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Sub 3 Muffin Man
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Warrior of the Sea
I felt anxious about this. I barely scraped through the adventure race last week. I had very little faith in my fitness although the 4 years of triathlon surely had something in the tank to call on. My 83.5kg, the heaviest I've been since i started back into sport, was not my worry for a swim. In fact I had no fuelling strategy as A) I had calorific reserves, fat ones
and 
I figured I'd come in under 2 hours.
My first time in Sligo and I was impressed. Lovely long beaches at Rosses point and Strandhill. No swimming allowed at the latter?! I finished the one and only endurance swim race I've done but the memories were not great. Despite my chosen sports over the years I'm more fast than slow twitch. I have power to tap into but with that comes the tendency to burn matches fast. Pacing myself is the key discipline (besides trying to limit sugar) I've worked on. A fast start helps in triathlon but over 6km it was relatively meaningless.
I had Caz and Alex along for the weekend. It was good not to have as many things as triathlon transition set up to do and I could rock down to briefing with no more than the swim cap and goggles in hand. Other than fitness the goggles were a minor concern. I usually rotate 2 pairs but have only had one this year. The left socket filled up on the Kilkee swim, which I put down to the gnarly conditions at the time. In my 2 pool swims since then it happened again. I just didn't make the time to find a replacement set. I missed a lot of the briefing as I just couldn't hear it. I didn't mind. Being competitive was not the aim. I just wanted to finish and figured I'd just follow those ahead.
The sun shone and the atmosphere was buzzing. I met interested at the start and he dished out a few tips. I searched for Griffin but no sight. On the count down from 10 interested went on 2, man on a mission! I tried to relax into it but still hit 1:25 for the first 100m in excitement. I reigned it back to a relaxed pace soon after. The goggles issue manifested itself first about half way through the first leg to Coney Island. The left socket filled up. I swam with it for a few minutes as I was on a set of feet with a meaty kick but the sea water on eyeball wasn't cool. I had to tread water to clear and lost the group. There were still lots of bodies around though. It was a lovely section to the Island where we hopped out for a small run across the corner of it via a water station. On my feet I passed a few of the proper swimmers.
By the time I dove back into the small surf I figured there were 30-40 bodies ahead. This section was across the bay with a mountain peak to aim for. I didn't have a great rhythm to begin with as I fought a few white hats for a pair of feet. After a few beeps of the garmin (lapping on 100s) I had established my position in a group of 5 white hats (skins swimmers). It was just enough work to stay with them without burning matches and their pace was steady. All was good up to approx 3.2km.
I spotted 2 suits about 30m to my right and thought they had a better line than the group I was with, who were very left of the Mountain peak target. Turns out that this left route ran a few up onto the kelp. The suits also seems to be moving ever so slightly quicker and I was feeling reasonably good drafting the group. I thus broke right and attempted to join the suits. It was all a false sense of illusion though as the suits were behind the group. I ended up 40m right of the white hats on my own! For the next 300m I swam completely disorientated. I figured I had to get back onto the group but they were now 50m ahead and 40m left. I gradually drifted back left but it took close to 10 minutes of swimming to catch them. I didn't want to sprint to close the gap for fear of burning up.
By the time I caught them I barely held the feet of the last guy in the group. I stayed there until I found some composure. I noticed he was falling off the group so I passed and tried to bridge again. I managed to find feet again and it was all good up to 3.8km when it went suddenly pear shaped. My goggles filled up again in some Atlantic chop and I simply had to stop to resolve. In that moment I lost the group and couldn't see anyone around my over the waves. I thought I saw a single white hat to my right and swam after it. It turn out to be a small buoy. I looked at my watch to see an hour and 11 minutes and just 3.87km covered. My average pace was 1:57/100m?! Surely I was swimming better than that even if I had faded a little. I now estimated that I had 2km and possibly more than 40 minutes if the watch was not lying. I saw myself struggling to break 2 hours, struggling to finish. Worse still I felt lost
The mountain peak was to the left now and we were supposed to be aiming for something else. I lost the group and hadn't a clue what to aim for.
