After just completing my first half Ironman in Peterborough using these goggles, I almost can’t find the words to describe them, but I will try.
I’ve never been one to enjoy the swim, in fact, I usually can’t wait to get out of the water, shed my wetsuit, and start to rip off on the bike. My experience this past weekend was not quite the usually.
Let me get into the detail of what my usual swim would be like. I’m sure many of you share this same sequence of events. You start off, and everyone is being really aggressive trying to get their way through the people that they think are going too slowly. They try to climb and crawl all over you, you get smacked in the face and smashed on the back of your head with someone’s elbow. I usually need to spend nearly as much time adjusting goggles as I do swimming. Partly due to being knocked off, and partly due to the goggles leaking water. For me it’s really not comfortable for my eyes to be in contact with water, so that’s probably the most important thing for me.
In the race this past weekend, I was knocked in the face and head as usual, but to my surprise, the goggles were never knocked out of place. I didn’t once need to stop to reposition the goggles. That in itself probably saved me a fair amount of time.
But lets get to the real meat of why this product is so great. I could actually see what was in the water, even on the second lap of 1km despite the cloudiness from the 500 people that had already gone through on lap 1 (plus the people ahead of me). This made me feel much more calm and comfortable in the lake, and once things thinned out in lap 2, this level of comfort let me start to get into a really relaxed pace, and I didn’t lose any more time from the leaders in the second lap. Sighting of the buoys above water was fantastic! It felt like normal vision as opposed to wearing goggles, and this gave an added level of comfort. I usually get a bit disoriented and swim off to teh side and then need to try to adjust my line as I am swimming along. I didn’t have this happen while wearing the sables.
So if you have previously felt like me while lake swimming, then you really should try a pair of sable goggles. I decided to buy the 922 ST,which is supposedly a recreational level. I decided to get these as they appeared to be more sturdy in construction than the other options, and I didn’t want to have them break if I was knocked while swimming. I have hear great things about the other pairs as well.
Don’t take my word for it! Try them yourself! I can assure you however that you won’t be disappointed!!
Sable optics 922 ST available at running free: http://www.runningfree.com/detail.aspx?ID=12987
