Beautiful blue sky and picturesque views, BUT we could have done without the south-westerly wind as the waves and chop it whipped up did spoil the “race pace” for some of us!
Smaller numbers this year, only about 170 in the 2.4k swim, but thankgoodness really as the waves made it hard enough to battle on let alone the crowd.
Reality check for us all – Nic’s squaddies Tess Woodward (14) and Max Van Dijk (15) flogged us! Out of the 167 swimmer, Max came in 13th 37.13 and Tess 18th 39.14 (and 3rd female overall!!) It is true that the competition was tougher (read: fast as) for Max in the Youth Male; he placed 5th in his category and Tess placed 2nd. Well done Young Guns!!
Then came the REAL battle. No time to admire the starfish, it was neck and neck, gender battling gender as Kris and Matt raced side by side the whole way. Kris used her new drafting skills learnt while in clinic with Codie and Trent recently, so drafted as much as she could off Matt, and she rounded the final bouy first. But the power and gritty determination of Matt prevailed as he strode past Kris in the run up the beach to the finish, with a very nice 34th place in 41.11 and Kris 36th place 41.14. Someone crept in between them!!
There were other battles .... apart from the waves and current spoiling my cruisey race plan, I had my own drafter hanging off me the WHOLE way, but nipped her in the bud at the end too and beat her by half a second over the line, coming in 47th in 43.51.
Reiks, Alexandra, then Kris’s husband Phil followed close behind, with everyone finished well under the 55 mins, all very pleased to finish the swim with a grin!
There was the occasional jelly fish apparently, some seaweed, but we all saw the starfish (except Kris ... she IS focussed) and agreed we’ll be back again next year and hopefully NO WAVES/CHOP!
(Posted by Jen)
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