As we arrived and I saw the lake my stomach churned! I do 3k/4k/5k in the pool on Monday/Wednesday/Friday respectively so 5k in itself wasn't out of the realms of what I know I'm capable of, however when all you know it as is 200 lengths it seems reasonably short and arriving and seeing the lake I was to swim in, the sheer distance that I had to cover there and back not once but twice was daunting to say the least!
Eventually the nerves settled and I got ready, put my tri suit on, donned the wetsuit and waited in the cue to be called on, the nerves by this point had flared up again but was overridden by the adrenaline rush thanks to the atmosphere. After sweating half to death for 10 minutes during the race briefing we jumped in for a couple of minutes to acclimatise to the water and we were off.
The first thing I noticed was I didn't even need to tread water at the start, the wetsuit was so buoyant I floated in place, certainly a reassuring feeling that if I did get tired I could just float rather than, you know, drown! Once the raced kicked off it was like being back in the school yard, punches and kicks coming in from all directions, a total melee where no one was in any sort of order. Once this initial free for all was out the way the next feeling that struck me was how lonely it felt out there; in the pool while I don't talk to people you actually see others as you flip and as you pass them under the water, in the murky water you didn't see anyone and it felt rather solitary, this too passed though and was eventually replaced with a feeling of awe that I've not experienced since I first started cycling to new places; a total sense of freedom that you just don't usually get!
In terms of the water itself it was incredibly murky and green, you couldn't see your hand during the stroke let alone anything else, there were oddly hot and cold patches all over the water and the huge swan was rather intimidating, but the biggest issue I (and many others) experienced was the weeds in the water, so rife were they that I and a few other swimmers got entirely tangled, I was constantly fishing them from around my neck and on at least 1 occasion had both hands, legs and neck entirely in a bind.
The other thing which I figured might happen is the dreaded chafing of the wetsuit, and oh boy did it chafe. My neck is red raw and hurts like you wouldn't believe, but the whole point behind this swim was to learn what can go wrong and fix it before race day. Vaseline will be high on my priorities before the next race that's for sure!
So how did I actually do overall? Not as bad as I expected, I didn't die, I didn't need rescuing, I didn't even come last. Maybe 114/133 (134 including 1 DNF) isn't the greatest achievement I've made, but it's all a learning curve to me. I also managed to beat my 2 hour target by a couple of minutes!
All the race data can be found here. Photos are courtesy of my uncle.
Eventually the nerves settled and I got ready, put my tri suit on, donned the wetsuit and waited in the cue to be called on, the nerves by this point had flared up again but was overridden by the adrenaline rush thanks to the atmosphere. After sweating half to death for 10 minutes during the race briefing we jumped in for a couple of minutes to acclimatise to the water and we were off.
The first thing I noticed was I didn't even need to tread water at the start, the wetsuit was so buoyant I floated in place, certainly a reassuring feeling that if I did get tired I could just float rather than, you know, drown! Once the raced kicked off it was like being back in the school yard, punches and kicks coming in from all directions, a total melee where no one was in any sort of order. Once this initial free for all was out the way the next feeling that struck me was how lonely it felt out there; in the pool while I don't talk to people you actually see others as you flip and as you pass them under the water, in the murky water you didn't see anyone and it felt rather solitary, this too passed though and was eventually replaced with a feeling of awe that I've not experienced since I first started cycling to new places; a total sense of freedom that you just don't usually get!
In terms of the water itself it was incredibly murky and green, you couldn't see your hand during the stroke let alone anything else, there were oddly hot and cold patches all over the water and the huge swan was rather intimidating, but the biggest issue I (and many others) experienced was the weeds in the water, so rife were they that I and a few other swimmers got entirely tangled, I was constantly fishing them from around my neck and on at least 1 occasion had both hands, legs and neck entirely in a bind.
The other thing which I figured might happen is the dreaded chafing of the wetsuit, and oh boy did it chafe. My neck is red raw and hurts like you wouldn't believe, but the whole point behind this swim was to learn what can go wrong and fix it before race day. Vaseline will be high on my priorities before the next race that's for sure!
So how did I actually do overall? Not as bad as I expected, I didn't die, I didn't need rescuing, I didn't even come last. Maybe 114/133 (134 including 1 DNF) isn't the greatest achievement I've made, but it's all a learning curve to me. I also managed to beat my 2 hour target by a couple of minutes!
All the race data can be found here. Photos are courtesy of my uncle.
