*waves at new commenter* you are SO RIGHT - swimming in the sea IS bliss. Cold, salty, rough, tiring BLISS.
I hadn't been looking forward to the Brighton swim because I've done perhaps 8km in training since April. Also it had got mixed up in the feeling-sorry-for-myself miasma through which I have lately been stumbling. You know the drill... I've put on heaps of weight and lost all my fitness since the marathon, I'm not racing triathlon this summer, poor me AND I feel like a blob. Silly! Silly! I know! I know!
From that pity-party I segued to a cunningly disguised bit of FIGJAM, a la "well I don't really feel like it, but since I can do it and I know lots of people who'd love to be able to do it, I should do it, it's almost my duty!" Can anyone say watch out LBTEPA, you'll put your back out carrying around all that EGO?
Luckily I must have tripped over it and fallen back through the wormhole to reality at some stage. What was really happening ? I got to swim the Brighton 4km, that's what! I love that swim! I look forward to it for weeks, training or no training. Simple as that!I hadn't been looking forward to the Brighton swim because I've done perhaps 8km in training since April. Also it had got mixed up in the feeling-sorry-for-myself miasma through which I have lately been stumbling. You know the drill... I've put on heaps of weight and lost all my fitness since the marathon, I'm not racing triathlon this summer, poor me AND I feel like a blob. Silly! Silly! I know! I know!
From that pity-party I segued to a cunningly disguised bit of FIGJAM, a la "well I don't really feel like it, but since I can do it and I know lots of people who'd love to be able to do it, I should do it, it's almost my duty!" Can anyone say watch out LBTEPA, you'll put your back out carrying around all that EGO?
I didn't sleep well on Friday night, the old wake-up-every-hour-so-as-not-to-miss-the-alarm thing, but in the morning I felt happy and excited. Sleep schmeep. My bag was packed, my nails were red, and the swim didn't start until 9am so I didn't have to leave until 7. Too good!
The swim course at Brighton is a bit tricky. The beach runs north/south. You head out diagonally from the start to the first marker buoy, then turn left (north). This is the shoreward side of a long narrow rectangle, which you do twice before swimming back in. The weather at Brighton is always rubbish. The last two years it's been windy and pouring rain - which actually flattens out the swell a bit, and it's a beautiful feeling floating in a white world of rain and sky. This year we were handed a six-to-eight-foot swell and a strong southerly current. It was mad! I was literally swimming diagonally the whole time just to stay on course. The swell was so high I had to wait until I was carried to the top to see the next buoy, or even my horizon marker, and in the time it took to sight I'd be carried off course again. I was constantly correcting - riiiiide to the top, check, veer back, do it again. The waves just rolled and rolled and rolled, uuuuuuuuuuup and doooown, uuuuuuuuup and dowwwwwn. Depending on the direction you were swimming it felt as though you were falling or swimming uphill. People were vomiting and DNFing from motion sickness.
Chugging along at the back, of course, I was oblivious and having THE BEST TIME EVER. It was glorious. I got pretty tired pretty early (see "amount of training since April") but that was a blessing in a way becuase once it was clear that There Would Be No Speed, I just melted into a rhythm that I could keep going forever. Life became the water and my thoughts. My mantras. Catch, catch, (reminding me to concentrate on the front of my stroke) touch, touch (= touch my thumb on my thigh, reminding me to keep my stroke long), kick, kick....up and down and on and on.
At the 2km mark I sucked down the gel I'd stashed in my wetsuit leg. Mine is knee-length so no contortions were required - but may I say, even vanilla gel + seawater = major bleh! The wind was picking up and so were the waves. It became more difficult to stay on course. The most important thing was not to fight the water. Just roll with it, slide off it, let it do its thing, and keep correcting.
I was so happy out there, just swimming. That was what life was all about. At one stage the sun came out and the water glittered like diamonds. It was so beautiful my eyes filled with tears. I found myself murmuring, thank you, God, that I should have such a life and get to do these things. It felt as though I was floating in infinity, just me and the waves and the glittering sunlight.
