countdown begins in real time 7 days

So Friday night is party night .a night in doing fuck all for me…..again. fuck all on tv .In bed by 830. Up early 530 , ate stretched a bit. Spent most of the time thinking about going back to bed. Apparently there’s a bit more to this swim then just rocking up. You have to ‘register’ and get a chip and all that un necessary happy horseshit. Then i find out you could pre register online. Now i’m not going to say ‘ i didnt get the memo’ as i probably did. I just didn t read it.

I thought about going back to bed a bit longer. So i walk down to the start. There’s a fuck load of people here. This is clearly being taken seriously. So i queue to ‘ register’ i’ve been queuing for 15 mins when Aled rocks up, now i was clearly being a bit naive here , but guess what? It isnt free. The $650 entry fee clearly didnt stretch to this. Its $30 to swim today .Hmmn. I did think about grabbing the car keys and going to the pool at this stage. I only had $20 on me . then Aled lent me 20 ,then someone said they dont take cash only cards. So Aled lent me his card. I thought nothing of this apart from gratitude at the time. Then i did think about the ‘paying by card option’ The cards weren’t signed so any scribble will do. Then i got closer to the start and thought if they are paying attention they will notice that the name of the swimmer doesnt match the name on the card. Then someone says ‘any one paying cash?’ I had given the $20 back to Aled before. My eyes burned into the women in front of me in the queue who had said ‘they dont take cash.’

So this is turning into the usual ‘carry on movie’ Then as i near the front i hear its not $30 at all as u have to purchase a ‘day license’ for another $12 . Just to swim in the sea. So that was out. I dropped out of the queue and went and warmed up with all the other loons. I didnt even feel that bad about it. But i didnt take my usual spot at the front.Running with the big dogs here. The gun goes off and i make a leisurely start. There wasnt too much of a bun fight. the odd tussle and off we go.

At quite a few points i thought ‘ what the fuck am i doing this for?’ Does anyone actually enjoy this? The last time i did the full distance in a sea swim was IM Wales 13 months ago. This swim did not disappoint . It just went on and on and on. Forgotten how long it was.
The race did split into definitive packs. About half way down the back leg i thought i was losing mine and looking behind there was nothing. So i fought to hold on. Unlike other swims no one got tired towards the end and a group of 20 of us all finished together. The clock said 1 hour 9 mins 10 seconds . I was ok with that .First non wetsuit swim. Aled and hollie came in together around 1 hour 15 or so. Aled was a bit gutted i think. It was the first time he had worn his swim skin as his parents arrived last night with it. Still its only one day and not race day. Either the course was long as quite a few people came up with 4500 metres on their Garmins or we were all weaving like a drunk chasing the last taxi home with his jeans around his ankles all the way around the course. Doesnt matter if its long thats as far as it is. Meandered around a bit. A tiny bit smug that i hadnt paid the $42. I also wasnt sure if Aled had beaten me at this point either so i waited at the finish to see if he came in after me. I saw him a bit later and it was a good 20 mins b 4 either asked what time the other had done. The fastest swim was 50 mins so nobody did 40 something. Whenever i do a long swim i constantly feel like i am about to have a groin strain and i get out of the water with everything feeling as tight as a bar. I dont kick but my achilles was aching quite a bit after the swim, Why i dont know. It had been immobilized for over an hour??

Met up with Mr and Mrs Merrony and had a chat and breakfast as we watched England get knocked out of the world cup by the Aussies. they are both Good company and we had a bit of a laugh talking about all sorts not just triathlon. Nigel was disappointed with his time. 1 hour 36 but he is still just off the boat. Jet lagged etc. So no need to dwell on that. He told us a few stories about playing for the Scarlets back in the day with Ray Gravelle and Phil Bennet etc. 2 seasons he had there. I think this is the second world championships he has been to , Rowing rings a bell. He is looking forward to sacking off triathlon and going back to kite surfing and racing the bike a bit. I’m not far behind him.