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Long distance swim reports

BmanBman Posts: 442
Hi, Im just wondering if anyone did the first of the aquashpere long distance swims at South Cerney this weekend? Any first timers at LD swimming? I would be interested to find out how it was.

Comments

  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    Sounds like you had similar conditions to us at Dorney lake this weekend. The water temp was just right getting in without a wetsuit and the pre-race nerves were a bit diminished not having to worry about wetuit issues. It was more of me versus the lake, no wetsuit to worry about. But as a first time OW swim without a wetsuit, I felt less restricted and enjoyed it (shoulder pain excluded). A bit slower but good.

    Dorney was a bit reedy too, but not near as bad as your monster-from-the-bog experience. A few thousand swimmers over the last few weeks has probably shredded what was there. Im guessing it will be laps at all events for safety's sake. Not good considering we saw a lifeguard fall off her canoe and she needed to be rescued!

    Good time though and congrats on getting through it. I cant believe the winners time. Loco!
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    I'm up for Bedford i think.

    G
  • jibby26jibby26 Posts: 261
    Good to hear it's well organised. I would have liked to have done the Bedford one as it's only about a mile from my parents house and I run past the lake all the time when I go home but I'm on holiday. I've entered the Bournemouth one though, all the OW practice I'll get over the next few weeks living on a boat won't be wasted.
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    Right i've bittern the bullet and entered Bedford. A good challenge following my HIM.

    G
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    So first 3.8k done posted a 1.18,

    Godd to meet Ewen Mac - fantastic 1.02 time.

    Also good to catch up with the Conemeister - just managed to pip me!!

    G
  • cheers G, Good to meet you too.

    Very pleased with my time but I have to admit that it was as much luck as anything else. I just about managed to latch onto the back of a train of genuinely fast guys about halfway through the first lap; it almost killed me to stick with them but they dragged me around the course about 5 minutes quicker than I had been planning! For me it was a huge lesson in how important drafting can be!

    Even more impressive is Craig's result. He finished just 4 places behind me (and I know was disapointed with his time), but instead of my dream swim he had to contend with losing his swim hat and having to stop several times to empty his leaking goggles!

    A fun day had by all I hope.
  • WannabetriWannabetri Posts: 219
    Yep. It all went balls + tits up for me, but still managed a respectable 1:03 something and 37th overall.
    Was hoping for under an hour but with both swim hats coming off, re-affix my goggles 3 times and loosing more feet and legs then a daddy long legs convention at a naughty childs house it was an okay result. Just never really settled but great to get through the distance and had cheered up by the afternoon.

    OWS - What a f*cker!
  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    Picked up the leaflet for this swim series at the Bournemouth Pier-to-Pier (2200m) yesterday. Might be good fun to do it there, I'm guessing you go almost pier-to-pier then come back again??

    Actually, the p2p was hilarious this year. Wind ended up at a pretty steady 25mph WSW by lunchtime, so it was at least pushing the massive swell in the right direction. Ended up with a current which made it hard to stand up in the shallow water. The only thing to stop anybody swimming in the really fast shallows was the 6ft breakers. Ooops. Bloody hard work smashing out through them into the nasty swell, longest 100m of my life. Steering problems for most swimmers also made it into a heee-oooge fight at the start. Tee hee.

    Lots of people dropped out, not suprising really... even some of our decent club swimmers (but with little OW experience) found it intimidating. Only had a couple of moments myself. At one point I was just a few metres behind my coach when a big wave hit us. I rolled with it, but just a few metres away she got somersaulted! I just saw these legs fly up into the air On another occasion I had to hang on under a load of foam until I found some proper water again... that was getting a bit tight, oxygen wise I also got somersaulted near the finish.

    But what a laugh. What an absolute riot! There was no need to be swimming in that crap but I'm so glad I did. We all said afterwards that it was sod all about technique and just about smashing the water out of the way. I reckon I invented a couple of new crawl techniques just out of necessity. Most of my sighting was done to the right, to check on what waves were coming and I think I swam about 1/3 of it 'head up'.

    As a measure of how much the wind was blowing the water along... my time for the 2200m was... drum roll.... 22:30!!! Yep, that's about 4:15 per 400m. Compared to 34min last year and 32 mins the previous I'm calling that a PB (with mild current assist).
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