I got up to a lovely sunny dry day with just a soft breeze. I decided to wear my tri suit for the swim as it's longer legs tend not to roll up when I put on my wetsuit, and I have decided to do Ironman in it as wearing a 2 piece at LochLoMan was not particularly comfortable. Yes it's not convenient for comfort breaks, bug at the end of the day I'm not up for winning the race or even my age group, so a couple of extra minutes in a portaloo won't make that much difference and and being comfortable for 17 hours is important.
We arrived at Ellerton in good time and registered and socialised with other competitors. We got our wetsuits on just before briefing at 08:45 as it was already warm and we didn't want to overheat.
It was a deep water start, where you enter the water there is very little room to walk before the bottom drops suddenly away and you're in deep water.
I aimed to face my fears of swimming close to others, I waited towards the back and planed to swim on the toes of the main group, the horn sounded and they were gone, the lead group, I couldn't keep up and was soon on my own, slowly passing a few stragglers but never catching up. The first leg was up the side where the water gets choppy in the wind, it was not too bad today. I got into my stroke and swam to the first buoy, kept it on my let, searched for the next one and swam to that, kept it on my right and turned into easier waters but there was weed here, but not nasty thick hedge like weed like at Ripon, this weed was light and easy to break. The next buoy I turned and searched for where to go, Id misunderstood the course (unlike me) I thought it was start buoy, then the other three buoys in a loop 4 times. The sun was in my eyes but I could see the lead group heading back to the start buoy, which was barely visible in the bright sun. I followed but sighting was difficult until I was about halfway there. Soon I was there, I turned, 1 lap down 3 to go. This time this next section was choppy, I concentrated on not getting into a pickle over it and even though I could feel the water hitting my head, I concentrated hard but was relieved to change direction again. I felt comfortable, I was pushing myself but not busting a gut, I was being overtaken but the swimmers were not really near me, there were 2 laps to go, the third lap was choppy again but the fourth was not to bad. On the fourth and final lap I was overtaken and I decided as it wax the last lap to try and draft on the swimmers toes, I found it very disorientating with the bubbles and I had to trust they were going the right way. I was swimming harder now as it was the last lap. At one point I tried to overtake and we swam side by side for a while, befor I went back to drafting for a while before the swimmer pulled away as we reached the final buoy.
On exit I checked my watch and found Thai I had swum faster than ever before, only by seconds, but a PB is a PB 1:27:57.
Afterwards I ran a mile and a half for runstreak before going home.
This afternoon has been a peaceful afternoon gardening in the sunshine and planning tomorrow's bike ride. What a lovely day, all finished with a BBQ
Totals
Walking 2 miles
Swim 2.42 miles
Cycle 0 miles
Run 1.5 miles
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