49:04.09

I finished my first open water swim at the Cooly Classic, swimming from Rainbow Beach to Kirra Beach in a town called Coolangatta, on the Gold Coast. It was supposed to be a 2k (about a mile), but I’m pretty sure I went above and beyond, and ended up swimming a 3k instead – it’s a lot harder to swim in a straight line when there’s a current pushing you towards shore and there isn’t a line on the bottom of the pool to follow.

This picture was so misleading - I counted 8 giant red blocks while swimming and though I was done. PSYCH! Still at least 500 more metres to go!

I finished in just under 50 minutes and placed 65^th out of 95 women. I’d say I’m pretty satisfied with my performance; my goal was to finish alive. But I have found some competition: the top female finished in a speedy 32 minutes.. Maybe next year.

Must.. make it... to finish line..

Most of the race went swimmingly. My two biggest challenges, however, were more than enough to make up for the easy parts:

1. Starting the race. The waves were giant – the surfers in the water did not seem happy to see the 300 swimmers intruding on their turf. I probably spent the majority of my energy just trying to get past the crushing waves out to the first marker. Once I got past that first hurdle though, waters were pretty smooth, almost pool-like but with a current and some extra salt.
2. Finishing the race. Those damn waves again, though smaller at Kirra Beach. This time, they wouldn’t let me get back to shore. The undercurrent made me feel like I was swimming in an infinity pool – watching the sand directly below me, I could tell I was getting nowhere even though I was moving my arms and kicking my feet. Eventually I got to a place where I could stand, and ended up aqua jogging my way to the shore and sprinting to the finish line.

30 metre sprint to the finish!

But what’s an open water swim in Australia without some type of wildlife attack? Unfortunately, there were no sharks, but I did get stung by a jellyfish. I was way too proud of the tiny marks on my arm, but now I can say I'm a survivor, of jellyfish and an open water swim.

P.S. You can check out the results and more pics from the race here!