Goggles at Dawn

You can't beat Wellington on a good day! Although I don't really go along with 'seasons' in relation to open-water swimming - after all, every day is perfect for something, some days are just a little chillier - the summer season here in Wellington is marked out pretty well by Splash and Dash. This is a great series of swim-only or aquathlon events, run by the Barefoot Triathlon team. From late November into mid-March, we assemble fortnightly on a Wednesday at Freyberg Beach for some feats of strength. The swim-only events involve laps around the pontoons and fountain, and the swimming runners do either one or two swim laps and then hurtle off somewhere on a run. They generally look completely done in when they finish, and very sweaty. My 'dash' is confined to unsteady lurching up the beach to the timing mats, and that's it. Way back in the late 90s, my father took part in these events but believed me to be too young and foolish to participate. This was som...

On Saturday 22 January 2022, my friend Victora Pinarello joined the 40.2 Club by swimming the length of Lake Taupō. It was a privilege to be part of her support crew for this swim. I had huge respect for Victoria’s background in Ironman and other extreme endurance sports, and her attitude to training for this swim during 2021, demonstrating an incredible work ethic, was humbling. Then, the determination Victoria showed during a long swim that had some challenging moments gave me a new perspective on what ‘endurance’ can mean.  Therefore, it’s an especial pleasure to host her swim report on Goggles at Dawn. ******* Total time: 18 hours 26 minutes 18 seconds; expected time 15/16 hours Total distance: 40.9km; expected distance 40.2km * 24 hours awake * 25 SiS gels * 4 bottles of electrolyte * 3 layers of sunscreen * 1 driver – Emma * 2 supporters on the boat – Alicia and Corrina * 1 Phil * 1 Hana I'm told of the tradition to write a blog post-swim, to impart my wisdom and share my ...

On Monday 13 December, two weeks and two days after a  six-hour swim at Freyberg Beach – which I’d anticipated being the start of another two months’ training – I found myself covered in grease and sliding off the side of an IRB into the water near Makara  to try the whole procedure of swimming to the South Island again (if you want to refresh your memory about events earlier this year, here is the recap of March’s adventure). Overcast sky, misty rain, and alarmingly large waves rendered my outlook somewhat pessimistic, but at least the damp weather meant that I could attribute my shivering to the rain on my skin rather than acute fear.   There’ll be a complete lack of sensation and drama in this report, but when searching for a pithy title, I remembered that before a pool swim on Saturday 11 December, John had been talking about the new cinematic extravaganza of West Side Story , which I think was opening that very day. The WSS connection reminded me of Leonard Berns...

To avoid March’s fuelling failure, for my December swim I embarked on a regime of intensive research (lasting approximately 100 minutes) to ensure that I would have enough food that was calorie-packed, and easy and enjoyable to eat. All my drinks would be warm. I practised this feeding plan – more or less – during the six-hour swim on 27 November (not knowing, of course, that I'd be swimming the Strait in less than a fortnight) but because it was a very hot day the idea of drinking anything warm was repellent and I stuck with cold drinks. I'd also neglected to get some fruit juice to mask the taste of the 'Naked' Tailwind, so added a tiny bit of Pure to the Tailwind bottle to improve the flavour experience. I also read through some of the extremely long feeding threads on the Marathon Swimming Federation discussion board. As in the past, these left me none the wiser: some dogmatic people said ‘LIQUIDS ONLY! Anything else is a waste of time!’ while others advocated var...

 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 Mair...

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...