First 10Km of the summer
It was 4.30am on a Monday morning. I had awoken early to prepare myself for my First 10Km race of my season. I looked out the window and what greeted me was a typically British bank holiday Monday! Grey! Wet! Raining! You gotta love British summer time. Having followed the weather report in a rather offhanded way, it seemed like Michael Fish had been involved in this weekends weather predictions. Well there was no reason in cursing the weather, it seemed I would be getting wet --- long before I even jumped into the lake. Bad Hair Day Here I come!! After an early breakfast and coffee and going through the pre race palava of making sure I had everything that I needed, Still managed to forget essential things like Warm clothes and jumpers for - it seemed, before and after the race. I then met up with Audra who had agreed to come along and watch, Silly Woman But I was grateful. I think she is cursing me now.
We arrived at Dorney lake at about 7.30am and this time, the parking was near the start area so there was not the 25 minute stroll to the registration tent to endure. Maybe I was not going to get as wet as I thought. Registration was effortless and, for the first time ever - and I have done many races - The prescribed Swim cap for 10km swimmers without wetsuit was ORANGE. For the first time ever I would be properly colour co-ordinated with Orange Trunks, Orange goggles and Orange cap, Orange watch, The only part letting down my perfectly colour co-ordinated attire was a blue anklestrap for the Race timing chip. I asked if they had it in orange, they did not.
Then, as it was raining and about 12 degrees outside, we went off to find some warmth as it was still an hour or so till my start, and I was dressed in my most sensible clothing for the event, T-Shirt, Shorts and soaking flip flops.We did manage to find some shelter and a coffee to wile away the time until my start time
Then it was time to go and get ready. The 10Km Wesuiters were off 15 minutes before us so they were due to start at 9am. I went down and let them start then got into the holding paddock with about 50 other NON wetsuit swimmers to wait for our start. The briefing went as follows. We all get in and then line up at the boat and then they start us. Well there was no boat and Our prescribed start was 9.15am so I was waiting on the banks, not wanting to get in and get cold for the next 8 minutes. Anyway as everyone got in and swam out to a fictitious point, the start gun went. I turned around and asked an official, "Was that the Start?" to which I got an approval that it was and by the time I got in, I was at the back with the leaders,and 50 odd other non wetsuiters about 200m in front of me. In front of them were 200 odd wetusiters who had started 7 minutes ahead of me. it seems it was now time to play catchup. Seems to be the story of my life.
Meeting The ladies winner before the start
So we were off, 4 laps of 2.5km each for us
It seemed a lot colder than the 16 degrees that they said it was. maybe it was me minus the blubber that made it seem colder but it was a good 4 km into the swim that I started to warm up a bit. I am often aware of the cold but it does not bother me too much but this time, my whole body and limbs just felt colder than usual.
It was a pretty uneventful race but having to swim through swimmers all the time for the first 5 km was a bit tedious,the odd argument with the small buoys along the way did not help my stroke rhythm I often tried to go round them on the inside but some of the swimmers ability to swim in a straight line was pretty horrendous, especially when you have a cable beneath you to follow. I did end up T-Boning a few swimmers who had lost all sense of direction. The lake was pretty clear and you could see a fair amount of stuff at the bottom, being from Zimbabwe and wanting to collect and re-use everything, I had to stop myself from diving down to retrieve the odd discarded cap, Goggles and various other bits and pieces.
Although the swim itself was great, after about 7 km my lack of fitness started to show, not so much in my stroke and stroke count - When asked what I think about during a long swims, the answer is, trying to keep my stroke as long and as consistent as possible.
We arrived at Dorney lake at about 7.30am and this time, the parking was near the start area so there was not the 25 minute stroll to the registration tent to endure. Maybe I was not going to get as wet as I thought. Registration was effortless and, for the first time ever - and I have done many races - The prescribed Swim cap for 10km swimmers without wetsuit was ORANGE. For the first time ever I would be properly colour co-ordinated with Orange Trunks, Orange goggles and Orange cap, Orange watch, The only part letting down my perfectly colour co-ordinated attire was a blue anklestrap for the Race timing chip. I asked if they had it in orange, they did not.
Then, as it was raining and about 12 degrees outside, we went off to find some warmth as it was still an hour or so till my start, and I was dressed in my most sensible clothing for the event, T-Shirt, Shorts and soaking flip flops.We did manage to find some shelter and a coffee to wile away the time until my start time
Then it was time to go and get ready. The 10Km Wesuiters were off 15 minutes before us so they were due to start at 9am. I went down and let them start then got into the holding paddock with about 50 other NON wetsuit swimmers to wait for our start. The briefing went as follows. We all get in and then line up at the boat and then they start us. Well there was no boat and Our prescribed start was 9.15am so I was waiting on the banks, not wanting to get in and get cold for the next 8 minutes. Anyway as everyone got in and swam out to a fictitious point, the start gun went. I turned around and asked an official, "Was that the Start?" to which I got an approval that it was and by the time I got in, I was at the back with the leaders,and 50 odd other non wetsuiters about 200m in front of me. In front of them were 200 odd wetusiters who had started 7 minutes ahead of me. it seems it was now time to play catchup. Seems to be the story of my life.
