The Edinburgh swim festival was a fun race for me! I entered the 2km event two years ago and was 13th – this year I wanted to be top 10 and beat Andy by 10 minutes (he set the gap, not me 🙂 ).

At the festival, your entry fee covers as many of the races as you like. First up was the 2km. Clad in our wetsuits with bare feet we clambered on the coach in Portobello and were whisked off to the pier at Musselburgh.

Next task – warm up, get in and get ready to swim back again! The water was quite warm, so it was OK getting out ready to run back in again when the gun went off :-). Here we are just after the start. I can’t be sure which is me, but I’m near the front-ish on the right-hand side in an orange hat!

The start

I seemed to go a bit wide at first and, as usual, found it impossible to get onto some good feet for drafting. Halfway over one of the bouys was more inland and I had to decide whether to follow the bouys and the people or cut straight over to the one after. I did the latter and it felt strange to be out alone. I couldn’t even see a safety boat when I was turning to breathe!

Funny faces getting out!

 
At the final bouy before the turn, I rejoined the field and put the effort in to strike for shore. I finished 25th overall, 8th female, 5th ‘senior’ female (i.e. when you discount any juniors and veterans who beat me!). Goal one achieved, but Andy was only 7 minutes behind – so he won that one!

Andy making sure he finished hard

Last time I felt seasick at the end. This time I was fine, though I always look a bit weird getting out 😀 !!

A smile on my face as I do the turn in the 800m!

After a long wait on the beach it was time for the 800m. This was two laps from the beach. I had got quite stiff and never really felt into this one as a race. However, it scored high in the fun stakes as the wind and swell were getting up. We were swimming straight out into the waves, then across them, then surfing back in. I was with a group of other girls and didn’t realise at the time that if I had been motivated to push past them and swim 6 seconds faster I’d have been on the podium :-).
14th overall, 6th female, 3rd senior female.

High elbow or straight arm?! (I’m the one with pink squiggles!)

Finally, after a quick turnaround (good for staying ready) it was straight back in for the 400m. It was free, so why not?! And knowing it was my last chance, I went for it, was clear of the group I was with in the 800m and finished in the top 3 females! Persistence pays off :D.
11th overall, 3rd female, 2nd senior female.

The weather stayed sunny, we all had fun and even Andy’s jellyfish sting didn’t put a dampener on things. We rounded it off with a fantastic meal at the Roseleaf.

One of the safety kayakers – Jim from the Wild Ones – thanks Jim!

Thanks to Bob Marshall for the great photos.

Next race – a big one – the 5-day Adidas Terrex Sting in Stirling. I haven’t met all the team before, let alone ever raced with them. This is also the first time I’ve done anything as long as this. I hope it will be all about the experience and having a bit of fun! You will be able to follow us live on the trackers (it’s team AVT Asset Management) and look out for my report when I’ve recovered enough to write it!