Scorching Bay, 9 February 2020.
Capital City Triathlon hosts an excitingly varied calendar of multisport events in Wellington throughout the year, including long and short triathlons, aquabike (swim and cycle), aquathlon (swim and run), and duathlon (bike and run). They make sure there are many different distance options, to encourage more people to enter. The events are fun and competitive, and the course - involving swimming at Scorching Bay, and cycling/running around the beautiful coast road of Te Motu Kairangi/Miramar Peninsula.
I don't participate in the running/cycling side of things (in early 2016 I plunged into the 'Triple-Tri' event, involving three mini triathlons back to back .... kind of like grossly extended interval training, and decided I'd done my bit with that sport), but love the fact that Capital City Tri also offer a swim-only option: you can do a 500m, 1km, 1.5km, or 2km swim in the clear and crisp Scorching Bay (the name is a bit of a misnomer - it's usually around a degree cooler at Scorching than it is at Oriental Bay during summer, and in winter it feels much colder). I checked the forecast on Thursday, saw light southerlies predicted for Sunday morning, and entered for the swim-only event.
Today there was an Enduro tri event on the cards, and the organisers carefully seeded the competitors in waves with a handicap: apparently it was extremely scientifically done. It was suggested that I do my swim with one of the later/faster waves, but in the end, I decided to start with Wave 1 at 7.15am.
After a chilly southerly change last night, I hadn't expected delightful weather, but delightful weather we had.
We swam a lovely triangular course, supposedly 500 metres long, so four laps for a 2km swim. When the starter blew her whistle we plunged into the waves heading for the first marker buoy. The buoy sat directly in line with the rising sun, making sighting tricky, but one of the safety crews kindly parked their IRB near it, creating a larger target. The two other buoys on the 500-metre course proved easy to spot.
The flat water and lack of wind created conditions in which I could concentrate on a long smooth stroke (hopefully), and contemplate what my legs were doing (very little). I seem to have buoyant legs in the sea, and if I try to kick, the legs end up out of the water, so 'my kick' (if you can attribute such a grandiose label to the twitching and occasional thrashing of my legs) tends to be minimal in the sea and more for balance than propulsion.
Anyway, around and around the laps I went. The athletes' waves were starting 15 minutes apart, so it occurred to me that their start should coincide roughly with the start of my third lap, if I was achieving 15-minute kilometres. When they started rather before the conclusion of my second lap it suggested that each lap was longer than 500 metres. I saw Wave 2 crashing into the water, and decided that my goal for laps 3 and 4 was to try and catch and lap as many swimmers from Wave 1 as I could, and see if I could at least catch a Wave 2 swimmer. Towards the end of Lap 3, and through Lap 4 I passed a number of swimmers, and after activating 'my kick' for the final stretch, prepared mentally for the dramatic 'sprint up the beach' to the finish line. I swam until my fingers touched sand, stood up, and then stepped into deep water - a hidden sandbar - so dived back in to swim some more. This dive coincided with some largish waves, so I was carried along swiftly and came to a halt when my torso made sudden contact with sand and rocks. I heaved myself to my feet and lolloped up to the finish line. The finish was set up for runners, so I had to hurdle a small fence to reach the man with the stopwatch.
All in all, a nice swim. As I had suspected, the course was long, probably 2.4 or 2.5km. One competitor's watch suggested 2.63, but she hadn't taken the most direct route from buoy to buoy. I'm calling it 2.5km.
After chatting for a while, then having coffee and a scone, I pedalled home on my bike, avoiding the triathletes who were on their cycle laps to Seatoun.
I don't participate in the running/cycling side of things (in early 2016 I plunged into the 'Triple-Tri' event, involving three mini triathlons back to back .... kind of like grossly extended interval training, and decided I'd done my bit with that sport), but love the fact that Capital City Tri also offer a swim-only option: you can do a 500m, 1km, 1.5km, or 2km swim in the clear and crisp Scorching Bay (the name is a bit of a misnomer - it's usually around a degree cooler at Scorching than it is at Oriental Bay during summer, and in winter it feels much colder). I checked the forecast on Thursday, saw light southerlies predicted for Sunday morning, and entered for the swim-only event.
Today there was an Enduro tri event on the cards, and the organisers carefully seeded the competitors in waves with a handicap: apparently it was extremely scientifically done. It was suggested that I do my swim with one of the later/faster waves, but in the end, I decided to start with Wave 1 at 7.15am.
After a chilly southerly change last night, I hadn't expected delightful weather, but delightful weather we had.
We swam a lovely triangular course, supposedly 500 metres long, so four laps for a 2km swim. When the starter blew her whistle we plunged into the waves heading for the first marker buoy. The buoy sat directly in line with the rising sun, making sighting tricky, but one of the safety crews kindly parked their IRB near it, creating a larger target. The two other buoys on the 500-metre course proved easy to spot.
The flat water and lack of wind created conditions in which I could concentrate on a long smooth stroke (hopefully), and contemplate what my legs were doing (very little). I seem to have buoyant legs in the sea, and if I try to kick, the legs end up out of the water, so 'my kick' (if you can attribute such a grandiose label to the twitching and occasional thrashing of my legs) tends to be minimal in the sea and more for balance than propulsion.
Anyway, around and around the laps I went. The athletes' waves were starting 15 minutes apart, so it occurred to me that their start should coincide roughly with the start of my third lap, if I was achieving 15-minute kilometres. When they started rather before the conclusion of my second lap it suggested that each lap was longer than 500 metres. I saw Wave 2 crashing into the water, and decided that my goal for laps 3 and 4 was to try and catch and lap as many swimmers from Wave 1 as I could, and see if I could at least catch a Wave 2 swimmer. Towards the end of Lap 3, and through Lap 4 I passed a number of swimmers, and after activating 'my kick' for the final stretch, prepared mentally for the dramatic 'sprint up the beach' to the finish line. I swam until my fingers touched sand, stood up, and then stepped into deep water - a hidden sandbar - so dived back in to swim some more. This dive coincided with some largish waves, so I was carried along swiftly and came to a halt when my torso made sudden contact with sand and rocks. I heaved myself to my feet and lolloped up to the finish line. The finish was set up for runners, so I had to hurdle a small fence to reach the man with the stopwatch.
All in all, a nice swim. As I had suspected, the course was long, probably 2.4 or 2.5km. One competitor's watch suggested 2.63, but she hadn't taken the most direct route from buoy to buoy. I'm calling it 2.5km.
After chatting for a while, then having coffee and a scone, I pedalled home on my bike, avoiding the triathletes who were on their cycle laps to Seatoun.
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