Water Corporation Open Water Swim Series #3 (Includes Carolyn Burke Memorial Fundraiser) Distances of 1.25km, 2.5km & 5km.
The sun was out and not a cloud in the blue sky. Such a beautiful perfect day for open water swimming with the air temperature expected to rise to 38Degrees.
Sea temperature 22Degrees.
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Mullaloo Beach
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Start and finishing line
After listening to the course briefing and applying sun block and Vaseline (just in case of stingers), approximately 250 swimmers consisting of all age groups from under 15yrs to over 50yrs of age headed out for a mass water start between two orange buoys.
The siren rang at 9am and swimmers trying to find water space between kicking feet and twirling arms headed off north in the direction of the first buoy. The orange buoys were easily seen for guidance and by the time I approached the first buoy the crowd had spread out. I was more or less left alone in the 3rd and 4th lap and could only see the odd cap or arms splashing somewhere off in the distance. I swam rather strongly into the beach, walked through the finishing flags with a timed result of 1hour 29mins. Hmm...maybe the course was a little longer than 5km !?! or I need to do more intense training...ohh!
It was a wonderful swim with very clear water, I could see small colourful fish, a few stingrays and some rugged reef scattered in some areas over the ocean bed. Usually Mullaloo beach is renowned for 'stingers' and I am thankful for only being 'kissed' once on the face over the 5km swim.
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Some Barracudas Masters 5km successful swimmers (from left) Sue Oldham, Rory Toner , myself, Tony Parbery & Kathryn Phillips
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