The Big Bay Swim 2013
Not sure if this event calls for a race report or not as I didn't really raced it - in the same boat as all my events - be it running, cycling or triathlon - I am a participant and don't aim to win or podium as I know my place and caliber (it ain't fast enough).
I did this event last year and we were lucky then, we had nice weather and a nice northerly wind which helped with the fast times. This year, the conditions were perfect - water was nice and calm except for a few rolling waves around the shipping channel river section of the bay.
The swim start was suppose to be 9am but due to a shipping container "Taking its time through the channel..." the swim start did not occur until 9:45am. I arrived at Sandridge at 7:45am from Todd Rd as we were warned that the MS Cycle is occurring through that route and there will be a delay in traffic. We waited around for 2 hours before we started and I got really hungry and actually ate some solid food (I never eat before a swim) to curb the hunger.
Due to the warm weather Melbourne had recently, the jellies were present throughout the bay. I got stung on my lips around 100m in the swim. It didn't hurt as much as a bee sting but it was noticeable and was a shock to the system. After being stung, my fear of jellies wasn't impacting on my anxiety as much as before. I touched several and even pushed some aside (only handling them on their heads).
The (red) buoys set by the Sandridge LSC were great. Red was a noticeable colour and it could be seen easily. The number of (red) buoys they put up were also excellent. The course was set so that the buoys were on the right and the paddlers were on the left. I decided to follow the buoys as the paddlers were constantly moving and were hard to navigate with. Towards Williamstown - their LSC had yellow buoys (of the same height)....BUT they were far from enough and were harder to spot as they were easily mistaken for the lifesavers out on the course - slightly annoying when your goggles fogged up and I couldn't tell the difference between a lifesaver and a yellow buoy :)
Overall, the swim was great, I slowed my kicking down and swam at my comfortable Ironman pace. I finished the event and went straight to the bag pick-up area to get changed and hopped on the bus back to Port Melbourne. Due to my long run programmed for the afternoon, I wanted to spend the least amount of time under the sun.
This swim boosted my confidence for Ironman Melbourne as I still felt fresh after the swim and mentally, the thought of changing out of the wetsuit and into my tri-suit ready for the 180km bike ride was a positive one. The rest of the girls (and guy) in the squad did very well. our fastest was Mick Ryan (one of our swim coaches) did it around 43min, Nat M in 47, KBS in 52 and Lee and Lidia around the 57min mark. I stuck to my game plan and swam at my pace to practice for the big day which worked out great.
2013 Official Time of 1:03:23
Lessons learnt:
- Jelly fishes sting, they don't kill (thank God for that)
- Control the controllable - don't panic when strange things happen (jellies) - just keep rolling through
- Don't fall short in the catch and pull for every stroke even when you get tired
- Know the course and don't rely on the swimmers in front
- The race doesn't stop when your feet touches the ground, you have to run over the timing mat!!! (I doddled a bit once I finished the swim)
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