Swim Around Keppel #3
I did it! I got around!! Swim Around Keppel. No. 3 = 21 km = 6 hours 40 minutes
Longest ever. Best ever, is how I felt physically and mentally. Third time lucky for sure!
Loved it, every bit of it!!!
I think that’s pretty Fing good for a long swim! I had a less than ideal 12 months and my training and lead up was nearly constantly interrupted. I was an (almost) last minute entry and it was like I was cramming for a test the last bit. But I knew I couldn’t miss this one, and lucky determination is my superpower when I really want something, and really love something. And I LOVE KEPPEL, And I LOVE Swim Around Keppel.
Massive thanks to Pinky for paddling again for me. I literally CANNOT do this without you. So, thank you for everything, including carrying ALL my stuff. I bring it all on board her kayak and weigh her down a lot. And just to have you there, looking out for me always, the out in the deep, all of it – the constant, means so much.
Massive thanks to Val and Joy @Iswimhappy and all the volunteers, who put this on and keep us safe and run the funniest, the bestest swim event.
First time the water was warm enough for me to go without wetsuit. Heaven! Felt so Freeing. It was amazing. I saw a speedy little stingray shoot under me just as I turned in Leekes about 1200 in. (I now know that was a message from Jodie) I saw a massive Turtle under me out the back in the deep. So cool! The ‘shute’ was awesome again. So fun to swim through there. Very cool to swim over all the fishes of Shelving, one of my fav parts of the island, near the finish. Nearly stood on a massive Ray as I stood up after 21km. Thanks for that! Biggest fattest tail on a Ray I ever saw! Nearly died of fright and trying to walk again at the same time. Amazing weekend. So much fun and great to have the best bunch of friends there to swim and hang out with. Counting down to next September already. There’s a spot on my tow float for a fourth race number …
Ok the next bit is my long waffle I totally understand anyone not wanting to read the essay that it is, it’s really just for my memories, but maybe someone will get it :
As always, but more than ever with my previous year, I knew mindset and nutrition is what really would get me around the island, just how well I did that would determine how I enjoyed (or not enjoyed) my day. But ! …. # Iswimhappy !!!
I mentally prepared myself that I have nothing else to do all day but swim. That’s easy then. How lucky am I?! That this is going to be my day. And it was a cracker of a day. Thank you, Weather Gods. Especially for keeping that 14 knot head wind only to the last 2.5k after we’ve just swum 19k Mentally I chunk down the swim into the first 1.5 k, to 6 k stretch, then 3, about half way, 1.5, the 5.5 long-ass back stretch then turn for the last 2.5. I attribute those bits to training stretches. The warmup. The halfway point being like a day at work and then a 5.5 k Vlad set after a hard day at work when you’re a bit tired. The last 2.5k was the hour power walk training I had been doing, forcing myself after a 10.5 hour/13000 step workday. Don’t think about it, just get it done, even though you’re tired.
And after the other two times I really prepared for the negatives or demons that pop up. The ones that go ‘this is the shit right now’ bit, or ‘I’m sick of swimming, I don’t want to move like this anymore, ‘this is dumb’, or the ‘I’m not doing this ever again’, hahaha – Funny, this year I had that one with 200 m to go, followed immediately a split second later, ‘of course I’m doing it again’ Hahaha. Good thing that was the ONLY negative thought like that this time around. That’s a first. And with only 200 to go! The most important mental ‘work’ I did was to say to myself for the few weeks leading up to it. ‘Let’s just see what happens. If I finish – great, if I get put into a boat, OK, … I’m just going to try.
The event day is the fun day to just go out and see what you can do after all the training (or not ) and other swims (or shit you come up against in life) that led you to this one. I say sport and especially endurance, especially open water, is like a metaphor for life. You have very little control over any of it. Just keep doing your best on the day, and everyday beforehand, put in the work and be determined no matter what, even if it feels like shit in a moment. Just start. Go see what happens.