I stopped swimming and circled around a few times to try and get my bearings. I would have been better off with my Casio Protrek than the stupid Garmin because at least the compass could have helped me out! In the distance in between waves I saw pockets of bodies and some kayaks. I took a few deep breaths to calm down. I've never panicked like this before and it felt quite scary. I even contemplated waiting for a kayak and asking for a lift to shore! I rationalised and noticed a large sand dune in the distance. The tiny splashes and white hats hundreds of meters ahead seemed to headed in that direction and that was good enough for me. I put the head back down and got stuck back in.
I was alone now and my shoulders were tiring. I became more of a mental thing as the arms almost turned over automatically. After what must have been 500m or so I spotted a large yellow buoy far away . I also realised I was facing the beach and on the 3rd section. Hope sprang from within and I found a second wind. The yellow buoy became my single focus until I reached it. I even started catching people after so long alone. Once around the buoy you were faced with the Strandhill surf rolling into the beach and making it difficult to sight anything. 2 Kayakers told me to simply swim straight in and I happily obliged. I was on a low tank now but still swimming. The dramatic fade I was expecting never materialised
I loved being caught up in the strong breaking surf, each one dragging me closer to the beach. 2 suits to my left with personal kayakers were racing each other to the beach. I figured it was 2 places up for grabs so I gave the what my shoulders could. I noticed them standing up and doing some dolphin dives early/ I kept swimming until my hands touched sand and rocks. I had the edge on the 2 suits but when I stood up and tried to run I kicked a rock and both calves cramped. I heard Alex shouting out to me as I fell back into the water. I got up again straight away and beta one of the 2 suits in the run up to the beach to the finish.
I wasn't sure if the marshall caught my name or time as 3 of us were shouting it out at once. I was tired but oh so glad to have finished. I stopped my watch on 1:34:01 too which was good enough for 30th out of 200 or so. That time would have been good enough for top 5 last year so the competition was much stiffer this time. Still, I was delighted to come within 10 minutes of the winner and 4 minutes of interested! He sounded so so about his swim, but in fairness he was wearing a white hat so kudos to him I met the technician too who was actually first to the the beach but missed the finish shoot and had 3 lads get there before her :eek: She was headed down to Galway for an aquathon later too :eek: I hung about to shake hands with Griffin. He looked wrecked but happy to get through it too.
Overall I can't say I enjoyed it although I didn't take as a bad a line as I originally thought. I hated the panic and I hardly found a rhythm for the whole thing. One thing struck me though was that I'm possibly more suited to endurance swimming than endurance running. Food for thought. I'd do this again though. Really good event in a great location. Marshalled well and very satisfying to finish
Another thing that I decided was that I was not going to do a solo 10k siwm attempt. Swimming alone out in the Atlantic was not fun. The difference between that and having another swimmer even nearby was profound for motivation. The Camlough 10k Irish Champs is in August but on a weekend I have to work. I've done practically no running in months so the sub3 goal there is all but unrealistic now. I've 12 weeks to get marathon fit, from scratch...0 -
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Good report and interesting to get another perspective on the swim. A great result for an untrained swimmer with a partial meltdown in the middle
I think your watch was a bit off, 3.87km in 1.11? I hit the 3.7km buoy in 1.08 and you were way ahead of me.
Someone called it once in a lifetime conditions, I dont think I'd fancy this swim in tough seas, especially the middle bit when you are very far from land.
Don't discount the 10km attempt yet, as Interested said to me after the race it's the next step
Nice to finally meet you at the end even if only briefly.0 -
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I heard the guy say 'Go'. That is all.
Congrats to both yourself and Griffen. Its a hard place to swim and the 2nd and 3rd sections can be very tricky. Its not triathlon, the buoys are there as guidance rather than anything else and being out in deep water has a very different feel to it when the rollers comes. It is true, this year the conditions were perfect. Last year I was pretty ill at times in the middle section due to the big waves ... but you can only deal with whats in front of you and getting across is something to be proud about.
The next thing ? 10k in a lake or head back again to Sligo next year and take a white hat ?
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In the late 90's 3 young lads from Gurteen drowned there.
That was an awful day. 3 schoolmates/football team mates of mine.
Well done MCOS. That's some achievement and as eluded to above you did that undertrained and you lost your way a bit. True to your nature though you composed yourself and got through it. As always
As for interested, he's just used of it, he needs to get a head start of the sharks that he swims with 0 -
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