A cold water event that’s not for the faint of heart …

Three of us set off today for Chloë McCardel’s Champion of Champions event at the Middle Brighton Baths. I was joined by Anthony and Daniel. In doing so I set a new personal benchmark – swimming in the Bay at 14°c.  Sure, it’s no Black Ice (they swim at 10°c or less) but I’m working my way down the thermometer. There was talk of 13.8°c when we arrived at 7am but it went up a bit after the sun hit the water. We managed a nice 1.2km and were very happy with it.

My big lesson today was to allow more time to acclimatise to the cold. As the countdown was announced I ended up jumping in off the jetty with 30 seconds to go. I reckon my breathing didn’t settle down until the first 200 metres. Previously when I’ve been in veritably warmer water of 16°c it’s been walking in from the beach. I’d let my legs acclimatise a bit before going under. What I should’ve done today was dive in at the 3 minute call and literally ‘chill’ for a minute or two.

I believe this event came about by Chloë assisting a few teams/people with training for an English Channel crossing this year, eg. a couple of Boroughcoutas have put together a relay. Today was part of their training and invited interested people to join them. There were a few prizes on offer during the day but in the spirit of the EC only to people who didn’t wear a wetsuit. Distances for the day were 1km + 3km + 8km. In the spirit of a few OW swims I’ve done in the past the course it was generally agreed the course was set up a bit long and the 1 became a 1.2, no biggie.

I had planned to do the 3km as well but the structure of the day was everyone as a group swims the 1, then there was a break, then they all swim the 3, with another break before the 8km. I was fine in the water, but once I got out I decided to leave it and not get back in. I maintain I could’ve had maybe a 10 minute break and kept going but 30 minutes was too much. Still, I set myself a new benchmark for cold water which is what I was aiming for. I’ll make better preparations for next year and do the 3km as well.

Walking up the pier during the 3km a nice surprise was when I saw they were providing hot tea or hot chocolate for mid-way through the 3km; seemed very civilised and another drawcard for next year.