Complete Bliss

In Melbourne, we have had really great weather in terms of temperature and wind (a rare thing for this city) over the last few days. Instead of my regular Wednesday morning swim, I opted for an open water swim instead in the afternoon.

Elwood beach has both its good and bad days. Some days it is like a (dirty) washing machine and on rare occasions, it is as calm and clean as glass. Yesterday was a glass-like day. It was hovering around 35 degrees at 5pm so I decided to go in without the wetsuit.

There were several people in the water swimming from pole to pole, some had wetsuits, others didn't. I suspected that as the Supersprint Elwood triathlon was this weekend, people are doing some last minute training.

I intended to do at least 2 pole to pole laps (making the swim just over 1km) but I was in such a good mood that I decided to just keep swimming and ended up swimming 4 pole to poles. This was the first time I had achieved this as the other times I would be (a) Too tired from swimming through chop or (b) bored out of my brains. I was in a good zone. Another thing different from my previous swims was that I didn't stop short (of the poles), I just swam around them and just kept going. I ended up swimming over 2km (Garmin showed 2.05km).

I am still not the best swimmer nor am I the fastest compared to others. I just felt great swimming (without the wetsuit) and free. I didn't have a care in the world apart from sighting (the pole and other swimmers). If it wasn't for the numbness of my tongue from the salt water or that my fingers and toes were getting wrinkly, I would have kept going.

I came out of the water and felt that I have achieved something great - it was not the fastest of swims as it was not a race as I came out of just under 45min, it was more of a reflection on how much I have grown as a triathlete. I reflected back to 2010 when I had my first athlete consultation with Coach Ollie and one of my goals about training was to not Fear the Open Water. Not being comfortable in open water and having the life savers pull me out of the Sandringham Active Feet race 2010 (was known as Brooks then) was the reason why I joined Tri Alliance. Now I no longer have no issues about going in for an open water swim by myself and being able to swim over 2km when I couldn't even swim to the first pole when I first joined the squad. I am no longer having any anxiety/panic attacks when I am in the open water and actually loving the activity more than anything.

Love. Bliss. Free.