I was really really struggling to find a race for September, I went back and forth over the various options but just couldn’t decide. Nothing was wowing me that I just ‘had’ to enter. In the end, I decided to do the Swimathon national event at my local open water swimming lake. I had already completed a mile swim for my 2nd Challenge, so I knew I needed to do something longer than that to make it a ‘new’ challenge.

The Swimathon

Swimathon is a national event that happens at numerous water spots across the country. For my particular race, I was heading to RG Active’s new open water swimming lake at Holme Pierrepont for the Swimathon there. To enter this event it was a small fee, (and optional choice of fundraising) allowing you to take part in 500m, 1.5k, 2.5k or 5k open water swim.

I had debated a lot over what distance to do but decided on the 2.5k, I just felt hadn’t felt good enough for a 5k distance just yet. It was a nice and relaxed event with participants doing a range of distances, some people who had been swimming lots, others who had never done a swim like it before. After signing in to the Swimathon, collecting my swim hat (different colours for the distances), and putting on my wetsuit and goggles, I approached the grassy bank for our race briefing.

The Race

People had begun their swims by the time I got in, so I swam out to the 1st buoy and off I went. The water was quite a bit cooler than my last swim but I came across patches of warm spots which were my little treats during my 5 laps! I acclimatized to the water pretty swift and soon relaxed and settled into my front crawl. It was quite refreshing to do a race-style swim without everyone swimming on top of each other! What? No random arms and legs in your face?! No, I didn’t get one! Due to everyone swimming all kinds of lengths in the Swimathon it allowed space between all racers. Those who were doing 500m were out after one lap and so on. I found by lap 3 I was swimming well and actually enjoying myself! I think because I knew I’d already swam a decent distance previously, I knew a little further should be okay… and it was!

Challenge 4 is done!

The Swimathon was a excellent challenge for number 4 because it was fun! I had a good time racing the Wirral Sprint Triathlon, but I think I had a far more relaxing experience on this race. Perhaps it’s because it was smaller scale and less intimidating? Either way, I welcomed that feeling! I often think that we can lose sight a touch when we compete at races, don’t you agree? We forget to soak it in and remember why we started, or why we love that particular sport. I am competitive and a few times during the race I thought I should speed up to pass people, but I resisted the temptation. Instead I reminded myself that everyone was doing something different for different reasons, and I should be thankful for being there. I was, so I took that mentality with me and simply enjoyed my time in the beautiful water.

Onto Challenge 5!