What a fantastic event that was! I survived my first 5k sea swim down in Bournemouth and had a blast. The sun shone all day and the sea was much warmer than I imagined (18 degrees)and in the end it was a lot warmer than the river we've been swimming in.
I went down with Pete Frost (and my wife Jay) and our aim was to get some valuable sea experience in as the channel swim date is now fast approaching. The event was very well organised and upon registration we were handed our numbered caps and various limbs had our race number scrawled upon them so that our times could be recorded. The time to race soon came and before I knew it we were in the sea ready to swim the buoyed 1.25k course 4 times. The first lap was a bit of a shock as we were swimming to the first buoy (of 4 in a rectangle pattern) against the current whilst being battered by waves. I couldn't believe how long it took to get there! Thankfully coming back along the top of the course the current was pushing us along so it was a lot quicker coming back. I had a good battle around the course with one of the female swimmers (no 19 I think) and we kept each other going swapping positions every so often. I put in a final push along the back straight on the last lap and thought I had done enough but upon going to my legs badly cramped up and got overtaken right at the death!! I guess that it the way it goes sometimes so at least I have learnt that for a long swim I need to take some anti-cramping measures.
I finished in 1hour 16 mins which I was pretty happy with. There were around 60 swimmers who took part and that put me around 20th or 3rd in my age group category of 8 swimmers.
I've put a few pictures on of the event and will be back in the river tomorrow morning.
http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/
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