Swim Race - 22 Nov

Yesterday Clare and I headed for the busy Takapuna beach on Auckland's North Shore to go for a swim. Although we have a beautiful swimming beach right on our doorstep where we can swim in peace we were lured to compete in a 1 km race whilst being buffeted by the elbows and feet of about 100 other swimmers. After registering and being issued with a nice green safety swim cap we got changed into our wet-suits and joined the other whale impersonators on the beach. There were a few people who looked OK in a wet-suit but I think I saw the worst case of VPL ever on one guy who's speedos could not have been comfortable.

This race was the third in a 16 week series of races, we had missed the first two so paid attention to the briefing. The concept is pretty straight forward, at the sound of the horn run into the sea, try not to trip over anyone and then as soon as you can, start swimming in the general direction of a big yellow marker buoy, if you make there then turn left and complete the triangular course to finish back on the beach. With lots of arms and legs splashing around it was impossible to see where the marker was so I went with the herd based on the hope that someone at the front must know where they were going. With our agreed goal to make it to the finish without incident and preferably not last we had a relaxed start, trying to avoid getting hit and keeping together. After a couple of minutes I had lost track of Clare - like her, everyone around me was wearing black wet-suits with green swim caps, I did catch sight of the marker buoy so I carried on swimming, my aim was so good that I almost swam into the marker. Once around it I had my first chance to look back along the course, thankfully there were still a few people behind me. On the second leg I put a few extra curves into the course when I kept alternating between heading for the second buoy and the yellow vest of one of the lifeguards off to the left. The home straight lasted longer than I thought it should but soon enough I was back on the beach and running to the checkpoint to have my time recorded.

I did not see Clare waiting for me even though I was sure she was ahead then I saw her walking over fully dressed - how fast was she! It turned out that she hadn't set a course record but managed to swim right into a jellyfish (the only one for miles). She had to retire before reaching the first marker buoy and got a lift back to the beach in a rescue boat.

I managed a comfortable 24 mins 30 sec about 10 mins slower than the fastest girl and 10 mins faster than the slowest. Given that the field included some pretty serious competitors including commonwealth athletes I am pleased with my time. Next week I hope to go faster, Clare is hoping to avoid any close encounters with sea life and make it round the first marker buoy.