Race Day - the swim

Applying the race no.

4.15am the alarm sounds, and although I had been lying awake waiting for it, I had had a good sleep which was very unexpected!.  I enjoyed a nice quiet breakfast with a Nespresso of course! And a small plate of peaches, yoghurt and muesli.   And Yay!, the body did its thing (block your ears) I managed to have that final toilet stop.  Liza applied the race decals to my right arm and right calf.

5.45am and ready to head down to transition.  I am surprisingly calm, and simply pump up the tires, load up the food and drink on the bike and then drop off the special needs bags and check-in.  Then it’s a walk down to the water front to meet the rest of the supporters and slip into the wetsuit. One last toilet stop, it would have been better if the lights in the public toilet block were working, given it was still dark!.  I threw my swim gear into the back of the truck, it has the clothes I wore this morning, which I may change into after the event.  

The support committee

Coach and me

Looking relaxed as we lineup for the water

Yes we are awake!

You can still see the smoke from the cannon

6.45am everyone has a slight heart attack as the cannon is fired for the start of the Pros race.  Final hugs and best wishes from the supporters and final words from the coach, “I think she said breath”, um OK I will J I join the queue for the lake, we need to walk thru the gantry so our timing chip is registered and they know who has started.  Not much time to spare so I ease into the water and start to make my way out to the bouys, wanting to seed myself as instructed by the coach i.e. mid-way close to the bouys.  As 1400+ athletes are bobbing around in the water (an awesome sight) there are nervous jokes and comments from various people, then an announcement that someone just ripped their wetsuit and were asking if anyone had a spare… thank goodness that’s not me!  Then the lights start to flash as the countdown begins … there are 3 flashing lights on the shore counting down from 3mins.  I focus on defogging my goggles and placing them on my head.  The last light starts to flash (less than 1min to go) all the folks in the water yell out a “whoop whoop” and then bang! The cannon fires and we are off.  

Normally my heart would start racing and breathing would be a challenge, however today I cannot explain … but I was incredibly relaxed … I knew there would be legs and arms everywhere so would have to stay strong and hold my space.  I focused on keeping a good rhythm making sure I had a good pull under the water.  The lake was perfectly calm, apart from the waves caused by all the trashing from the competitors.  If you look at the photos, we look like a school of fish (big ones).  

As I was swimming I started to see the golf balls at the bottom of the lake (yes that’s how clear the water is ..) I was thinking some people who try to hit the “hole in one” are clearly crap as there are golf balls spread all over the place.  For those who have not visited Taupo, there is an attraction were you can attempt a hole in one, hitting your golf ball from the shore out to a floating pontoon.  As the sun started to rise, the sun strike off the water was intense and I couldn’t see a thing, not even the person in front of me.  I just hoped I was swimming in a straight line, I could see the orange bouys after I had swam past them.

During the swim there were times when I had, what seemed heaps of clear water out front, then some plonker would swim in a misdirecton, cutting directly in front of me and all of a sudden it would be arms and legs everywhere again, and again you had to be strong to keep your line and make sure you didn’t get a kick in the head.   Round the bouys and heading for home the sun was not an issue and I could spot the orange bouys ahead.  Everyone seemed to veer to the right, but I just headed in a straight line to the next bouy in clear water.  

Out of the water onto the green carpet

I didn’t push the swim, simply tried to get a smooth stroke and make sure I didn’t use lots of energy which I would need later in the day.  When we did the Taupo Half IM I swam in 42mins, so you can imagine my surprise when I got out of the water and ran thru the timing gantry and read 1:06:52 (official swim time was 1:07:47).  There is a green carpet from lake edge to transition which takes you up a hill, approx. 500mtrs.  I had intended to walk this, however got caught up with the folks around me so ran it, I heard some shouts from my support crew but don’t remember seeing them as I tried not to get trampled.  I kept reminding myself don’t start to unzip your wetsuit, since I only had bras and my chest high nana undies underneath.

As we ran into transition our race numbers were called over a loud speaker and a volunteer would have our T1 gear bag in hand ready for us to grab as we passed thru to the gear change tent, one side for the boys and the other for the girls.  The tent had a grass floor and lines of white chairs, you were met at the entrance by a volunteer who helped with anything you needed.  I got my lady to help get the wetsuit off my feet and she lined up all the gear tipped out of my T1 bag so I could pick and choose.  I followed my brothers instructions, and took an extra few moments to make sure my socks and other clothing were on straight, no twisting or bunching    As I left the tent I was busy apologising to the volunteer who was kindly cleaning up the mess I had created, she was putting all the left over stuff into the bag which would be stored for collection after the race.  These guys must see some sights!