Salty Sea Dog was perfect; the only sea swim I could make before the Long Course Weekend and the 3.8km Ironman distance, so on the back of my adrenaline rush, I clicked to book.
I had to cancel on work to attend but I've been working weekends ever since I started my first job 10 years ago and got over the guilt when Mum and I arrived at Boscombe to see this:
Look at that! I am a convert; English beaches can be a nice place to spend the day(s). We'd had a good drive down and arrived in plenty of time to have a fairly relaxed start, although with me there's hardly such thing as arriving in good time; no matter how early I arrive I somehow find enough things to keep me flustering my way to the start.
Felt good to begin though.
The sea was pretty cold (about 13 degrees) but, with time,
you get used to these things and for once it didn't really bother me too much. The course was simple; 3 laps of a rectangle that went about 100m out to sea then followed the coast. Being an amazing summer's day, visibility was perfect and for once, my tinted and fogged goggles came in handy!
I thought I was getting into the rhythm pretty well considering the cold and was revelling in the fact that what I thought was going to be a tough event was actually rather enjoyable.
I thought wrong.
Looming just 1 or 2 feet below me in the cold English sea was THE - BIGGEST jellyfish I'd EVER seen.
It came as such a shock to me that I elevated myself out of the water with pond skater abilities, let out a chocked scream, then did the only thing I could and stuck my head back in, ramped up my kick speed and flew away as fast as I could.
That wasn't the only giant blob of frightening invertebrate out there on the course.
I'm pretty sure that I gave myself a tension headache from all the fear of the jellies. Each of the 3 laps they were there waiting there for me. They didn't get less scary but at least each time was less of a shock and I learnt that not looking was probably the best strategy for coping. I did think about getting out and giving up, so that argument with myself kept me occupied for a good half lap. Of course I didn't though and was pleased to find later, in the showers with everyone, that I wasn't the only one with that thought, but at least I didn't act on it.
A swimmer that I couldn't get away from for 2 laps provided me with some comfort and motivation. We were swimming as close as we could be without actually being on top of each other. I seriously thought about grabbing his ankle at the end of the 2nd, just to check that he was doing a 3rd, but alas, he was on the 2.5km swim and left me alone in the wilderness of tentacles.
I saved some energy for the last straight and came in hard. I felt pretty disorientated when the water began to disappear and my feet had to find ground; I assume that's what Ariel felt like when she finally got the legs that she'd wished for.
The timing chips that we'd been wearing around our wrists were similar to USB sticks and once we'd finished, a runner would cart them off to the Boscombe boulevard where the computers were waiting at the back of a truck and got downloaded onto a monitor for us to view our results; shame they weren't as efficient with the website. I'd seen that I'd come 4th for the long distance swim (would have come around 11th for the shorter) so wasn't too fussed about hanging around for the award ceremony. I went to join Mum for a bit on the beach for a spot of sunbathing; my Sportsmanship then gave me a sharp flick on the ear and told me to go and support everyone so went up for the awards just in time to hear my name being called for placing first female! whoop whoop!
Here I am with my medal enjoying a post swim sunbathe. Time in the end for 3.8km was 01:11:07
Well done Ellie, an amazing result!!
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