Hard Core!!!
Hard Core!!!
On a casual mid-week workday, I came up with the idea of entering myself in the Sydney Harbour Swim - Opera house to Fort Denison and back. 1.6km. Thats about 32 laps in an Olympic pool. 2 more laps than Grant Hackett in his big race.
I checked out the times for last years swim and it ranged from 20 to 90 mins. Surely I'd fit somewhere in between there?!
So to 'test the waters' (so to speak), I headed to North Sydney Olympic pool for some lap-training. I swam 2km (40 laps) at a comfortable pace and did it in 44 mins. So I thought, why not?
What was holding me back?
Insufficient time to train - 3 days to go!
Never done an ocean swim before - will I make it?
Lack of current/swell/wave experience
Lack of race experience - never swum with 500 people in open water
Lack of visibility - can't swim a straight line without lane markings
Fear of sea creatures - bluebottles and other stingers
Need to wipe out my social calendar for the weekend
The day before...
Saturday came round and I was comfortable at doing around 32 laps in 30 mins. (It helps if you have some pro-swimmer chasing your ass in the "fast" lane). Still felt nervous tho.....
The big day...
Great weather, nice calm conditions and scary looking athletic people filled the area outside the 'Man O War' steps. This was no 'fun run' like I expected. Seems like this year, only serious contenders were entering....SCARY! (See the Pontoon on the right? Thats the start)
The race...
The gun went off and I was still in the water fixing my watch - trying to start the stopwatch timer. Bad move coz I got kicked in the face and gulped a lot of water. Not a great start.
The first 10 mins was hard. Nerves, lots of legs and the poor visibility got the better of me. I waited a bit for the rest to go just to have some space. I didn't really care about time, I just wanted to finish. What I didn't account for was the constant battle with people as the later-starting groups started over-taking. You get pulled, shoved, kicked and splashed just like a water polo match. It was really hard to keep the pace.
As you get out further, you also have to deal with the swell. I've never been sea-sick but I can now relate to how it 'may' feel. I was bobbing up and down and up and down....whilst thinking, 1-2-3-breath, 1-2-3-breath....quiet uneasy.
I also veered off track quite a bit in the home stretch coz I forgot to look up and check where I was going.
However, before you know it, I had reached the steps and clambered up. I was quite disappointed with myself because I hadn't pushed hard enough. Too much air left in the tank. I was so worried that I wouldn't finish, I avoided exerting too much energy. Now the swim was over and I felt like I had just walked around the block :(
Oh well, you live and learn. I did it in 36 mins which was really poor considering it was a race and I added 6 mins to my previous time. Next year....next year I'll train earlier.....haha yeah right!
See the little island to the right of me? Thats Fort Denison!
Shout outs...
Congrats to Gord the mighty lifesaver who did really well!!!
Happy B'day Cuz! (Still can't believe she's older than me)
posted by Misse66 @ 9:51 AM
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