My heart goes out to all those hurt or affected in today's horrible attacks at the Boston Marathon.
Kiss your loved ones and be thankful for every day.
********************************
A lucky dip. A lottery. Anyone's guess. Who knows?
That's the answer to the question "what will the conditions be like on the swim?".
They could be like this:
 |
| Photo from Aquabumps.com - he is a brilliant photographer |
 |
| No, I'm not the whale |
I'm kinda hoping for the former.
Apparently, if the conditions are too rough, the organisers will cancel the race in the interests of public safety.
I'm sure that's right.
But what I'm also sure of is that the organisers' view of when it's too rough to swim will be several degrees further up the "harden up and just bloody get in the water" ladder than mine!
So where does that leave us? Well, it potentially leaves me battling the Great White Whale, Fred "The Lynx" Linker seasick on a kayak and Doug and the support boat crew wondering how the hell they got themselves talked into this nonsense.
But hopefully it won't come to that.
In fact, hopefully it'll be exactly the same on May 19th as it was this last weekend.
Saturday morning saw me fronting up to swim with a squad at Icebergs, led by Lyle "The Hammer" Hammerschlag.
Conditions in the bay were just too good to spend much time in the pool (even a pool as gloriously close to the ocean as Icebergs'). So after a brief warm-up in the pool, one by one like hungry penguins we leapt off the rocks and into the bay.
No swell, no current, brilliant sunshine, water a balmy 22C and crystal clear. It couldn't have been more perfect.
After a relatively relaxed 2 laps across the bay with the squad, The Hammer and I did another 2 laps with a bit more pace.
About 5km in total in the water, if you count the pool warm-up as well. But it was a day when I felt like I could swim forever. Well, yippee, on May 19 I get to try!
A few people have asked why they run this swim in May? Isn't the water really cold then?
Actually, no. In May the water temperature is still a relatively warm 20+C.
I'm banking on the law of averages.
It's not until July that it gets properly cold. And that's relative.
Cold swimming? This is cold swimming.
But really, it's all about the conditions on the day. I've done lots of ocean swims over the years. Most of them are around the 2-2.5km mark, but I've also done some longer ones such as Coogee to Bondi (5km). Never 10km before.
But by far the hardest swim I ever did was a paltry 1.6km - the famous Sydney Harbour Classic. It runs off the steps of the Opera House, out towards Fort Denison and then back again. Easy peasy? I thought so.
Instead, I spent the whole way fighting currents that went in every direction except the one I was swimming, got belted by chop from start to finish and drank half the contents of the Harbour. Miserable.
And all because of conditions on the day. And the fact that my high tech pre-race nutrition consisted of a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Delicious at the time, but not exactly the breakfast of champions.
Fundraising
The fundraising effort continues apace, and I'm really humbled by everyone's generosity and support.
Someone very kindly made a large donation in support of the swim directly to Glaucoma Australia, so it doesn't show up on the Everyday Hero page, but it means the total raised so far is now over $5,000!
Thank you again.
If you haven't donated yet, but would like to, please just click through here.
Spreading the word
If you feel so inclined, please also feel free to share the link to this blog or the fundraising page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever other social media you use.
You can "share" by clicking on the link at the top of the page. The more the merrier.
No comments:
Post a Comment