Well that was interesting.
It started out a wet day, and it stayed wet, while also getting wetter as the
day went on. But hey, who cares on a sea swim, right? Personally I was relieved
to see on the forecast that the winds were going to be calm on the day and
southerly instead of westerly – surely this was a good thing. I had signed up
for this event hoping for some rough conditions, to prepare me for all
eventualities for the Ironman Swim but as the day came closer, my aspirations
for the conditions changed somewhat.
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| Full Panorama of Course, starting at edge of moored boats to the right, then out to the Mare Island (near the horizon, on the right), then back again! |
After a damp
registration I bumped into Dai and Phil, and later Kevin from the
triathlon club (on this note, I must say it’s nice turning up to these
events as part of a club - also spotted Rebecca in the car park) and found out
that the course had changed, due to ‘sketchy’ conditions out the back of the
Green Scar island, something which was confirmed at the race briefing. Instead
of going around the sizeable Green Scar island, we would be swimming around the
little rock right beside it. The change seemed clear, though the q + a
afterwards seemed to cause more confusion, which led to everyone asking
questions as we got counted down to the slip way. Right so, all set to go.
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| Getting Suited Up! |
It wasn’t a slip start so we
had to swim to a starting point by the end of the moored boats. My god, the
water was cold! It took all of the 100m or so to the start line for me the get
the air back into my lungs and stop hyperventilating. I could sense the trepidation
among the other competitors, including myself, about swimming into the wild
like this, but nobody would dare vocalise their worries, not when the name of
the organisers is Man Up UK!
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| Masters training buddy, David Thompson (left) and myself, ready to go! |
Starting gun. And chaos.
A few of the customary kicks
to the face, and a bonus grabbing of my bum, but that was enough socialising -
within 50m I was in my own space with the lead pack just ahead. The conditions
in the bay were quite nice, and I could still see the lead kayaker, who would
be guiding us around the course, and was starting to find a rhythm. Then I
passed the island at the opening of the inlet, the black scar, the gateway to
the wild, and everything changed.
I was immediately hit
straight on with wall of water, and my rhythm was so shot, I had to stop and
get my bearings. The waves were unrelenting, a 3 foot choppy swell. Sighting
went out the window. Arms slowed right down. This was no longer about swimming
against anyone around me, but just minimising how much water I swallowed!
Sometimes I would see the swimmers ahead, sometimes I would only sea the crest
of the wave. Sometimes the water seemed to disappear from underneath me, and my
arms searching for a pull in the water almost had me corkscrewing onto my back!
I must say, all the sighting drills in the swim sessions really payed off.
Looking forward before breathing, as opposed to looking forward while breathing
made a LOT of sense in these conditions! The
conditions were difficult but I had adjusted and was happy to be remaining
calm. About half way between the bay and the destination rock, I latched onto a
guy of similar pace, and he became both my pacer and wayfinder.
As we got to the rock, aptly
named ‘the Mare’, things got pretty dramatic. We were warned to stay about
10-15m away from it, and the Mare had its own way of reminding us of this!
There was a shallow bed of rock below the surface on the far side of the rock,
making for big dramatic wave breaks covering the rock in white foam. We tried
very hard to keep our distance but it was a struggle. There was a notable
current here too and it was a struggle just to get around! I looked over to my
pace twin and thought “well, he’ll break my fall”. I was a bit disorientated
coming out the other side, and the lead pack ahead seemed to be going in a completely
different direction from where I estimated the harbour to be. To add to the
confusion there was a notable amount of swimmers , swimming to the rock the
wrong way around!! I put fate in my pace twin and continued on.
It was still rough, but much
easier going back. Still up and down, but more riding the waves rather than
bashing into them. I got to see some local wildlife too, some barrel jellyfish
swimming right under me and pace twin! Apart from stopping to put my swim hat
back on, there was no major drama, me & pace twin jostling for position as
we found our pace again. Funnily, I didn’t see the opening for the harbour
until we were about 50m away. The breaking waves on the black scar rock on the
right and onto the cliffs on the left, helped me decide the right swimming
line. Swimming back through the opening in the cliffs, with two solitary
spectators looking down at us from the top, was a pretty epic feeling!
Once we were back in the bay
it was pool-like conditions, relatively speaking. I started to kick my legs and
made a concentrated effort to up the pace. My pace twin, being my pace twin did
exactly the same. Ultimately I sacrificed my position to him to adjust my
swimming hat again (seriously, what is the deal with that?!), and got to the
slipway nipping at his heels. I ran up the slip and out to the finish line. I
met my masters training buddy, David Thompson who had came 2nd or 3rd with a
time of about 46minutes. I myself came out at 50 minutes flat. The distance was
about 900metres short (or half a mile for all you imperialists!), but I was
pretty happy with that. Not sure about the position, but would hazard a guess
around top 20?
I met my pace twin and shook
his hand & thanked him for keeping me company out there. He said he
actually tried to shake me, but gave up after a mile when he realised I was a
good swimmer…. And here’s me thinking we were just pacing off each other!
Oopsie.
Unfortunately, due to having
a lift, I didn’t get to hang around and see the other Pembs tri folk and how
they got on, but saw some nice times on Strava. Well done to everyone who took
part. It was not for the faint-hearted, and everyone definitely earned their swimming stripes today!
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