Another week, another swim.
After last’s week double race in one day, less than a week later I was off doing another swim. Unfortunately, it was my worst. swim. ever.
The day, however, was still awesome nevertheless.
Awesome location, stunning weather and fun company.
I’ve finally found a group of ocean swimming friends in Tokyo. Happy days! It was quite the gaijin brigade. There was about 15 of us who swam on the day.
We even rented a van for the day to make the 4-hr trip down to Iwachi beach (Matsuzaki in Izu). We had to meet at a ridiculously early time, but yay for road trips and meeting new people. Beats taking the train down on your own. You might recall I did the same race last year.
Last year, I did the 3km race in 45minutes. I think the course was quite short. This time around, I did the 3km in nearly double the time. I was over an hour out there. I think I barely scraped through the time limit of 90 minutes. Results aren’t out yet but I was at least 75 minutes, I reckon. I felt every minute of it. I was slow-going out there. Two laps of a 1.5km course – I was beat after the first lap. And still had another lap to do. My elbows were getting sore and tired and I definitely felt the slow swim. So much for a goal time of 60 minutes. I have not actually worked up the distance this swimming season. I don’t swim much more than 1.5km per swim session. I haven’t done a 3km swim since last year, so I struggled doing the 3km this time. Definitely need to train more! Me thinks I’m getting old.
Still had fun though. The water was beautiful.
Ready to swim:
Off we go:
Approx. 75 minutes later, I emerge from the water. You can call off the search party!
59th place out of the water (about 116 registered), so about middle of the pack:
Looking pretty freaking happy after that 3km ordeal. Slowest time ever. Pretty embarassing.
Location was stunning:
After the 3km swim was the 1.5km race. Got to take some action shots:
LIfesaver pow wow:
Later in the day, I also swam in the relay. We had 4 teams entered from the gaijin brigade. It was a 3km relay with the first person swimming 500m, the second person swimming 1km, and the third person swimming 1.5km. I did the 500m leg. Another slow swim from me. My poor teammates had to work hard to make up for lost time. The boys did well and were superfast. We ended up getting 5th place (no thanks, to me!).
Relay team:
The day was topped off with the obligatory group photo:
And there’s nothing like bonding than getting in the tub together (onsen boat by the water):
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