In hindsight, dining out on booze, ribs and missing the early Guildford City Swimming Club Masters training sessions in aid of a few lie ins wasn't the ideal way to prepare for this - but hey, I've done 10k in training before, swum 150x100ms (15k) too and although I can't believe I entered it, let alone complete it - did 24 miles in 24 hours only a month before -and I've run at few 10k's - it's only 6 and a bit miles isn't it. That's two Swimathons.
So with a week to go, I decided to enter this long distance swim - a 10k swim in Dorney Lake, it's where the Olympic 2012 rowing will take place. Ooh.
Now, the evening before wasn't the usual early night packed with pasta and chicken - it involved quite a few drinks in a lovely sunny pub garden in Big London and a Waterloo Burger King special to munch on the train home - so the morning of the event was met with a 'oh what have I done' - amplified when I glanced out of the window and saw the grey dull clouds that had "R A I N" written all over them - I must admit I was looking for any excuse not to do it.
Bananas, Red Bull and Nurofen later, the adopted pre swim anthem of The Prodigy's "Take Me To The Hospital" and I found myself stuck in a traffic jam driving onto site - ah, this could be the excuse I needed.
But no. They opened a new car park, nearer the start, and delayed the start - just as well, because due to my late entry, I hadn't received a confirmation letter, race number or anything.. which meant I had to queue again - this time to register. Ah, I thought, this could be it - the reason to get back in the warm car and drive home. Walking along the long long line of people seemingly in the same situation, I bumped into fellow GCSC member (and open water legend) Jim Boucher who suggested I join him, half way down the long line. Whilst chatting to Jim, I also spotted fellow 2Swim4Life competitor and lane mate Matt Dawson, who was on his way to drop off his drinks at the refreshment point. What refreshment point? Oh bugger.
Finally at the front of the queue, name found but lack of identification (left in the car at least 10mins away) I thought again, this could be it - homeward bound - until the steward spotted my name and phone number written on my wetsuit - and that was enough.. swim cap, wristband and timing chip were handed over, an apology because they've run out of event t shirts - and I headed off to put my trusty Orca wetsuit on, with a generous helping of Vaseline around the neck - oh the glamour.
Heading back to the place where I thought the start was, I heard the PA call for the 10k swimmers - oh no, I'd made it - just in time to listen to the last half of the safety talk, which also involved the most important bit of information - the course, and how many lengths we were required to do. Oops. I heard "3" and had looked at the length of the lake without contact lenses and thought bloody hell, that's a long way. "Furthest yellow buoy, turn and swim back" I heard, but couldn't see it. Oh bugger.
Air horn sounding, and the mob of orange capped 10k swimmers headed into the water, and I remember thinking that the sand they'd nicely put down to protect our feet was a bit nippy - which was quickly replaced by "OMFG" when entering the 16c water - and SOME people weren't wearing wetsuits (Jim Boucher included).
Googles immediately steamed up, and leaked - and my feet, hands and head hurt like I'd been stamped on - my head throbbed with every pulse. OUCH. Should've put two swimming caps on. Then again, should've had an early night.
A short swim to the start (around 200m), a shout out to smile for the camera (yeah right), then another air horn, and we were off. Open water swimming is always frantic at the start - a sprint from some, a gentle warm up from others - it's like fish caught in a net, thrashing over each other, and unfortunately I was near the back of the pack. After swimming over the top of several slower swimmers (sorry, blame the traffic) I decided to head off to the right - it seemed clear, as everyone was hugging the bouys near the centre of the course. It was a good tactic - and I had clear water ahead of me and got into a really nice pace and rhythm - ooh, it felt great! And no need to turn - and Dory sings in Finding Nemo - just keep swimming, just keep swimming!
Hold on a minute. That's the yellow buoy. Hey this is ok! 3 lengths of this? He did say 3 lengths didn't he? Yeah 3 lengths - this isn't going to be too bad I thought - superb, the yellow buoy was a third of the way around, and as I turned, I changed up a gear and started over taking more people! Oh it felt great!! This was going to be fine after all.
A small seed of doubt entered my mind and starting nagging me about half way down the second "length" when I realised that swimming 3 lengths, and '3' being an odd number, would mean I would finish at the opposite end of this huge lake from the start. Will we have to walk back? Will they take our stuff to the other end? Maybe we'll only swim half the length and swim back for the final one?
Then, colder than the pain of the water the realisation hit me - we were swimming 3 laps, not 3 lengths. Ouch. I wasn't even halfway. Nightmare. Worse still, my shoulders started complaining - probably because of the increase of pace, and the calves, like the bass player of the band of muscles - decided to sulk, unplugging their jacks, putting their 4 string stupid looking guitars back in their cases and refusing to take part any more. Ok, arms only for 6.6k then.
The rest is a bit of a blur. Swimming in a straight line is hard, but following the wire holding the buoys in place was a good tactic. The far end of the lake seemed to be choppy - I wonder if this will be problematic for the Olympics. For reasons I can not explain, The Seahorses "Love Is The Law" always pops into my mind whilst swimming long distances. Why?! Does it match my stroke rate?
With the end in sight (albeit blurred) I informed the calf muscles that there is no "i" in "team" (although there is "me" if you look hard enough) and that they were required to do something now, there were people on the bridge watching, and four swimmers ahead of me - and we, collectively could over take them, and rather than being selfish spare a thought for the arms that have done most of the work so far - great they said, come on then - lets go for it.. unfortunately, no one had told those bits of my feet that live in the arches, connecting my big toes to something else, and feeling left out after during all of this, despite being first in the freezing cold water, they decided to complain, cramping almost immediately, and in unison - ouch, ow, shit - cue and weird front crawl stroke with twisted and contorted legs and feet - must have looked *amazing* from the bridge.
Still, somehow, we managed to settle our musical differences, and the muscles pulled an amazing encore out of the bag - passing the fourth swimmer whilst climbing out of the water and running for the finish line.. well, I say running, I think it looked more like someone in a bit of a panic looking for the loo with severe stomach cramps.
And so, without stressing about doing it, then stressing about not doing it - then stressing whilst doing it - I'd done it. 10k open water - and in under 3 hours. Smashing. Never again. Well, I'm swimming Hampton Court to Kingston Bridge soon, but that's only 2.6miles.
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