Month: August 2023

Big Welsh Swim – 8 July 2023

Tuesday 8th August 2023

Big Welsh Swim in Llyn Padarn on Saturday 8th July 2023

From my private blog:

“3rd non-wetsuit swimmer in my age category. That’ll do.

Name: Helen Gardner
133
Distance: 3k
Gender : Female
Category : 60-69
Secondary Category : Non Wetsuit
Status : Finished

Finish Time 01:36:20
OVERALL 100/174
CATEGORY 16/20
GENDER 70/133

Approx 18 degrees, choppy.”

The stats tell part of the story. They don’t explain the backstory of a trapped nerve and the associated limitation and frustration. Not to mention the costs of sports massage and osteopathy, and all the rehabilitation exercises. Something positive had to be at the end of that journey.

I’d entered the 9k event, semi-confident in my ability to train up to the required distance for fresh water, but knowing I’d be one of the back markers for speed. Then my body told me it was ageing and I was pushing too hard. Weeks of injury turned into months of missed training and I considered cancellation. But hey, I’d paid for the entry, I’d paid for the accommodation, there were a bunch of us doing it together, and who wouldn’t want to ride a little train to the start of an event and swim in clear water within sight of Snowdon.

I emailed the organisers and arranged to drop down to the 3k distance, still skins, and decided that, unlike running, I can blag a swim if I need to. As long as I could start uninjured, and knowing there was an exit point at the slate mine after about 2k.

The most important strategy in my training/preparation was simply “don’t make anything worse” rather than looking to make progress. Arriving in Wales for the weekend knowing I hadn’t put in the training miles caused me a little bit of concern, but I decided to start and see what happened.

It was fun; the little train, the beautiful clear water without any nasty biting or stinging creatures and no weeds to hide duck mites! I’d made a point of warming up properly (worth mentioning because I usually forget), and entered the water with a big smile alongside a couple of wet-suited friends. It’s impossible to keep track of people when everyone is wearing the same colour hat, so I lost them in the first few minutes.

Swimming can be mesmeric, and without a watch I had no idea how far I’d swum or how fast, or how long it would be before I finished, so I just concentrated on the beautiful cool water, on keeping a steady and clean stroke, and enjoying the journey.

There were a small number of cold water patches and the weather was cold, wet and very windy – so much so that the inflatable finish arch couldn’t be deployed and the start was delayed while one of the marker buoys was repatriated from it’s overnight bolt hole. I know a lot of people found the conditions difficult and it undoubtedly slowed everyone to a degree. The chop was hard for those used to swimming in flat water, but it had less of an impact on me because my focus was on finishing without pain, pins and needles, or doing any more damage to my shoulder.

Friends and Mr-with-Jet-the-dog were waiting at the finish, and it was interesting to listen to other people’s stories of their swim. Out of our group, which represented all three distance options (3k, 6k, 9k), there was one DNS (did not start), a couple of DNF (did not finish), a lot of comments about how hard the swim had been, and a heroic finish accompanied by the safety kayakers. At least two long-Covid affected swimmers beat their own dragons to finish and my shoulder was only mildly grumpy the following day.

This is one event that I’d thoroughly recommend, and subject to injury status it’s on my list to go back and try the 9k.

My next challenge is coming up in a few days and I’m equally unprepared/untrained for it. But hey, I’ve paid for the entry, I’ve paid for the accommodation… etc