I got up at 5.30am, I also woke up at 3.30 am and 4.30am, sleeping, as you can imagine was a hard task for me last night. I had all those worry dreams too, the ones where you are late, or the bike had gone and I had no wetsuit! It doesn't help the positivity a dream like that.
For the last 2 months + as you know I have been preparing for this moment. This was the reason I learnt to swim, to properly challenge myself and take me out of my comfort zone. I felt sick, my stomach was doing somersaults, but I managed some breakfast and there was no vomit! Which is nice!
I have been trying to find words to describe how I felt this morning at this point, fear I guess is a keen one, I had little Jo Gendall come along from Totnes as support and to be honest her cheery little supportive, 'I know you can do it' smile was what got me down to the beach and into the sea. As a part time Instructor of Jo's I know I had to keep her respect for me, I had to be really good!
The pack descended to the beach, a beautiful mass of rubber, lycra and neoprene, it was like an epic perve convention and I felt at home!
At this point I noted that we didn't have to dive in to anything, just get in the sea, walk out and then swim to the starting markers.
I floated about there ok, knowing damn well I couldn't put my feet down, I'll be honest, I'm feeling a tad panicky just writing this, going over the morning.
I had never been his far out to sea, without a boat underneath me and I was petrified. Then bang, we were off! When I say that, I mean 199 impressive swimmers took off at an epic pace doing front crawl, whilst I splashed around in a panic looking like a dying seal. I was officially scared!
I made it out towards the first marker but I had a sudden panic attack, proper shakes, nausea, ridiculous thoughts came over me, I wanted to get out of the sea and stop right there, I had tried right?
I waved over one of the guys on a kayak and he asked if I wanted the safety boat, I said yes and over they came.
They pulled me out of the water and had a little chat with me, they were good looking, charming witty guys and me, being fickle started to feel better within a couple of minutes. They had names like, Dirk and Fish Finger or something probably a little cooler than that. Anyway, still shaking I had calmed down a little.
They told me that I had about 500m to go and that if I wanted to carry on, the lovely Louis on the kayak would stay next to me.
They also said, that if I stopped there and then, I would have no bragging rights in the pub later! That was enough for me, I had to do this, I said I would so I had to get back in the water.
Still trembling, Louis helped me out of the boat and off I went.
The straight to the next marker was long, but the tide was with me and washed me a long a little, but from the last marker to the finish was awful. I felt like I was going no where, I had to hang on to Louis' kayak a couple of times and another guy kayak guy came and marked me on the other side.
They were brilliant, cheering me on, then the rescue boat came up with Fishcake and Burt on board, all smiles and cheekiness, they told me I was there very favourite person that day, so now I looked like a blushing half dead seal and only 20 metres to go. That was hard, finally made it to standing and hobbled up the steps to where Jo and another friend John were cheering me on!
I was off, comfortable flat fast riding and I had studied the route too! I past 3 girls, 2 men, another man, another couple of girls, I was flying, comfortable to be on dry land and I had the biggest smile on my face as the swim was over and I had done it. The rest was easy!
I enjoyed every second of the ride, it was awesome and the scenery around the coast there brought back memories of me training for the 103, I was near comfort zone again. I have to admit now, I need to get a road bike as I am loving it!
Back I went, overtook another man at the end and into transition again.
Bike up, running shoes on, quick slurp of powerade and I was away!
The route for the run started with the hill that leads out of Dawlish Warren, had to be some hills though after the speedy flat cycle. I love hills thankfully and took every one of them in my stride. I was slightly fatigued and didn't do my best running, but a hilly 5.7k in 30 minutes is not too bad I guess?
I passed another few people that I had seen swim off at the start and smiled to myself, oh, and the photographers, and the passing strangers who wished us luck as we ran. I was in the best mood and no one was going to stop me being happy!
Along the sea front and the finish was in site, I had guessed that there would be a little bit of 'round the paths' and there was the finish, off I went for an epic sprint finish, looking up at my time 1 hour 52 minutes. Happy days!
Harry was already in looking like he'd been there for ages, but he is super hardcore! Then Jo and John were there to congratulate me! I hugged them both, in my sweaty salty suit and picked Jo up off the floor!
Never have I felt such relief to get something under my belt and get on with my life!
Thanks for reading, I know I was a bit of a pansy in the sea, but I got on with it eventually and properly faced one of my fears that I have had since about age 7.
Will I do one again? Who knows! Now here is the reason why I wanted to challenge myself so much!
The Veterans Charity - and you can donate by texting FUNK50£3 and send to 70070 and make my effort all the more worthwhile. Thanks guys.
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