Meeting The ladies winner before the start
So we were off, 4 laps of 2.5km each for us
It seemed a lot colder than the 16 degrees that they said it was. maybe it was me minus the blubber that made it seem colder but it was a good 4 km into the swim that I started to warm up a bit. I am often aware of the cold but it does not bother me too much but this time, my whole body and limbs just felt colder than usual.
It was a pretty uneventful race but having to swim through swimmers all the time for the first 5 km was a bit tedious,the odd argument with the small buoys along the way did not help my stroke rhythm I often tried to go round them on the inside but some of the swimmers ability to swim in a straight line was pretty horrendous, especially when you have a cable beneath you to follow. I did end up T-Boning a few swimmers who had lost all sense of direction. The lake was pretty clear and you could see a fair amount of stuff at the bottom, being from Zimbabwe and wanting to collect and re-use everything, I had to stop myself from diving down to retrieve the odd discarded cap, Goggles and various other bits and pieces.
Although the swim itself was great, after about 7 km my lack of fitness started to show, not so much in my stroke and stroke count - When asked what I think about during a long swims, the answer is, trying to keep my stroke as long and as consistent as possible.
Battling it out with 2 other skins
Such law abiding citizens us Open water swimmers
Took that Bouy a bit wide then!! Must have added at least 25m
I was lapping at about 40 mintues for 2.5km, that is slightly slower than I can do but I maintained that throughout most of the race. I think lap three might have been a bit quicker as I met up with another non wetsuiter and matched him stroke for stoke for the length of the one lap. I then decided to swim my own race so let him go on the fourth lap, it was a hard decision to make but I still had 2.5km to go. I also had a feed on the 3rd lap, Don't normally feed on a 10Km race but was still feeling the cold and my muscles were beginning to say "Hey Dude, are you serious?? We have not done this distance for about a year and all of a sudden you want us to do 10Km after only training up to 5Km? Get real!!" After a bit of sustanance and a fair amount of mental to-ing and fro-ing about whether to carry on or not, my body capitulated and we carried on. My Mind had won this battle.Audra was on the side lines counting my stroke rate every 15 minutes or so. it was quite interesting to see that it was 68 strokes per minute the whole time - this is exactly what it was when I did the channel all those years ago. Mmmmm!! not a hell of a lot of progress in 5 years!!
Well, we carried onto the fourth and final lap and trudged our way through that.In the last 800m I slowed down a fair amount but with dogged determination, carried onto the end. That last 800m seemed longer than the previous 9200m, I always hate the end of the races as they seem to go on for ever. Well, after 2 hours 44 min and 55 seconds I waddled my bulk over the finishline, there were grandiose thoughts of running up the finishing mat at full pelt - I probably would have tripped over the step, so, I opted for a more sedate walk out the lake over the finishline. When I cam out, Audra, Greg Wood and his brother and partners were there to greet me. Apparently I was a little blue, not round the gills but everywhere, and to top it all off it was raining a bit. Oh well, good thing I was wet anyway
Statistics
Time: 2 hrs 44 min 55 seconds
Position overall: 55 out of 221 swimmers
Age group position: 10th out of 35
All the above based on both wetsuits and non wetsuit swimmers
Non Wetsuits: 8th out of 45
Synopsis
All in all, not a bad day, despite the awesome British weather, the lack of training and the 200 odd swimmers I had to swim through. It is the first of this season and was a good benchmark to see where exactly I am and how much I need to do before I swim in lake Zurich. Still a lot to do but the nice thing about swimming,if you have a decent base fitness to start with, you can ramp up your fitness and endurance levels pretty quickly. Sadly I do not think that is the same for my speed. I have always been a bit of a carthorse rather than a thoroughbred when it comes to sports, not very fast but can trudge away for hours.
The things that were very pleasing. To have 290 swimmers signed up for a 10Km race this early in the season is amazing.To have 60 Signed up (45 competed) Non wetsuiters is down right mind blowing, If I recall correctly, thi same event last year there were probably only about 70 people doing it and you could count the number of skins (Non Wetsuiters) on one hand. Sad thing for me is that with more dam good swimmers crawling out the woodwork, my noteriety is slowly disappearing into insignificance. it is going to be interesting to see what happens in two weeks at the Jubilee River swim where, I will be defending my Skins title and a time of 2 hrs 27 minutes, looking at the times this weekend, that seems like a VERY average time.
Favorite quote this week
Don't watch the clock:
Do what it does.
Keep Going
Sam levenson
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