Saturday 30 May 2009

The Cruel Sea

Next weekend is the Weymouth Middle Distance Triathlon so I was hoping to get in a last sea swim as I need the practice. Unfortunately, my normal swimming buddy was ill so I decided to head down by myself. There is normally a few guys that head out together so I was planning to meet up with some of them.

The first delay was waiting for my darling wife to get back from the horses. She did her normal trick of heading out the door promising to be back at a certain time and then coming back about an hour later. This meant I was late head for Weymouth and was in danger of missing everyone heading out.

The next delay was an accident on the road down to Dorchester. A lorry was over-turned and stuck in a hedge at the bottom of a large hill. If I had left on time I would have missed it, as it was everyone was directed off the main road and spent ages trekking through narrow country lanes. Inconvenient for me but much worse for the lorry driver I suppose, I have no idea whether anyone was hurt.

When I finally arrived at Weymouth I checked the sea and, as expected, there was a group already out there swimming around. However, one couple had been caught in the same traffic issues as me and were still in the car park so we decided to head out together.

As it turns out it was their first sea swim, they had experience of open water in lakes but not in the sea. They didn’t have the best introduction. Weymouth is very sheltered and is normally very calm, but on this day it has choppy and lumpy. As we swam out to the buoys I was constantly breathing while waves went over me or doing superman impressions as I shot out the back of a wave trying to glide through thin air. Things were slightly easier when we started following the line of buoys going parallel to the shore but not much easier. On the plus side, the water was much warmer than a few weeks ago.

I am not sure how far we swam but it seemed to take forever. If the sea is like this next week it would be a nightmare, I really wouldn’t relish the idea of getting on the bike after a swim like that. On the way home the road was still closed so I had another diversion through the middle of nowhere meaning I didn’t get home until quite late. Not the best swim I have ever had but good preparation for next weekend.

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