I collected my wet suit today and thought hell, looks calm out on the ocean, there's no better time to give it a try! So I suited up and started the swim from the Freyberg beach. At first I thought I was doing pretty good and every time I looked up I appeared to be getting closer to what I thought was the half-way mark, the point where I'd swam 500 meters and could turn around and head back to the beach. It seemed to take forever to get the half-way point but when I did the ocean wasn't as calm as it was when I started and the ocean seemed quite choppy. So once getting there, I turned around and headed back but I found the current was strong and it felt like I wasnft making progress no matter how much swam. After what I thought was an eternity I started make some progress and was heading in the right direction, yaaa! For a moment there I was starting to think I might need to get some help. It was slower than I would have liked but eventually I made it back to the shore, but it was hard work. When I finally got back to the Freyberg beach Kirsten (who had been watching from the shore) came running down to greet me. Unbeknown to me she had been having a nervous breakdown as she watched me from the shore and her first words were eI thought you were a goner!f But hey I made it! So all up it took me about 80 minutes to swim what I thought was 1km, a lot longer that what it was taking me in the pool. Although I was pleased that I had completed it, I was thinking that there is no way I would be able to do this Sunday as there is a 40 minute cut off time. I was exhausted so went home and slept most of the afternoon and had a spa worrying that I might not be able to do the swim. After dinner I decided to call Christine who is also doing the Capital Classic Ocean Swim and I told her about how my swim today went. When I told her that I was concerned I might not be able to swim it as it took me so long, she was surprised as she knew I could do 1km in the pool in about 25 minutes. We compared course maps and it appears that I had misinterpreted the course map and I had actually swam more like 2.5km and not the required 1km. Even though I had seen a yellow buoy in the water and swam right passed it, it was in fact the halfway mark and it was there I was supposed to round it and head back to the beach. Instead I kept on swimming to the point which was at least another 700m away, a total of 1.4km further than I needed to swim, hence why I took so much longer! Anyway after speaking with Christine, I am now back on track and feel much more confident that for Sunday I will be able to swim the course in a reasonable time..fingers crossed!