And also, it’s my job for the week before, and especially the day before, to EAT and hydrate. Again: How Lucky am I?! I drove them crazy at work Monday to Wednesday- ‘sorry, be a sec, just got to eat again’ Got on the island with 3 bags and a small esky for food and drinks and feeds and bottles. And still went to the burger place I feel like I nailed that part. Had no down time or felt lacking energy at any stage of the swim. I got the food and supplements right. The day before was the first time I feel like I ate and drank like I really got it right. If you knew my year and ‘training’ then you’d get why this was all so important.
I listened to some of Goggins, Never Finished the day before. He has Raynaud’s too. I was worried that the only thing that would take me out of this swim was getting cold. I made all my feeds warm and 3 flasks of really warm, incise… and I listened to his 200-ultra part of the book. SO: I’m feeling awesome right from the start I take my time to warm up and feel my stroke is good. My focus was Relax your shoulders, Shut your mouth! And I’d asked Pinky to tell me this too, if she remembered. She did, she’s awesome. Swimming out to Big P was great the whole way, then turn, laughing under the water as I get a bit of push back from the waves, loving it. I have no idea what it’ll be like at the outside stretch here. Adjust to a bit of a change, then I feel a push and I’m due for a feed. It’s my first Carb hit time. I say to Pinky, ‘this is my go-go juice, let’s see what happens’, excited… now I feel like I’m hooting along, I skip my next 30 minutes feed and wonder if I’ll regret it later but I’m feeling so amazing I don’t want to stop with this rhythm. That’s when the massive turtle is under me for a good little bit, and next minute friends visit in the G & T boat. I see Sally filming, giving me a lift, and give them a mid-stroke Hi – absolutely loving life right now ! And I get a competitive push just quietly, I’m not letting these guys catch me .. We swim past Val I sing out Hi again… We are heading for the ‘shute’ and halfway. Yayyy ! My playlist had a glitch and restarted at about 11 ks. Ok, I’m fresh and good to go, music is at the start, we are back at the start, let’s go. Total mind reset! Pinky asks how are you going. ‘Mentally and Physically best I’ve ever felt’. She’s a bit surprised I think, and I really am too! At 12.5km, I thought ‘ ohh cool, only 7.5km to go, is that all #%*¥ ?!! (Goggins B has appeared) [not the, ‘Off F it, another 7.5 ?! head – So good to be in this space this year, at this point last year I was not loving it that’s for sure]. At this stage we are on the 5.5k back stretch of the long-ass Clam Bay / Long Beach when the wind is picking up, there’s a bit of chop and sun in your eyes and you can’t always see that Coconut point, and you’re saying, ‘don’t look or it feels like that’s never coming’ but I still look … Getting through it, I ask Pinky for a flask of hot feed, ‘OK let’s get around this ______ Point for good !!! (I got a bit all Googins language in there – the good/positive kind )
I WHOOP mid-stroke as we turn for home and see/hear Pinky, and Dave in a safety boat laughing at me. I had really prepared myself the day before for this wind now.
Val is there again. Beaming! We’re doing it ! I’m finishing this thing!! I have a drink of my ‘pick me up’ feed, the last one to smash it home. I can feel my mid back and shoulders now. But hey. ‘If I was running a 21 my legs and feet would be Fing killing me too, so just get it done’. ‘This is the last 2.5 I’d trained really tired on lately.’ You see how much I talk to myself, even with music on! I knew this bit would be way harder on Pinky, blowing right into her. I lose her and start heading at the corner in towards Fisherman’s beach for hopefully some kind of relief, and I’m so thankful she gets a tow for a bit of it.
Finished, I am so bloody happy and proud. Friends that know my year, I think would’ve been happy to see me get half of this done!
Life, and how much I love this island, and my friends here, got me around the island.
So thankful that I just went out and tried.
Words by Belinda Glover
