After a few months of hard training and relaxing by the pool in Fiji I qualified for the Rottnest Swimlast weekend.
The National Capital Lake Swim in Canberra was a race was from one end of the lake to the other...a total of 9.3km. The qualifying time was a generous 4 hours and I came in under that at 2hr 38min.
The race distance itself was a formality it was more about preparing myself for up to 3 hours in the chilly waters of Lake Burley Griffin. The lake temperature had been increasing nicely from early Spring until last week's downpour sent it plummeting. In places it would have been no more than 17 degrees, which after an extended time feels more like 10...!
After a week of preparing as though i would swim Rottnest i woke up on Sunday full of enthusiasm for what lay ahead. Breakfast was consumed 2 hours before race time, I arrived 1 hour before race time, set up the kayak, topped up my food 15min before, put a layer of vaseline over my chest and back, had a 5 min warmup and acclimatisation swim, a big drink of water and then it was time to jump in for a deep water start.
At 7:45am I managed to get off to a good start as i immediately settled into a nice breathing rhythm of 4-2-4-2-4-2 . This immediately calmed the nerves and consistent 16:30 to 17:00km splits were then rolling out one after the other, something i would have never dreamt of this time last year.
We reached half way and it felt as though the race had just begun. All the endurance training was paying off and i felt a million dollars. It was about this time the sun came out and it felt wonderful and warm on my back and neck. The 20min feeds were perfect and just like training i had them down within 10 seconds. We pushed on past all the beautiful National icons and buildings and reached the 3rd transition in a nice time.
It was 500m past this point that the water got bitterly cold and it felt like i was pushing into a decent current. It was also dragging me to the right which was frustrating me no end. My split for this section ended up being 3 minutes slower than the splits before and also after that 1500m stretch. Afterwards a lot of the swimmers commented on this tough and cold section of the lake. I suppose Lake Burley Griffin does have a big river flowing in and a big river flowing out so it only makes sense there is a current i.e. we were swimming upstream.
The final 500m went by quite quick as i kicked a little harder to get warm. Even though i felt as though i could have turned around and swum back the same distance i was actually glad to get out of that cold water. After stopping exercising i was still shivering about 15min later!
There were 5 of us who completed the swim with no wetsuit...i presume these are all Rotto swimmers!
Following the swim and some lunch it was then onto the Sunday Squad swim. Another 4.5km to the 9.3km made it my longest day of swimming and a good look into what is coming up in the months ahead...It is only 88 days away!!
