Alton Water is a pretty big reservoir near Ipswich, which is usually out of bounds to swimmers but this September hosted the Great East Swim – part of the Great Swim series which started last year in Lake Windermere.
All these swims are just 1 mile, not such a great distance perhaps, but it was well organized, lots of family stuff to do (Brendan made a bird box) and it felt good to be part of a genuinely mass participation swimming event. The Outdoor Swimming Society were there in sky blue with a nice hot tub – though the weather was so summery that it was hardly needed.
Most people were in full wetsuits, with a water temp of about 18. There were about 10 waves of 100-150 swimmers each, plus elite men and women. The men’s was won by a tiny young Brit called Tom in 16:24 (that’s fast – the world 1500m indoor record is 14:35), the women’s by a German in 18:08, ahead of the Beijing Olympic 10k gold, silver and bronze medalists – a really elite field down in rural Suffolk!
It was Kerry Ann Payne, 2nd in Beijing, who started my wave off. The water was murky, but seemed warmer than the sea. I decided to swim on the left as I breath to the right, but as the course was a clockwise loop this meant that I swam quite wide, so maybe an extra 50-100m. But it was quite civilized, with little triathlon-like thrashing.
I tried to increase speed through the swim, aiming for sub-30 mins, which I just managed, at 29:42, timed via a chip on the ankle. So a very satisfying climax to a fine summer’s swimming and I’ll certainly do it again next year.
All these swims are just 1 mile, not such a great distance perhaps, but it was well organized, lots of family stuff to do (Brendan made a bird box) and it felt good to be part of a genuinely mass participation swimming event. The Outdoor Swimming Society were there in sky blue with a nice hot tub – though the weather was so summery that it was hardly needed.
Most people were in full wetsuits, with a water temp of about 18. There were about 10 waves of 100-150 swimmers each, plus elite men and women. The men’s was won by a tiny young Brit called Tom in 16:24 (that’s fast – the world 1500m indoor record is 14:35), the women’s by a German in 18:08, ahead of the Beijing Olympic 10k gold, silver and bronze medalists – a really elite field down in rural Suffolk!
It was Kerry Ann Payne, 2nd in Beijing, who started my wave off. The water was murky, but seemed warmer than the sea. I decided to swim on the left as I breath to the right, but as the course was a clockwise loop this meant that I swam quite wide, so maybe an extra 50-100m. But it was quite civilized, with little triathlon-like thrashing.
I tried to increase speed through the swim, aiming for sub-30 mins, which I just managed, at 29:42, timed via a chip on the ankle. So a very satisfying climax to a fine summer’s swimming and I’ll certainly do it again next year.
2 comments:
Hi Seamus!
I worked for you in 2004 in Almaty and it changed my life! Aliza and I were thinking about you recently so I googled you and found this page. I hope all is well with you and your beautiful family. This blog is pretty cool and the pics of your family are great.
Aliza and I send our best to your lovely wife and kids!
cheers,
michael
hi Michael & Aliza,
thanks for your comment. Are you still in Canada? Winnipeg? kids? glad you like the blog. New swimming season about to start, so watch this space!
my old yahoo email address still works.
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