Vachery Swim

Nice Swim In Vachery.

Today saw me travelling down to Vachery estate in Cranleigh to take part in a 3km Sprint race. Wake up at stupid o'clock and head off. After arriving, I got changed at the car and then headed to the registration tent and the orange budgie smugglers were immediately recognised by swimmers that I had competed against in the Marlow, and previous swims.After registering we went down to the lake to have a look at what lay ahead of us

Mist rising off the Lake, 10 degrees outside and a glorious day. Audra, you would have loved this swim. Well, there is always a next time to dip your feet into open water swimming. The field for the 3km was fairly small in Sprint swim terms with 50 of us gathering around for the briefing. I met up with Paul McCullock and Roland Townson. 2 Friends of mine that train with me and we listened to the Briefing before heading down to the lakes edge.

As all the rubberised people leapt into the lake I sat on the edge and met up with 2 other Non wetsuit swimmers. We waited till the absolute last minute before getting into the tropical waters of Vachery pond. The water was a fair bit warmer than the outside temperature. it was also quite shallow. Hence the No Diving sign, unless you want to become a bottom feeder off the delectable mud on the bottom of the lake. Whilst chatting to the non wetsuits and asking them what their prescribed times might be. I soon realised I was in for a bit of a lesson on how to swim a sprint. Little did I know how much of a lesson.

The time finally came, we ventured into the water an headed out to join the other swimmers that had been wallowing in their wetsuits, waiting for the start. Very soon the start siren went and we were off. SPRINT DISTANCES ARE GRUELLING AT THE START. the swimmers stormed off  like the proverbial pod of hippos and this hippos was left seriously wanting- for just a little bit of speed try as I may, I was found lacking - yes, my speed is RUBBISH.
We got to the first bouy and there was a group that had gone ahead of me, I did not know how many but it seemed like the whole pod had disappeared into the mist ahead of me. well at this point I just decided to swim my own race and hope that they would bomb out later but I did not really hold a lot of hope as sprints are not long enough for people to get tired.

There were patches of the lake that were really shallow and the oxygen weed came right up to the surface. I have swum amongst loads of this type of weed and albeit being mildly irksome, it is all weak enough to just keep your stroke going and it would break off. However, there was a more unfamiliar, sinister problem lurking below the waters surface, LILIES. these tend to float on the surface and anchor themselves to the bottom with, what I was to learn, are fairly tough root systems. These got caught around my legs, Arms and attached themselves to the timing chip and I was a bit worried that it was going to rip it off my leg. If anyone had a camera, I am sure I would have looked a right site with lily pads and oxygen weed draped over my head and draped around my shoulders.

We got to the top boy and I was desperately trying to figure out where I was but it was a futile attempt as I was unable to count the Green hats round the boy. I was with a Female swimmer who was doing particularly well and matching my stroke with a few just on my feet. After rounding the top set of boys we started the 700 odd metres of the back straight and this is where I managed to build a slim lead over the lady and the people tailing me. I thought I was pulling away from them. At this point I was wrong. After fighting my way to the front of this group and having the odd battle with lilies and weed, the former completely messing up my stoke, we made it to the bottom boys where I rounded the mark about 20m down on the group in front of me and about 5 m ahead of the group behind me.

For the next 1.5km, I stayed where I was in the pack with the group ahead of me pulling away a bit further and the group behind me staying about 5 - 10m behind me.There was no overtaking, either by me or of me. After the many skirmishes with lilies and weeds and getting too close to islands along the way we finally rounded the top bouys for the last time. we now had about 700m left of the race and I figured , even with a mammoth sprint finish, there was little chance of me catching the people ahead of me . I knew there was another non-wetsuit in that group but they were too far to reel them in. I suspected that they first non wetsuit was way ahead of me.

I got into my pace again and tried to just keep it going. Sneakily, the group behind me were directly behind me so I could not see where they were. With about 400m to go, I saw one of them making a move. It was the lady that I had passed at about the 800m point of the race.I tried to keep ahead of them but all attempts to shake them off were met with obstinacy on their part and the lady crept up until she was side by side with me, on the outside. I then found a bit of speed, lengthened and slowed my arms stoke and started using those lumps of meat that are commonly know as legs and manged to keep with them. We then came to the last bouy. Luckily I was on the inside so this lady had to take the longer route around the buoy. Now it was a sprint to the finish platform, about 100m ahead of us. As they had had to take the outside line I had the edge and managed to hold them off Until I virtually swam onto the finish jetty, now all that remained was a run/ stumble up the bridge and down the other side to where the timing mats were there to welcome the end of the race. I must admit, doing a sprint swim finish followed immediately by a sprint run/stumble finish is very weird. Then it was all over. Another 3km sprint race done. I then learnt that I had finished 10th out of the 50 strong field. people gathered around to congratulate me and my efforts.

I then went off to the timing tent to get learn my time and also see how much of a lesson I had been dealt on how to swim in a sprint. OUCH!!. my time 50 min 38 seconds. The winning time was 35 min 21secs. A phenomenally fast swim. I know why I stick to marathon swimming, with all the training in the world I doubt I could ever get to that level.

All in all it was a good day and there was lots of events going on through the day with the Triathlons being very well attended.

What remains of the year.

The summer has been great, the open water has been tropical and, sadly, as is with life, The seasons must change. 3 days ago saw Britain being plunged into Autumn. one day the maximum temperature was 29 decrees Celsius, the next it was 18 degrees. It seems Autumn is here , lets hop that we get  a bit more summer. As the seasons change so will the water temperature so I am sure the temperature of the lakes and the rivers will be sure to follow the trend of the seasons. I definitely have one, maybe two more swims left of the season. Next weekend will see me at my training lake for a 4.5km swim and probably a 1km training swim before hand. I do hope that Shepperton Open water lake Will be well supported as it is a great little lake with a very active following..

Thank you all for following me along this journey and it will soon bee continuing into winter training and then take up the reins of marathon swimming in 2014

My quotes for this week are as follows and have come courtesy of  Lewis Pugh. A truly inspirational man that recently came into my life unexpectedly and left a lasting impression.

If you don't talk about your dream, 

you are depriving others of the opportunity 

to help you achieve it.

 

Second chances are hard to come by, 

so don't waste the first ones.