liked the swim. But what I did not like was not knowing how far we have gone and how far we have left. I had no idea whether we were swimming for 30min or for 1h. Really. No idea. And no idea how fast were we swimming. And I did not like that.

Also, swimming for that long without stopping is tough on legs. Because you need to keep them straight and I started to feel little uncomfortable and I had to bend my knees couple times just for the change of position. Also my hips starte to feel very tight after a while as well.
I actually got a calf cramp because one man cut me off (or maybe I cut him off...)and I had to stop abruptly and get into vertical position and then I got the cramp. But it went away.

As I mentioned before, I have no notion of pacing in water, esp OW and I think that that's one of the main reasons why I am so slow. If I had someone to pace me and me just hanging on for my dear life, I would be doing much better job in this OW swim business.
(That fast sexist guy I want to marry just went 1:03 in Louisville, which is a huge surprise to me since he did 37min in Muncie 70.3 and if he continues training for next year as hard as he had been for this year maybe he will let me draft off him and thus he can pace me next year in Mt Tremblant if I ask him nicely)