After winning the As Keen As Mustard swimrun series last year I was looking forward to racing this year however with Covid all the races were rescheduled for September and October meaning I definitely couldn't do the whole series. But on Sunday I headed to Spring Lakes in Nottingham ready to race the 21k, well as ready as I could be having done no open water swimming this year.
Registration was quickly done and I walked the dogs round to the start and realised it was actually a fair way so I'd better head back to the van and get my wetsuit on!
Due to Covid the start was done as individual starts, people lined up and I just waited till the end to go. Luckily for me Ali was tail biker so cold be with me for registration and the start, Covid means no spectators to be brought with you to the event.
I actually caught the team in front pretty quickly before entering the water for swim one. Where Imanaged to head towards the wrong point bu sighting off the wrong flag, fortunately I realised I couldn't see any other swimmers going that way so only did about 100m extra. I went past someone on the next run and then for the first lap (it was a two lap course) the only other competitors I saw were two going the opposite way to me! Turns out they had pulled out.
I passed the finish just after an hour and a half and I was still feeling strong. Coming out of the first swim on this lap I was surprised to see another competitor ahead of me and went past him on the way into the next swim.
I was beginning to notice the cold on the swims but warming up enough on the runs, I was very glad when I got to the longest run to get properly warm and it meant there was only one swim left.
It turns out I actually did pretty well with the water temperature, considering I hadn't been swimming outside so hadn't had any acclimatisation. There were quite a few people didn't finish and one competitor had to have an ambulance called for her due to hypothermia.
I finished in just under three hours so I did the second lap faster than the first which I was very pleased with and I finished 3rd female and 6th overall.
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