Swimming with Mr Froude

Now back to the swim.

I took my first 40 strokes as slow and smooth as I had practised. Keeping at least one hand in front (what swimmers called front-quadrant swimming), I breathe alternatively on left side every 40 strokes or so before changing to the right. I'm told that front quadrant swimming exploits Froude's law, which simply means that a boat with a long waterline will sail faster than a boat with a short waterline. Except that this boat is me, and the longer water line is my feet right up to the tip of my extended arms. Sure hope this boat follows Froude' law.

Turning after the first buoy at about 250m, we headed to the next buoy about 750m away. From here, it is a bit tougher to swim straight as we were parallel to the shore while being buffeted by waves. Additionally the sun was right in front of us. Fortunately I used the sun as my rough compass so I didn't have to sight (lift my head to look ahead) as much.Finally after the third buoy, I could see the familiar yellow inflatable gate-pillars of the swim start/end. Exiting the sea at about 45minutes, I was quite happy with my swim -everything has gone according to plan so far! We were greeted my cheering faces and clapping hands...a great sight to see after immersing your head into seawater (and the rest of the stuff in the sea) for close to an hour.

Next stop: the T1 (transition one) area for the bike leg!