Goggles at Dawn

 Last year a group of Wellington swimmers travelled north to participate in the Swim for Starship Swimathon at Mairangi Bay. It was such a good day, and such a fun trip that I was very keen to go again in Novmber 2021. A group of 5-6 of us were also eager, and we booked flights. Of course, with the delta outbreak in Auckland going on and on, things had begun to look a bit sticky in October, and just when I was trying to decide whether to cancel and credit my flights, AirNZ made the decision for me by cancelling our flights.  A couple of weeks later, Swim T3 put out an announcement that the Swimathon itself would need to be cancelled because of restrictions on large gatherings. Still, the opportunity to do a long day of swimming remained appealing, and as I needed to do a 5-6 hour training swim, I decided to do my own swimathon here in Oriental Bay. 27 November seemed like a good day to do it, so I set up a donation page for Starship  and planned what I'd do. The Mairangi Bay course

Wellington returned to Level 3 on Wednesday 1 September, coinciding with the first day of spring, and this meant a joyous return to the sea, and socially-distanced swimming. A bunch of us hared off to Worser Bay to immerse ourselves. The weather excelled itself, with sunshine and light winds, making for an afternoon that appeared not just spring-like, but summery. Worser Bay never disappoints, anyway, in any weather. As a group, we'd debated some of the Level 3 guidance for sea swimming, namely that one should swim at one's nearest beach, rather than one's favourite beach. Some rationalisation occurred, as we weighed up the pros and cons of (a) safety and (b) proximity. The eventual compromise was that the nearest beach (for example, Owhiro Bay) mightn't be the safest. Thus, Worser Bay - being reasonably local, clean, and safe - seemed a good bet. The two weeks of Level 4 had been my longest break from swimming since ... Level 4 in 2020. But that had been many more week

 In an earlier post, I mentioned my 5.03 400 yard effort at Thorndon . I was pleased with that and really wanted to do another, under 5.00, the following week. I'd also planned to lift my kilometres to c. 30km per week to coincide with the mid-trimester break at university. Well, that day of the 5.03 400fr was also Tuesday 17 August. Approximately 11 hours later I was sitting in the Wellington Hospital ED, with my mother who was about to be admitted to have her gallbladder removed urgently. Meanwhile, a community covid case had been announced in Auckland. While the maternal unit was wheeled out to be x-rayed, the press briefing came on TV, and a Level 4 lockdown was announced, starting at midnight. The announcement caused something of a stir in the ED, but naturally, my first thought was ‘there goes my faster 400 … And there goes my 30km week …)  While I sat sunk in vacant and pensive self-obsession, my mother returned from the x-ray place, somewhat livelier thanks to morphine and