Edinburgh Swimfest

I cheated with my Blip photo. It's courtesy of Bob Marshall as I didn't have my camera!

I was well excited about today. I was entered for the Edinburgh Open Water Swimfest. I have been training open water for the last 3 months and this was the goal. The race was a 2km sea swim from Musselburgh to Portobello. The was weather was perfect, fine sunshine and glass flat sea. The haar came in a few times but lifted in time for the start. Ideal conditions as my training has all been in Salford Quays which is not known for big waves!

With around 200 swimmers, the start was hectic with a bit of kicking and swimming on top of each other. The field eventually thinned out though and I got into a bit of a rhythm whilst swimming in a small group. Sighting buoys in Salford Quays is relatively straight forward but it was more of a challenge in the sea. Before long, I was turning towards the beach and the finishing line. welcomed by Rosemary shouting "come on Andy" at the top of her voice. People in Kirkcaldy were covering their ears! She had finished 7 mins ahead of me so I was pleased.....the goal had been under 10mins.

After a 40mins (or was it more) and a rhubarb and custard Torq gel (amazing) it was the 800m swim. I hadn't initially planned to do it but it was free to enter so why not! The wind and the waves had got up by this stage, making conditions far more challenging. Still, it was great fun swimming through the waves, albeit hard work. From the shore they had looked relatively small but felt far bigger when you're in them!

"Oooohhhh.....what's that pretty red thing swimming about?" I thought. "F**k, it's a jellyfish" as my wrist started to sting! Hey hum! It was a two lap race including a quick run up the beach, round a cone and back into the sea.

Although very tired, I've rarely had so much fun in any race. "Why not do the final race of the day" I thought. It was only 400m, a relative sprint. Off I went again into the waves. I'm sure the first buoy had drifted much further out making the swim quite a bit further. Rosemary finished 3rd in this one with me coming in over 3 mins behind looking very disorientated. I had been stung above my eye by another jellyfish, has a few panicky moments and was very tired. Somehow, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and was quite proud that I had completed all three. Brad, an old triathlon friend said it was good to see the "same old Kirky" pushing my endurance to the limit. Ha... wish Rosemary had heard that as it's been many blue moons since I used to push myself like a demon!

The day ended with a visit o The Roseleaf doon Leith My old mate Jonny and his missus run this wonderful quirky bar, serving really good nosh. Saturday isn't the best time for a natter but it was great to see him all the same. Good pint too!