My day started at 8:00 am in London, in miserable foggy weather conditions .. and on a Sunday too!  

 

I arrived at the venue and couldn’t see the course (as it was still pretty foggy), so I admittedly started to get a bit worried, as I thought I might be in the wrong place! Thankfully, I bumped into a fellow swimmer, who recognised me from the TORQ team trials back in January, so we waited together for the briefing. I must admit I was still wondering where the course was, as I still couldn’t see any marked buoys?

 

The race briefing finally started and the organiser explained that the course was around a bend, so we wouldn’t be able to see the course until we entered the water. The 2Km race consisted of four clockwise 500m length laps, where we were to swim round the buoys.

 

The race briefing was over as quickly as it started and it was time to race! As I stood near the start area in my Swans goggles, TORQ swim hat and swimming leg skins, I could not help but notice that I was surounded by many competitors wearing wetsuits – it certainly made me wonder about who was going to be faster – the wetsuited or skinned swimmers…?

 

 

 

As it was a deep water start, I entered the water with all the other competitors and waited for the signal and we were off! I kicked my legs as fast as I could in order to break away from the field.  My plan worked and I thankfully secured a 2nd place positioning and created a nice big gap from the rest of the field, which I then managed to maintain. 

 

My first lap was really strong as I had lots of free water in front and behind. This meant I could reach my maximum potential. As the second lap approached, I found I was already catching up with the back end swimmers and so I started to lap them, this made the water become slightly choppy and harder to perform well in. The final part of the race (which was a half lap) was where I was able to pick up momentum again and I overtook the only swimmer in front of me and even manged a sprint finish towards the finishing boat.

 

In the end, I won the race quite comfortably and was very pleased with my performance. I was also pleased that I wasn’t too tired after the race, as I had only trained for one week since having a three week break from any type of exercise!

 

 

This race gave me great confidence and was a good start to the beginning of my season and new journey within Masters swimming for 2015.

 

I am now looking forward to my 10K at Dorney Lake (Eton) in two weeks, where my experience, fitness and determination will be tested, and where I shall also hopefully receive another TORQ win.