Tuesday 31 May 2011

Eton 10km


Saturday saw me and Justine attempt our first ever 10km swim. Here we are rocking the 'homeless' look before the start!

The venue was Dorney Lake which is where the rowing events will be held for London 2012... Disappointingly, we were in the not quite so impressive lake next to the main lake but to be honest, once your in and swimming you could be anywhere so it really didn't matter … I suppose !

Arriving at the lake I bumped into Colin Hill, who I swum with at the 24 hour swim in Guildford last month... Colin is a very experienced open water swimming ,and chatting to him seemed to settle some of my nerves. He is also officially the nicest , friendliest man in the world so it really was great to see him!

Things were pretty cold.. and I was a bit anxious about how cold the water would feel once we got in... the sign claimed that the temperature was 15.5 degrees.. so pretty similar to the temp of the Channel by the time we swim in July! Looking around there were a lot of wetsuited bodies hanging around... BUT a decent smattering of mentallists like me and Justine that were going to attempt to swim without a wetsuit! It was really good to know that we weren't alone in our efforts!!



The start was cold and way more aggressive than I thought it would be.. it was 10km after all... but that didn't stop swimmers going off like rockets and fighting their way to their own bit of water. This is the reason I know I would never like to swim an event like this as a race... its just plain scary!!





Confident that I could find my own space... and my own pace, I tried to get out of the crowds (easier said than done) and get on with things!

The 10km consisted of 3 laps of the lake... my sighting .. as ever .. was shocking, but I found the 'lane lines' and tried to follow them when I could see them! After the first lap I felt fine, but could no longer feel my feet as they were that cold... I started to worry about how I would actually exit the lake with my 'dead man's feet' !!

My watch had been bashed in the hustle and bustle of the start so I had no idea how I was swimming speed wise, but I just kept on in my little bubble.. at my own pace... singing Queen's 'Don't stop me now' in my head (it had been playing over the tannoy before the start and seemed to fit in quite well with what we were doing!!)... when I got bored of queen I started repeating my little mantra (given to me by Bryn Dymott who is another Wild Swimmer!) of 'I am WARM.. and i'm doing well' and it really did help me to forget the cold and just carry on!

I didn't bother with feeding or drinking.. I just couldn't be bothered to stop!!! I didn't feel any ill effects from not feeding so it seemed to work for me!!

The last lap was not quite so comfortable as the other 2 but it still felt much better than I had expected! .. it was great to pass people that were wearing wetsuits and feel that little bit of pride that I was doing it the hard way!!

I passed the yellow buoy for the final time and tried to work out with the F*** the finish was!!!... I just followed someone else in the end.. arriving at the end to be told I had to run to the timing thing... stagger is a more appropriate description of how I chose to do it!! My face in the photo below sums it up !!


I heard the announcer say that I was 4th female out ( turns out I was 5th but hey ho!) and then the announcer exclaimed with some surprise in her voice '...AND WITHOUT A WETSUIT'.. I felt so proud!!

I got to the tent and tried to Ride The Shakes out! .. it took a while but soon enough I was warm and back to normal despite a few bumps, bruises and bites (from insects rather than swimmers.. altho there was one marking on my hand that looked human!!)

My time of 2:37:58 put me 30th overall (male and female) and 5th female... and 1st in my age group category. Justine came 6th in our category in 3:12 … Not bad for out first ever 10 km!

I can't say i'd rush to do another one... but I did really enjoy it and it was great practise and confidence building for the Channel!

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