February Swim Done :)

Yesterday morning was my second 5km ocean swim of the year, the Manly Cole Classic. As my February
My February Swim was Misty….

Above you can see the start of the men’s 5km wave, the sea mist was even worse when it was my turn to set off. That always makes for a hard swim, when you can’t actually see where you are going! I knew that the first buoy was somewhere near the yellow hut (in the back of the photo), but it was hard to spot that at the start.
My February swim was always going to be challenging, because I had to move house on the Friday before the swim, and I only did my last 5km a week ago. I have to say that I was exhausted when I woke up on Saturday morning after moving and spent most of the day relaxing on the couch in between some unpacking, and I went to bed at 8.30pm to get as much sleep as possible ready for the swim. Sunday morning at
The swim went over to Freshwater beach near the pool, then across and back to Manly coming in near the Manly surf club. The ocean wasn’t the flat pancake I would have ideally liked, but it also wasn’t crazy choppy. There were waves, it was hard to breathe to one side at times, but not too bad – but, I had taken 2 sea sickness tablets to be on the safe side. The water was really murky on the way over which wasn’t much fun, however, as soon as I turned and got to Queenscliff there was crystal clear water all the way home.
After my last swim I said about the mental challenge of
As I swam along the beach from Queenscliff on the return stretch it was fabulous knowing that I only had 1.5km to go, then at North Steyne surf club just 1km to go, then to the point and 100m in. The psychological benefits of swimming on home ground – I would really recommend it, it made the second half of the swim so much easier.


Everyone who completed the Cole Classic February swim got a medal, here I am with mine. I was a bit disappointed that all the medals were the same and mine didn’t say something like “5km superstar” on it, but I guess you can’t have everything. It took me 1 hour 44 minutes to do the swim, which is 14 minutes faster than when I did the 5km swim at Balmoral last March, which is great considering that Balmoral is very flat compared to Manly.
Plus the dizziness wasn’t nearly as bad this week, although I was a bit shaky straight after. I am now seeing a dietician to get all that sorted out before my March swim.
I can’t believe it, 2 swims down, just 10 to go! Love what I am doing? Please donate to my fundraiser, we have now raised over $10,000.