Trying to sprint a mile, 200 miles, 100m and 50m in a day!!

From Wetsuit to Race Suit in 2.5 hours

Jo Mitchinson - Team Aqua Sphere UK athlete

Saturday's alarm went off at 05:30, but not before our daughter arrives in our room looking like something out of a horror film. Face full of blood from bleeding nose can only mean one thing in our house - summers here!! 

So, I head downstairs for the compulsory last minute checking of my packing. This was unceremoniously strewn across my lounge floor & fell into 2 distinct piles. 

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First, there was the packing for The Great East Swim in Suffolk. This contained: Wetsuit, swimsuit, spare swimsuits, timing chip, hat, goggles, spare goggles, earplugs, towels, millions of layers in case the weather forecast is wrong & it suddenly gets freezing cold, clothes in case the forecast is right, food, drink, inhalers, and a particularly attractive 'granny trolley' to carry it all in because I don't want to break myself walking from the car park to the race location. 

The second pile was my pool racing kit. In an inspired (or ambitious!!) moment, I'd also entered the Stevenage SC Summer Sprint Meet. This pile contained my race suit (MP XPRESSO), spare race suit (MP XPRESSO), towels, goggles, hats, earplugs, warm up suit, inhalers, food & drink. 

This is not the postcode to use - unless you fancy a countryside trek!!

I gathered it all into the car & drove to Suffolk. The sat nav suffered a serious malfunction at some point (or I just used the wrong postcode) & I ended up being told by sat nav lady to park here (a tiny single track lane) & walk the 20mins to my location!! Not likely, even with my stuff in the granny trolley. I don't think I realised that there are still places without internet access in the UK- but as my phone repeatedly failed to receive any signal at all (couldn't even call someone to get directions), I made a mental note to check this first if I ever decide to move more than 10 minutes away from a Costa into the countryside!! Hydration was kicking in, so I had to go for a quick 'jungle wee'. I met some joggers at this point, crouched in the middle of nowhere- who ignored the fact I was watering the grass when we first established eye contact, gave me directions & even wished me luck. 

Result and Time of my wave

I arrived at Alton Water & went into race mode, this involves pacing around & sitting with my headphones in. At 10:30 our wave was called through into the acclimatisation area. This is basically a roped off area of the lake- ideally used to warm up, but in this case far too shallow and crowded to use in this way. The water temperature in the lake was a balmy 19.5 degrees. I don't know if it was all in my head, but I'm pretty sure the temperature in the small, roped off area, crowded with 250 swimmers all doing their last minute wee's in their wetsuits to 'acclimatise' was significantly warmer than that!! 

The race started, a lot of weed wrapped around hands, arms & face in the shallows- but within 200m I was swimming strongly & comfortably. All I focus on in open water races is the next buoy. Spotted the finish area, ran out & had interview & photos taken as I won my wave. Then wetsuit off, 2 piece on (so I can jump straight into warm up when I get to Stevenage), granny trolley loaded back into car & off again. 2 hours later, after a brief stop at Home Farm (which I'd inadvertently put into my sat nav instead of 'Home') and I arrived at the pool. 

I wasn't sure if my head was in it- I'd swam hard at the Great East, was really pleased with my time, but my shoulders felt heavy in warm up & I was knackered. My coach asked me what I wanted to do- I could withdraw from the 100m free & just do the relays if I wanted to. I didn't know & was painfully indecisive. When she directly asked why I wouldn't choose to race all I could manage was "because I'm tired". I realised that I sounded like a complete wimp, so I waited to dry off and then shoehorned myself into my tiny race suit. This is usually a 20 minute job in the comfort of my own home when I'm dry. To do this in the changing rooms when I was already warmed up, hot & sweaty was a full 30 minute workout. I honestly believe that everyone involved in swimming (coaches, volunteers & officials) should all have to experience getting one of these suits on & off at least once, in a time pressured situation. It would give them a greater understanding of the tactical demands of swimming. When the poolside helpers, coaches & starters are missing swimmers for a race, the chances are that they are in the loo's, bordering tears, trying to squeeze themselves back into their suit after a wee that they went for 15 minutes ago!! So rather than shout at them for holding up the competition, just be grateful that they didn't dislocate something while rushing!! 

Gold in the 15 and over (very, very over) Age Group 100m free

My 100m free came & went in a blur of lactic acid. I was unbelievably pleased to see that I swam 3 whole seconds quicker than I've swam since I was 22, going 1:03.11. A few people even commented that they thought they'd seen a leg kick- but they might have just been being nice. Next the 4x50m medley relay. I had the freestyle leg & from the gun I realised it was going to be very, very tight between us & Hatfield. All of our swimmers were evenly matched. We had good changeovers and were neck and neck at every point. Daisy Sandon (our fly swimmer) nailed her finish on a full stroke & so I was able to dive in at exactly the same time as the other swimmer- a particularly speedy 13 year old. I don't know how, but I managed to hold her off- just.... She pushed me to swim 28.6. I haven't been under 30s since 1999. Stevenage won by the tiniest of margins. 

I called it a day after the first session- I needed to properly hydrate & refuel. I'd driven nearly 200 miles in the sunshine & raced 1800m - surprising myself with each swim. I was starting to feel my 38 years & when I was woken up on Sunday morning to a repeat of Saturday, looking at 'horror film' nosebleed daughter, but unable to respond quickly because my back, shoulders & arms didn't want to let me move, I knew I'd made the right decision!! 

Only one way to start Sunday morning after that.