I almost didn't want to go in - but only partly becuase then my favourite swim would be over. There was also the absolute bitch of a southerly side-sweep to contend with. I felt as though I was inching toward my sight markers; first the lifesaving club roof, then the bathing boxes. They were pretty but I could have cared less. Finally I could see the finish banner. The current kept trying to pull me away from it but I kept on reaching and rolling and catching and kicking until my hand touched the sand. Done.
The swim course at Brighton is a bit tricky. The beach runs north/south. You head out diagonally from the start to the first marker buoy, then turn left (north). This is the shoreward side of a long narrow rectangle, which you do twice before swimming back in. The weather at Brighton is always rubbish. The last two years it's been windy and pouring rain - which actually flattens out the swell a bit, and it's a beautiful feeling floating in a white world of rain and sky. This year we were handed a six-to-eight-foot swell and a strong southerly current. It was mad! I was literally swimming diagonally the whole time just to stay on course. The swell was so high I had to wait until I was carried to the top to see the next buoy, or even my horizon marker, and in the time it took to sight I'd be carried off course again. I was constantly correcting - riiiiide to the top, check, veer back, do it again. The waves just rolled and rolled and rolled, uuuuuuuuuuup and doooown, uuuuuuuuup and dowwwwwn. Depending on the direction you were swimming it felt as though you were falling or swimming uphill. People were vomiting and DNFing from motion sickness.
Chugging along at the back, of course, I was oblivious and having THE BEST TIME EVER. It was glorious. I got pretty tired pretty early (see "amount of training since April") but that was a blessing in a way becuase once it was clear that There Would Be No Speed, I just melted into a rhythm that I could keep going forever. Life became the water and my thoughts. My mantras. Catch, catch, (reminding me to concentrate on the front of my stroke) touch, touch (= touch my thumb on my thigh, reminding me to keep my stroke long), kick, kick....up and down and on and on.
At the 2km mark I sucked down the gel I'd stashed in my wetsuit leg. Mine is knee-length so no contortions were required - but may I say, even vanilla gel + seawater = major bleh! The wind was picking up and so were the waves. It became more difficult to stay on course. The most important thing was not to fight the water. Just roll with it, slide off it, let it do its thing, and keep correcting.
I was so happy out there, just swimming. That was what life was all about. At one stage the sun came out and the water glittered like diamonds. It was so beautiful my eyes filled with tears. I found myself murmuring, thank you, God, that I should have such a life and get to do these things. It felt as though I was floating in infinity, just me and the waves and the glittering sunlight.
I almost didn't want to go in - but only partly becuase then my favourite swim would be over. There was also the absolute bitch of a southerly side-sweep to contend with. I felt as though I was inching toward my sight markers; first the lifesaving club roof, then the bathing boxes. They were pretty but I could have cared less. Finally I could see the finish banner. The current kept trying to pull me away from it but I kept on reaching and rolling and catching and kicking until my hand touched the sand. Done.
*grins*
As simple as that.
More anon, blessing-counters!
9 much-appreciated comments:
When we paid for the lessons and the bathers, stood at the end of the pool with the stopwatch or drove to training on dark winter mornings, we anticipated lots of good things, like fitness, fun, friends, adventures; we didn't know that to a swimmer, swimming can be just pure joy.
i need to get back to swimming... thx for the reminder. :-)
You are too much, girl. 8 foot swells woulda sent me back to bed :-D
ahhh, a woman after my own heart. There's nothing like being in water and watching the water swell and recede. Just beautiful!
You are a stud! I mean a studette!
Oh wow, that must have been awesome. Aside from swimming being my daily workout (I swim 3 kilometers every day)it is also my meditation. Sadly I mostly work out in a pool though. Swimming in the sea is and has always been zen for me. No matter how rough the sea is, even just being close to it, let alone being one with it by swimming in it, calms me in a deep and complete way. Life IS beautiful.
I forgot! *waves back*
I really, really, really wish I had your love of the water. I didn't learn to swim till I left school and find conditions like last Saturday a bit intimidating - not to mention all the critters in the sea! So great you got to do the event. Well done. Paul :-)
Madness, sheer madness! Nice one Al, I was thinking about you that morning and while I wasn't jealous you were swimming, I was jealous of the euphoria I knew you would be feeling!
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