Well, I just got home from the Bondi To Bronte Ocean Swim which was between 1.8km and 2.2km depending on who you listen to. I left it until Friday to decide to race, only to find that online entries were closed and there were a limited number of late entries available from Bronte SLSC on Saturday morning. Got up early and as luck would have it Jacqui arranged to meet Tiff, Nick, Dave & Lee for breakfast in Bronte, so we got down there, they organised a table and I ran over and entered the race. Shortly afterwards the wind started picking up leaving me hoping that this wasn’t the start of some dodgy weather.

Awoke this morning to a beautiful summer’s day, walked out on the balcony and saw that the ocean was as smooth as it could be. Excellent! No wind to speak of either. Jacqui was content to stay in bed until I revealed that I needed her to come down and mind my bag while I swam, and if she could transport it to Bronte that would be great too. Thankfully she agreed, though she said she’d meet me there as I had been told to be there at 8:30am for race registration, briefing etc. etc. and there was no point in her hanging around for an hour and a half before the start. As it turned out, there was a bag van which would transport the bags for you, though I didn’t realise this until afterwards, not having done a sea swim before. Anyway, I rrock up to Bondi at 8:40, collect my timing chip and white hat (for the 30-39 age group) and I’m all done in 3mins. That’s it? Nothing else to do until 10:06 when my wave was due to start, so I got changed, sat in the shade, drinking water, looking out at the course and thinking ‘Shit, that’s a long way.’ After a couple of trips to the toilet Jacqui showed up, so I stripped off, lathered on the sunscreen, plus Vaseline on my lats to prevent the rashes I got at the swim in Watsons Bay, handed Jacqui my bag, as she was going straight over to Bronte, and wandered down to the start.

There was a bit of a delay as they tried to get the first wave, and only the first wave in place, so the race didn’t start until 10:06. I decided to position myself off to one side to avoid the rush to the first buoy, but by the time the 30-39 age group was ready I ended up in the middle. The whistle finally went around 10:16 and we were off. I got out past the breaks without incident – no-one tried swimming over me, no kicks in the face etc. The first few hundred metres or so was a bit awkward as the swell was still big enough to break up any rhythm I tried to get in to, but after the first buoy it was fine. I picked a couple of swimmers who seemed to be about my standard and just swam along, using them both to pace me and as guides, so I only had to sight a buoy every 30 strokes or so. The swell was side-on until we passed the 4th buoy and turned towards Bronte, after which I was behind us. I started working the swells as they came through – cranked up the kick a bit beforehand and let the wave pick me up and carry me a little further. It was fun and helped to break up the distance a bit.

Once I got around the final buoy, I was heading straight for shore and the end was nigh. Myself and the people around me started picking up the pace as one, though we actually seemed to be making less headway. I could see the bottom and we didn’t seem to be moving forward at all. I thought for a moment that we may have chosen to swim in against a rip, so I started looking around to see if I’d drifted off from the main bunch. Next thing I knew I could stand, so it must just have been a break between sets or something. I managed to run ashore, unlike the last time when I stumbled getting out of the water, and it was all over. I forgot to bring my digital watch, so based on a very approximate analog watch I reckon I swam around 27mins. I’ll have to wait for the official results though which should be up on the web soon. All in all, it was good fun and I’m looking forward to another one. I’ll have to check the ocean swim calendar and see what the options are.

S: 4800m – B: 15km