10k swim completed

This morning I got up nice and early (6am … and on a Sunday!) to get ready and set off to Ponds Forge to take part in a 10k swim event. And despite the early start it was great fun.

We started with an 8:30am briefing pool side – we were split up into 6 different lanes, based on our expected finish times, with each lane having a maximum of 5 swimmers in (we had 4 in our lane). Following the briefing I got changed and got ready poolside – and suddenly we were off, I’d hardly had time to put my goggles on straight.

The calm before the storm

The first thing that struck me was how great it was to swim in a 50m pool – my local pool is 25m and I’ve only been in a 50m pool on a couple of occasions previously. It felt great just to be able to swim, without worrying about the wall almost as soon as you’ve set off.

I was the 4th person away in our lane – we all set off with a 10-second gap – but I’d soon caught and overtook the people in front. However, that turned out to be nothing more than over excitement as we all seemed to swim at a very similar pace for the rest of the event. In fact about the only time positions changed was when someone stopped to take a drink.

My plan was to take a quick drink every 30 minutes. As much as anything else, this was a test for me to see how I need to refuel and how the breaks affect my swimming and how the fuel itself works with my body. That said, I ignored the plan for the very first stop!

I was enjoying the swimming too much and 45 minutes had elapsed before I’d even realised. I did stop then though – and every 30 minutes after that.

Then it was just a case of getting the head down and swimming. My body coped well – apart from quite severe cramps in my legs on occasions (I’m hoping that cold water and no turns will help this – but I’m also going to add an electrolyte drink to the refuelling plan).

Officially 3:30:07

I had hoped to finish with 3hrs 45mins, but in the end I smashed that target and finished in 3hrs 30mins 7secs (or 3:30:19 according to my watch as I forgot to stop it immediately).

A job well done.

However, on top of a great swim, it was also fantastic to see Maureen (Mo) from iSwimmer in real life too. We’ve been “blog buddies” for a while, so it was great to meet up – and with her friend Sally. Great swimming and thanks for pointing me to this event Mo.

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