So I found this article deeply hidden in one of my millions of folders on my computer. Reading them right now, although just sitting in front of my computer, dry and not wet, on a chair and not in the ocean, gives me goose bumps again. You just need to be in that big group of swimmers to understand what I am talking about here.
Enjoy!
o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o
Anyway, the start signal sounds, and about 400 swimmersare rushing into the water. The surface, just being calm and quite seconds prior to this start turns into a wild water rafting spume. A sputterer of a hot spa is nothing in comparison to this! Somehow, you need then to manage to find your very own position within the group.
And this was one of my challenges in the first races: Imagine to find a quiet place within this horde all diving into the water at the same time. You hardly find this quiet place which would allow you to find your swim rhythm and breathing pattern.
Nope, you're not on your own ...
Instead, you need to watch out that you're not in the way of somebody else: It happened more than once that me-feather-lightweight was just "over-swum" by another 100kg bloke. Yes, that heavyweight just has swum over me. Not saying that the other swimmer even realized, that he swimming in the dry (since on my neck and hence outside the water). No, he forgets just everything and starts to swim like a bloddy devil, he swims on top of you and just dip you down. Great, such a start looks more like a diving course exercise rather than a regular swim start.
By the way: In the meantime I have found my own way to make it through, and sometime dipping others now as well.
Nope: It's not like an easy jump into the pool:
Sometimes you have to make it first through big waves!
Another challenge is really the temperature of the water. I have had one race in Christchurch (on the South Island of New Zealand) and the weather there wasn't really much of fun. I was freezing even before I got into the water! The first hundred meters have been already quite exhausting and I repeatedly asked myself "What the heck am I doing here? I could be still in my warm bed, read Sunday's newspaper, enjoy a hot coffee and some croissants. And - what am I doing, swimming in bloddy cold water, freezing to the bones and fighting my way through water with some other approx 900 participants!"
Nope, I never met her while doing my ocean swims.
And this was one of my challenges in the first races: Imagine to find a quiet place within this horde all diving into the water at the same time. You hardly find this quiet place which would allow you to find your swim rhythm and breathing pattern.
Nope, you're not on your own ...Instead, you need to watch out that you're not in the way of somebody else: It happened more than once that me-feather-lightweight was just "over-swum" by another 100kg bloke. Yes, that heavyweight just has swum over me. Not saying that the other swimmer even realized, that he swimming in the dry (since on my neck and hence outside the water). No, he forgets just everything and starts to swim like a bloddy devil, he swims on top of you and just dip you down. Great, such a start looks more like a diving course exercise rather than a regular swim start.
By the way: In the meantime I have found my own way to make it through, and sometime dipping others now as well.
Nope: It's not like an easy jump into the pool:Sometimes you have to make it first through big waves!
Another challenge is really the temperature of the water. I have had one race in Christchurch (on the South Island of New Zealand) and the weather there wasn't really much of fun. I was freezing even before I got into the water! The first hundred meters have been already quite exhausting and I repeatedly asked myself "What the heck am I doing here? I could be still in my warm bed, read Sunday's newspaper, enjoy a hot coffee and some croissants. And - what am I doing, swimming in bloddy cold water, freezing to the bones and fighting my way through water with some other approx 900 participants!"
Nope, I never met her while doing my ocean swims.