It was great to see Volker take part in the BLDSA seven mile distance event at Ullswater lake. And who better to describe the event than Volker himself.
"Ullswater was so unbelievably soft, and amazing. Temperature was okay I guess around 18 Celsius, even though I got fairly cold at the end. I had an amazing kayaker, I was really lucky. Old generation, wise and very well prepared..he had the course mapped out and laminated on his kayak's deck.
Maxim worked very well for me. Feeding as per Nick's suggestion (no feed in first hour and then half hourly) worked out great, except for the second last feed where I thought, okay..this is a freshwater swim, so maybe in this case I could have one hydration feed with electrolytes..hmm, not the best decision, and I had been warned by Nick during Camp Eton. But nothing better than trying things out yourself and learning the hard way, that will definitely stick in my brain for a while.
Sooo, about 20 minutes into the hydration feed I got sick..luckily that was about only 2 miles off the finish. But the wind picked up and even though it was pushing from behind, it got really lumpy and was also constantly pushing waves of Ullswater into my mouth where I had planned to get some oxygen..not pleasant. I guess one has to adapt the breathing when that happens, I just couldn't figure out how. Had to do a few breaststrokes to gather myself at one point. That was at the same time when one of the other swimmer's kayaker capsized next to us in one of those sit-on-top. The two kayakers blew their whistles, but it took forever until the support boat came..the swimmer finished though and kayaker was okay after all.
So I finished in 4hours 18 minutes. Nothing to rave about, seeing that the fastest girl did it in a blink of 2:54 but I am pretty chuffed that I managed to survive my first supported swim.
I was sad to hear the other Serpie Amber (Alan's friend) had to pull out two thirds into the swim as she got too cold. Perhaps she is still used to a lot of wetsuit swimming. I heard that she managed to complete her Derwent water swim the next day though, am happy for her.
Some crazy girl completed the race and swam straight back to Glenridding! One way of training long distance. I preferred a leisurely cruise back on the steamer. The next day I went onto quite an epic mountain bike ride, even though it was pouring most of the time. Still loved exploring the fells up there and went onto a range of them called the High Street. Views from there were just breathtaking, highly recommended for when you're not swimming.
So, one of the Lakes ticked and definitely hooked now onto the Lake District. I could become Jenny and Paul's new regular visitor, gotta tell them to get a kayak ;)
[Volker Koch]
Great swim by Volker
