Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Belated pictures from Bridge to Bridge
Finally here are some pictures of the Bridge to Bridge Swim which I did two and a half weeks ago. It gives you a great sense of the journey which is why I'm sharing so many! There don't seem to be any from the last gruelling stretch, I think the path may have departed from following the river at that point. I hope you enjoy them!
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Big Dog Swim
Finally a little write up from The Big Dog Swim last Thursday near Reading. I had the afternoon off work instead of my usual Thursday morning and picked Mr W up from work to drive down to the swim. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere with about 75 people competing over two distances, 1500m and 3.8k.
I was familiar with the lake, having used it for my 10k training in 2010. It is quite small, with a 750m loop, so we were required to swim 5 laps with a little bit extra. Unfortunately, we swam 50m down from the finish for the little bit extra, whilst the 1500m swimmers started at the finish line. This meant that shortly after starting the race, there was a bit of rough and tumble as you tried to negotiate some rather slower swimmers. I felt that I set out strongly, and couldn't see too many white caps (3.8k distance) in front of me. Unfortunately, I was really very tired and by lap 2 I was already flagging. With so many laps to do (another company who runs 3.8k swims does 3 laps...) it was slightly mentally frustrating too to think that I had to finish this one and go around another 3 times. It was very tempting to get out after 1500m and call it a day, writing off the experience to poor planning and insufficient recovery. But I do have stamina and perserverence (or perhaps sheer bloody mindedness), so I kept swimming and by lap 4 I had revived a little. At one point I tried drafting off another white cap, but he was swimming faster and less straight than me so we kept playing leap frog. Eventually I got nearly to the end, and put my head down and tried to sprint with whatever I had left. Which wasn't much. It was a deep water finish and I struggled a little to see where I needed to stop without losing speed, but I got there.
Time was 1:04:10.
Although I was a little underwhelmed by my time, it was good enough for 6th overall and 2nd woman (the race was in fact won by a woman in just over 55 minutes!). I think given that I don't usually race in the evening, and that I was still recovering from the triathlon, the 1500m swim, and probably the 14k from 10 days before, it was a reasonable result.
I do enjoy swimming the 3.8k distance and I hope I can still find a few opportunities for it next year, but I definitely need to balance my race calendar a little better.
I was familiar with the lake, having used it for my 10k training in 2010. It is quite small, with a 750m loop, so we were required to swim 5 laps with a little bit extra. Unfortunately, we swam 50m down from the finish for the little bit extra, whilst the 1500m swimmers started at the finish line. This meant that shortly after starting the race, there was a bit of rough and tumble as you tried to negotiate some rather slower swimmers. I felt that I set out strongly, and couldn't see too many white caps (3.8k distance) in front of me. Unfortunately, I was really very tired and by lap 2 I was already flagging. With so many laps to do (another company who runs 3.8k swims does 3 laps...) it was slightly mentally frustrating too to think that I had to finish this one and go around another 3 times. It was very tempting to get out after 1500m and call it a day, writing off the experience to poor planning and insufficient recovery. But I do have stamina and perserverence (or perhaps sheer bloody mindedness), so I kept swimming and by lap 4 I had revived a little. At one point I tried drafting off another white cap, but he was swimming faster and less straight than me so we kept playing leap frog. Eventually I got nearly to the end, and put my head down and tried to sprint with whatever I had left. Which wasn't much. It was a deep water finish and I struggled a little to see where I needed to stop without losing speed, but I got there.
Time was 1:04:10.
Although I was a little underwhelmed by my time, it was good enough for 6th overall and 2nd woman (the race was in fact won by a woman in just over 55 minutes!). I think given that I don't usually race in the evening, and that I was still recovering from the triathlon, the 1500m swim, and probably the 14k from 10 days before, it was a reasonable result.
I do enjoy swimming the 3.8k distance and I hope I can still find a few opportunities for it next year, but I definitely need to balance my race calendar a little better.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Paralympics
On Saturday, I had a wonderfully inspiring day out at the Paralympics. I had been hugely disappointed not to get tickets for the swimming at the Olympics, but hadn't even thought about going to the Paralympics when my very kind colleague offered me a ticket for the heats on the morning of 1st September to go with his sister in law and her husband. I didn't even think about it before saying yes, and spent most of the preceding 10 days feeling really exciting about it and trying to decide which of my Olympic pieces of clothing, amassed in the previous month, to wear.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
Here is the first glimpse of the Aquatics Centre
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
I got a quick picture of me by the pool in my Team GB accessories!
The diving pool was looking a bit forlorn I thought.
At half past nine the officials came on...
...followed by some swimmers and it was time for the first race.
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
...diving in....
...swimming along...
...and heading for the finish. WOW.
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
I couldn't resist heading into the London 2012 megastore to come away with a souvenir. I bought a Paralympics Tea Towel. Highly practical, and one of the cheaper things on offer!
Absolutely excellent day out.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
At half past nine the officials came on...
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
Absolutely excellent day out.
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