On the 25th of September I was one of over 650 finishers across 4 different distances at the Exmoor Open Water Swim 2022. Here’s how the race was for me.
Having completed the 2k swim at Exmoor three times in previous years I decided that in 2022 I would take on the 4k event. My initial goal was to finish in under an hour which I thought might be too ambitious given that previously I had been unable to finish the 2k swim in under 30 minutes but I decided to stick to it and see what happened.
We arrived at the event early, over an hour before our 09:25 start time as we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to prepare for the race. On arriving we walked down the the lake to check the route. The 4k race featured two laps of the lake and finished with a short run from the water to the finish line. Once we were satisfied that we understood the route we headed back to the car to get our wetsuits on then walked back down to the bag drop area.
After short wait in the bag drop area our wave was called to the start line and the inevitable pre race nerves arrived. I finished my warm up, pulled my goggles on and took some deep breathes in preparation for the hour of racing ahead.
Due to the low water levels this year, a mass start was not possible so the race format had been changed to a time trial with a rolling start. I was the last person to start which suited me as I always had someone to focus on overtaking. After watching the other competitors climb into the water, it was my turn. I crossed the start line and the 1 minute acclimatisation period began. Walking along the pontoon I felt prepared for what came ahead. I jumped into the 16.5 degrees water and started what would be the best swim of my life.
Starting my swim, I got over excited and went off very fast (perhaps too fast) in the first few hundred metres. I noticed that I was passing people straight away which was probably why I maintained such a high pace for the first kilometre. I swam the first kilometre in a time of 13:11, almost two minutes faster than the pace I needed to hold to meet my 1 hour target. Had I seen just how fast I’d gone off I probably would have been worried about being unable to sustain the pace. However, I was completely unaware of my pace and fortunately the fast start didn’t make things too difficult later on.
Turning around the buoy next to the water station, which I knew was 1.1 kilometres into the swim, I had settled into a much better pace. It was still quick but, unlike the pace I was holding for the first kilometre, it was actually sustainable. I still felt very strong at this point and was still passing the swimmers who had started before me. After passing the white buoy, which was the only one we had to swim to the right of, I could see the buoy that marked the end of the first lap and the half way point. Knowing I was almost halfway through my swim made me want to increase my pace again but I knew I had to maintain a steady pace if I wanted to do well.
I finished the first lap two and a half minutes faster that I needed to to meet my target. Turning onto the second lap I really struggled with sighting as with it being quite early the sun was still very low in the sky and was annoyingly behind the buoys I needed to sight on. I could just about make out the buoys, however I think I lost time here by swimming slightly further than I needed to. I was very grateful when I turned again and was able to see where I was going. However, it wasn’t long after this that I started to struggle. As I was coming up to the water station, I started to pay the price for the high pace in the first kilometre. Each stroke felt harder than the last as I struggled on slowly towards the next buoy. I had hit a wall. We’ve all experienced that moment in a race or training session when we realise that we went too hard too soon and know that we are going to suffer as a result of this. Fortunately, I was still passing people which gave me motivation to keep going. I still had over a kilometre to go but breaking this down into smaller chunks helped massively. Instead of focussing on getting to the finish line I focussed on catching the swimmer in front of me, then passing them, then reaching the next buoy and then catching the next swimmer. Breaking the distance down like this made the whole thing seem a lot more manageable. After struggling at a painfully slow pace for about 500 metres I turned around the white buoy and could see the finish line. Seeing this welcome sight and knowing how close I was I was able to find a little bit more to give and push myself a little bit harder. I raced towards the finish line swimming faster than I thought I could until, 300 metres from the end, I got cramp in my leg. I decided it would be quicker to stop and stretch it out than to keep swimming so that’s what I did. After another 50 metres or so of swimming it cramped again. I stopped a second time, stretched and once I thought it was gone started swimming again. After another 50 metres it cramped for a third time. I decided that rather than stop again I would keep swimming. I swam the last 200 metres trying to move my leg as little as possible as even the smallest movement caused a fair bit of pain. Despite this I managed to hold a decent pace for the last 200 metres. I reached the edge of the lake and was helped out of the water by the volunteers.
After staggering out of the water and across the line, I heard it announced on the speakers that I had finished, took my timing chip off and collected my finishers medal. After, collecting my Dryrobe and a snack from the bag drop area I made my way back towards the finish area to watch the other competitors finishing and to get a much needed portion of chips. There was no awards ceremony, which I would have liked so we left pretty soon after finishing.
When I got home and checked the results, I was surprised to see that I finished in a time of 57:48, over two minutes ahead of my target time. I was also surprised that I had managed to finish as the first male. At the time of writing I am still waiting for my medal however it has been posted.
All in all, the Exmoor Open Water Swim was once again a great event, probably the best organised event I have done this year. I plan to compete in the event again next year, hopefully win another medal and improve on my time.
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