For Sale.
One unused Open Water Swim Float.
Things they said:
Open water swimming is great craic, you'll love it.
It's not that cold.
Loads of us do it.
Things I have learned:
It is a decent bit of craic.
It is that cold.
Only a few people do it.
You can interpret the results anyway you see fit.
On Sunday 3 of us headed to Let's Go Hydro for the Swim Ulster Open Water Championships.
Cathal Fitzpatrick did the 1500m. That's 2 laps of the reservoir.
Fergus Carlin and Michael Bradley (that would be myself) did the 750m. 1 lap for those numerically challenged.
We all opted for the Skins category to maintain our integrity
Now Cathal, he's a proper athlete, he played Water Polo for Ireland a few weeks ago so you know he can move. As I stood watching him come around for his first lap I thought he wasn’t moving so smoothly and that caused great concern, for myself, I’m not fit and if 1 lap is crushing Cathal it might destroy me.
There wasn’t much time to chicken out as the 750m started pretty much straight after Cathal’s crowd swam on. So in I went with one minute to acclimatise before the race started. Fergus, opted to dive in when the horn blew to started the race. I’m not sure what technique is best but you know it’s going to catch your breath when you jump in, you know you need to control your breathing and try pace yourself. But for me, on my first open water swim that all went out the window. I was reduced to breaststroke breathers every 20m or so. There was also the swimming in a zig-zag fashion which was just adding unnecessary distance. But we all made it around the course. Probably not a massive achievement, but considering I was thinking about calling it quits after about 250m that feels good.
Onto the results ( I will not mention the number of competitors in the categories).
Cathal did his 1500m in 24 minutes on the dot. First in the male skins.
Fergus did his 750m in 12m 22s, first in the male skins.
I did the 750m in 16m 28s, third in the male skins.
He’s a picture of two athletes and a fat guy who isn’t sure if he’s going to faint or puke.
Never Again.
