English
I’m one year older and wiser, so why the heck did I voluntarily arrange to do a 10k birthday swim?! I must be mental, but yesterday morning, come 6.15am, I embarked on a swim session feared and loathed by many – 100 x 100m! Joining me in this mammoth event was Ironman champ Hillary Biscay, who is also out here training until April, and her boyfriend Doug (you can read her blog about it here )
Being a rookie pro, this was the first time I’d done it, but it was #6 for Hillary – crazy stuff! What surprised me more than anything, though, was just how much I loved it – ALL!
I don’t usually like eating before I swim but I forced down a couple of slices of toast about an hour before and then it was time to rely on energy drink and a gel (which I was ‘saving’ until after #60). Setting off on #1 was funny, as I swam along thinking: “Only 99 to go!”, but sure enough, we soon started ploughing through them. To give our bodies a chance to warm up we did the first 10 on 1.40, then the next on 1.35, then 70 on 1.30 then the final 10 on 1.25 [this was in a 50m pool]. Numbers 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 100 were pretty special! I climbed out of the pool to get my camera to take this pic afterwards and my head and legs were a little wobbly, but it was nothing a quick sugar hit couldn’t sort out!
The fun doesn’t stop there, though. Very shortly I’ll be setting out on a 180k ride followed by an ocean swim off it. Bring it on! Will tell you all about it in Part Two…
Cheers
EK