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The Great London Swim, 3rd July 2010
The Great London Swim, 3rd July 2010
The warmest wettest weekend ever!
What a beautiful day in Royal Victoria Docks. A perfect setting for the Great London Swim. A lover of the water, the sun, and of boozing, it ticked all my boxes for a great weekend event. It was a day of nerves, effort and triumph. Followed by booze and Soho Gay Pride.
After overlseeping, I was glad to have been there at all, though the nerves were really jangling. We were allowed a little dip to acclimatise. We splashed about, got the cold water against our skin, and then were called out. Me, and two good friends, wetsuited and Poweraded up, and jigged from one foot to another, as we waiting on the starting line for the hooter to sound, and for our ‘inspiration’ Duncan Goodhew to kick start the 12.35, Light Purple wave.
We stood there, beginning to sweat under the wetsuit, waiting for the Elite Men to dive off and away before we could ourselves race into the water. With them on their way, we positioned ourselves at the start line: stong swimmers at the front, weaker swimmers towards the back. I settled for a middle back position!
And then, we were off, and on our way. All the waiting was over and the hundreds and hundreds of lengths in crap swimming pools would have to pay off! Me, Tommy & Rick said our farewells, and goodlucks. After settling into my breathing pattern, i got into front crawl straight away, wanting to get into a rhythm. It was crazy, you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face, it was so murky. Good ol’ Thames!
After the splash at the beginning of hundreds of people getting in the water, and getting hit in the head by arms and legs, I finally found a little space of my own, which I began to realise was because I had drifted way way out on the edge of the swimming path! But I headed for the fluorescent buoys anyway, not belting it, just swimming strongly, and at a speed I knew I could maintain. And on and repeat, and on and repeat. One arm over the other, breath to the left, and then the right. And soon enough, the finish buoys were in sight, and I was still on the outside! Stil, it meant I got to swim without intereference which I enjoyed. I just wish I could have looked up and see more of the incredble surroundings.
Royal Victoria Dock, with thousands of people watching, cheering, drinking beers that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on, with the o2 on the horizon, and symbols of London’s great engineering and industry on the lips of every bank.
And then we were yanked out by the arm, onto dry land… and it was over… in 33minutes!
I almost wanted to dive straight back in! Can we do it again? Triathlon, anyone??
buzz words 