Less than three weeks after my epic Channel attempt I feel OK, if not a little tired - no aching limbs or injuries, no depression or loathing of water - so I decide to enter the Portsmouth Northsea swimming club annual 2 kilometre sea race - the Southsea Pier to Pier. I last did this race just two years ago - my first season of open water swimming. It's a funny course. Portsmouth is a busy commercial port - boats going in and out all the time: ferries; sailing boats; hovercraft. And military ships and sea forts lurking in the hazy distance. It's going to be my last sea swim of the season, which is depressing. I don't want the summer to end yet.
Sunday 18 September...
I leave London at 9am to get the train to Portsmouth. London is certainly not warm or pleasant and the sky is grey, autumnal. I wonder what the weather is like in Portsmouth today, I hope it's not too chilly. Certainly summer is on the wane. I've looked at the Met Office website and there is only a very light wind forecast. Good. There is a headland to negotiate in the swim with choppy sea and hidden rocks and I don't think it would be much fun if it were windy. As I get closer to Portsmouth it gets warmer and warmer and sunnier and sunnier. I arrive to a gorgeous day - the sea front and promenade are buzzing with life.
The start of the race is just beside a mini hovercraft pier, the swim then runs east and parallel to the beach for about 800m when beach is replaced by a large castle with forbidding walls facing out to the sea and jagged rocks below. In the sea in front of the castle walls there are large metal warning pylons in the sea to alert you to the rocky hazard beneath the surface of the water. After negotiating the rocks, pylons and general chop of the headland and opposing currents, the swim turns a corner and along another beach for another kilometre or so to the Southsea pier and the finish of the race.
There are around 60 or so entrants for this race - but there are no age group prizes for some reason. For me it's just 'ladies' or 'vets'. I've missed the vets category (40+) by 3 months and I know there is not a chance in hell that I will get a position in the ladies category.
The briefing starts at 2pm - this race is not as well organised as some - and is very casual. The water temperature is said to be 18C - fine, hasn't dropped yet. Nobody mentions the pylons this year in the briefing or what to do about them. I ask one of the officials whether we are to swim inside or outside of them. She says 'oh it doesn't matter, the tide is high you won't be near the rocks'. Fine, as the pylons are quite far out and you have to swim further to go round them.
My aims for this swim are twofold. To try and beat a 40 minute time, and to do the whole swim bilateral breathing. There are several things I want to address before my next Channel attempt - linked to speed and technique. It's been pointed out to me that I have a big pause at a particular moment in my stroke. I am a little aware of this, I know where in the cycle of my stroke it occurs. I have to eliminate the synchopated arrhythmic bit of my stroke. To this aim my pool coach Paul has suggested I start wearing my 'tempo trainer' in the pool all the time. It's an electronic metronome that you can set at a particular rate and shove under your swim hat and it emits a regular beep to which you stroke. I also need to breathe bilaterally - to make my swimming more flexible in terms of position by the boat, to even out wear and tear on muscles, and I think it will help me with the rhythm thing too.
The race starts around 2.30pm, and after much jostling to stay in a straight line behind the starter's flag, we're off. The water is beautiful and quite calm. The sun is twinkling on it. I start my bilateral breathing campaign. I soon realise that whilst I'm quite good at 'sighting' (looking where you are going without breaking stroke - essential whilst swimming outdoors) when I breathe to my right, I cannot do it at all when I breathe to the left. Another thing to practice.
For the first half of the race I have two people beside me - one slightly in front and to the right and one slightly behind and to the left. It's nice to have company. The last time I did this race I was a novice and was pretty frightened going round the choppy headland. I'm more than a little nervous about doing it again. Soon enough the headland and castle appear and the pylons are there, dead ahead, sticking out of the water. Eeek. I decide to go the quicker, shorter route around the inside of them, bearing in mind the official's words. As soon as I get past the first pylon I spot a huge looming jagged rock right below me - only about a foot beneath. It looks very sharp and pointy. The water is not calm and I could quite easily be thrown upon one or have a limb bash one by mistake in a wave. Great defences for Southsea Castle, but should we really be swimming around in them? No. Definitely not. I don't care about the extra 100m or so, I take a sharp 90 degree turn to the right and head out beyond the pylons to the open sea. More relaxed now I keep the pylons well to my left. No more sightings of rocks, thank god. Turn the corner, Southsea pier white and gleaming and somewhat in the distance. Now that I'm out of the scary bit I decide to try and ditch my companions by putting on a bit of a spurt, which I manage to do. There isn't as much tidal assistance now. I'm swimming quite close to the beach for some reason, I've drifted in, I can hear the sea disturbing the shingle below. I find myself wishing I knew more about the tides and the pull of the water. I don't know if I should be further in to take advantage of the tide or further out. I decide to edge further out. I have no idea if this is the correct decision or not.
A few hundred metres later I run up the beach in 34 mins and 20 or so seconds. When I last did this race in 2003 I swam it in 52 minutes, so I am pleased that I am a full 18 minutes faster. I think for the first part of the race we had quite a bit of tidal assistance this year, but don't think it was quite the same for the second half.
It's been an amazing time since I started swimming outdoors - I have so much more experience since that time two years ago, and am so excited that this isn't the end of it. Roll on 2006.