Finally getting around to update the full story of the swim. I am happy to say that I completed the swim with no real issues except a bit of a sunburn and much longer than expected.
Got up Saturday morning at 0400, had everything pack and ready to go. We dropped my support crew at the boat on the way to Cottesloe Beach. I had my speed suit on already as I had to stop for a bit of a morning gitters so I put it on in the service station bathroom. Got to the beach at 0510 with 35 minutes before start time and checked in. I was already sunblocked up but that would not really last if going past the 4+ hour mark. So I put a layer of zinc on my exposed areas. I was all ready and set to go and walked away to the start but felt something was wrong could not figure it out till I saw someone else walk by with the same suit on. OH, I forgot to zip it up. When we zipped it up, I forgot all about putting zinc on that area :(
I get to the starting line with the first wave of swimmers out for the day. There is about a hundred of us. I position myself to meet up with my paddler and support boat on the right hand side. There was not that many people on this side as everyone pushed to the left. I was feeling a little nervous at this point. Is the water too cold, am I going to puke like the last time, did I do enough training, all these thoughts ran through my head. UGH... It was stressful. The horn blew and we were off!
Programmed to just go, did not even think about it and was off. Since the sun was just coming up it was still quite dark and really could not see out on the sea. I quickly noticed something was not right here. 50m's, 100m's, 250m's and finally 500m, meet my paddler and told him WTF is up with the swells. He says, Yea it is not good. I was watching the weather all week and was more worried about the wind and totally forgot to check the swells. It was going to be an adventure!
So 1.5k out we meet up with the boat and they have pre-programmed the GPS for a direct line to the island. I don't know if that was the right thing as everyone went left about 500m to 750m away to the left of us. At this point all I could do was trust the support boat and my team which I had full confidence that they would get me there in the end.
An hour and a quarter into my swim I am ready for my first feed and progress report. I have already stopped for 2 waterings and was feeling nice and strong. Had a nice consistent stroke despite the 2m swells hitting me every 15 to 20 seconds. When I asked them what distance I have done, I get back a little over 3k. Ahh, This was not what I wanted to hear. This was daunting! I was not happy and had to ask again with the same response. On the next watering I actually asked a boat next to me and they confirmed it as well. I was really hoping for 4k or 4.5k. At this point I started to realize that this was going to be an extremely long race and there was nothing I can do about it but just go... I actually kept telling myself they are LIAR's to keep pushing on...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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