Rottnest Solo Channel Swim Details - Part II

....Nothing eventful happen, 5k came and went.  10k finally arrived at 3.5 hours.  It was the half way point and knew it was all down hill from here.

The pack to the left of me and about quarter way mark:

At the 15k point this is were the race became interesting.  I took a GPS straight line as I mentioned earlier.  It was clear sailing up to about 12k and I started to notice boats and other swimmers at that point.

At or around the 15k point, I ran into a point.  Could not beleive it.  I said to myself this is some sort of joke.  Not only did he hit me once he hit me 2 other times and really did not care, he shitty relay team was more important.  I was too focus to actually say anything but I should of grabbed the fatty and drowned him...

Seconds before the boat hits me.

Afterwards there was another really annoying huge boat called the Mahalo.  First, it was a yacht, second they did not care for anyone else swimming.  I counted about 5 times this boat cut in front of me and than blasted it's engines blowing me back about 4 meters.  Everytime, I actually had to scream at the asshole, but little good that did.  This was the def the worst part of the race.  Since everyone has to get into a gate it starts to bottleneck here.  Everyone is hitting each other, paddlers are running into each other, swimmers are becoming tight, boats were picking relays members up, chop, exhaust, this was def the worst part.   On top of this there was a brisk current that was there and the wind also kicked up making the swells pretty high.

After the gate it thinned out as the boats could not escort any longer.  The current went away and the wind died due to being sheltered by the island.  At the 800m point the paddler goes away and your home free!

They have a the entire area roped off all the way to the finish so it was a clear shot to the finish line.  All you see on each side of you is tons of boats.  You can't see the island at all just boats!  It was really pretty cool.  About 150m from shore, the jellies kicked in.  I was getting stung all over my arms, pits and shoulders.  It was quite unpleasant but just reminded you that you are still alive...  25m from the shore, I knew I was still breathing and kicking I could not take it as the jellies hit me the neck.  That was it, I got up and walked/ran the rest of the way in!

Final time - 07:16:15

Rottnest Solo Channel Swim Details - Part I

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...

Trap Injury

I pulled my trapizius muscle swimming yesterday.  I am gutted!  Started my warmup yesterday by the usually 1k.  I got 960m and started to push a bit and bam felt a pop on my left shoulder.  Kicked a bit on my back getting some full stretches in.  I should of just got out but was more concernced with getting 30k in for the week.  This was dip one on top of it, with a goal of 2.5.  Got that but the second dip that night I was going to get 4.5k.  When I got into the office I started to feel a neck pain, thought nothing about it as it was just a nag.  Well this morning, I was so stiff and hurting.

My goal was going to be 30k for this week and now that looks like a pipe dream!  I had two full weeks to get 30k a week done, not happening now this week.  If I am lucky I will hit 20k!  So I am on RICE now, and just in pain.  This has happen in the past and it usually takes two days for it to go away.   With a bit of soreness on my return.  I have to take an angle on this and just happy it did not happen before the Rotto Swim...