Iron Jack

Being Auckland Anniversary Weekend, this weekend marks the annual Blue Lake Multisport Festival - one of the highlights on the RATs calendar. It includes a reverse Aquathon (run around the lake followed by swim), the Hinemoa Swim (2km from one side of the lake to the other) and a sprint triathlon. This year also includes a 750m swim and a fun run. The event plays host to individuals - young and old - and families from Rotorua and beyond.

Last year it was one of my first forays into the lake for an open water swim as I completed the reverse Aquathon in a team with Mike. I’m not competing in much of the festival this year as I’m getting ready for my first sprint tri at Kinloch next week. But at the last minute my friend Mary Ann and I joined forces in Team JackMAP to take on the aquathon. Like everything we do, its serious - but with a whole lot of fun!

The runners headed off with some of the fastest (including Lawrence our coach) whopping around the lake in what seemed like no time at all. Mary Ann had estimated 35 minutes, but I suited up as soon as we got back to the beach after the runners headed off. Just as well I did, a very quick 30 minutes later and we were swapping the timing transponder and I was off.

Mike, Lawrence, Kevin (Mary Ann’s husband) and the rest of our support crew were all cheering us on at this stage, so I thought I better put some of our open water swim course skills into practice. I ran in to the water (yes ran!), doing the high-knee sprint, and then dived in. It was text-book. Apart from the bit where I lost my goggles!

But, once the goggle situation was fixed, I was off. And I had a great swim. I thought I was going quite slowly, but I did think I was going smoothly, and I was trying to focus on “catching” the water. Rounding the buoys went smoothly as well. I passed a few people on the way out, but no-one passed me. I headed into the beach for the run-up before rounding the flag and back into the water. I had finally remembered to start my stopwatch when I started and I quickly glanced down at my watch (never easy without my glasses on!) But it quite clearly said just over six minutes - for 400 metres! Significantly faster than in the pool.

I was absolutely blown away.

“Wow! I am having a fantastic swim, I better keep it up,” I told myself as I went back into the water.

Second loop, same as the first - except for the unexpected chop that had come out of no-where. After the first few mouthfuls of water I tried to breath on the other side, but in the end just opted for a higher breath on my preferred right side. Buoys - all good. Into beach - all good. Run into finish line - fantastic.

All up, 13 minutes 43 seconds for 800 metres. As long as their distance was pretty accurate, that’s a fantastic swim for me and one that bodes well for Kinloch next weekend.

You can check out the link to the Blue Lake Multisport Festival here http://www.rats.org.nz/eves-blue-lake-multisport-festival/

Tags: Blue Lake, Multisport Festival, Rotorua, Rotorua Association of Triathletes

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Events, Swim. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.