Racing Tales: BHP Aquatic Super Series 10Km

Perth, Australia. To me this place is a world away. Yet five hours on the plane and I'm still in the same country! Being one of Australia's major capitals and the largest on the West Coast, it provides all the creature comforts of home with a few twists - peak hour traffic is like a public holiday compared to the eastern capitals, it is clean, spacious and friendly, however east siders may feel a little less affluent when eating and finding accommodation as the dollar in their wallets doesn't quite stretch as far is it does back home due to the mining economy.



But when it greets one with the below photo, thoughts of financial extortion and everything else disappear from the mind:

City Beach Sunset

I was in Perth to race. In particular to compete in the 10Km Swim the Swan - an event that is part of the BHP Aquatic Super Series. In it's third and final year, the series hosts Pool Swimming, Open Water Swimming and Water Polo against nations like the USA, Japan, China and Brazil to name a few.

This year the open water event featured nations including Australia, New Zealand, America, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Japan and Canada for the Elite Men's race. And with an $80,000 prize pool, it was great to see so many of the world's best swimmers making the treck down under to compete and try to line their pockets with what is one of the highest paying wins in the sport.

It also doubled as Australia's first step in the 10Km qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Stay with me here: The top three Australians head to Cancun, Mexico for a World Cup before the top two finishers in that race are selected to compete in Kazan at the World Championships and finally qualify for Rio if either or both of those competitors finish inside the top 10 and the IOC and AOC deem them qualified. On top of this, further candy was added to the cake of success with the top Australian finisher being crowned the Australian 10Km Champion. Great Britain and New Zealand also adopted a similar Olympic Selection process so the stakes were high for not just the Australians! So with a large stack of money up for grabs and the first steps being taken along the golden path to Olympic glory by 55% of the field, none of us were in the mind-frame to have a somewhat cruisy and fun two hour swim. This was going to be a fierce and fast battle on par with an official World Cup.

The accommodation I stayed in had a 25m lap pool which was extremely convenient

I was incredibly thankful to have a brand new race suit on hand provided through the kind generosity of Mizuno and Yasunari Hirai. This suit is the business and I would highly recommend to anyone in need of the best quality race attire to check out the range. It was a pleasure racing with the Mizuno logo!

Fresh out of the box!

The Mizuno Race Suit

In between having an epic bum scratch, I was preparing for the race

The race was a simple set up as usual - four 2.5Km laps in a rectangle adjacent to the Swan River Esplanade with the city as a backdrop, starting in a deep water start and finishing with a touch pad.

Course Map

We were greeted that morning with overcast yet fairly pleasant weather conditions coupled with a delicious atmosphere of both elite and age group swimmers who were also competing in shorter distance races but who were just as eagerly keen and excited to get in the water. I'll take a moment here to congratulate everyone who took part in the 1.5Km, 2.5Km and 5Km events. Around 800 people took part and as always, it was great to see so many people taking up the challenge of swimming in an open water environment and coming away with ecstatic smiles on their faces.

Our race start time was scheduled for 0745 (made 25 minutes earlier than the original time) however we didn't dip our toes in until somewhere around 0825 (some 15min later than the original time and 40min later than the amended time) due to the amount of age groupers in the shorter distances who were still on the course and a difficulty in getting 80 odd people onto a small pontoon roughly 33mx3m who were tasked with the most important and equally brutal feeding duties.

If you look closely - there is a pontoon that somehow fit 80 odd people at once!

Coaches & Handlers patiently waiting each lap in between feeds

Elite Men ready to enter the water

The first of four laps was relatively simple yet we swum at a decently fast pace, taking a few seconds to feed at the end of the lap before continuing on. I made sure to position myself as well as I could inside the middle of the pack and towards the front. To illustrate the concentration needed to do this, picture yourself walking in the most heinous of peak hour foot traffic in a busy city, with a large group of people all wanting to get to the very same, very specific space of land that you want to be on (similar to 100 people walking through a doorway at the same time that only fits one person). Now picture those people throwing hands, elbows, feet and sometimes bodies at your head, face and chest. Add a fair amount of water chop caused by the direct wind in your face and the splash of other people swimming around you each time you look up for directional sighting and you've painted yourself a fairly accurate picture that is the chaos of pack swimming. A picture that is weirdly attached to the feeling of adrenaline filled euphoria and an addictive enjoyment.

The pace continued to evenly be applied on the second and third laps as the screws continued to be turned with each stroke and each metre we came closer to the finish line. Feeding went smoothly all three times although after the race I heard of stories from feeders of their swimmers breaking teeth and hands! Unfortunately around the 8km mark I lost contact with the main lead pack (some 20 strong still). This wasn't the plan for me but it was what I had to deal with at the time. I noticed a few swimmers swimming by themselves and we reformed as a small group to continue on the last lap and fight it out at the finish. I finished 27th overall and 7th Australian - by no means what I had hoped for but that is what it was on the day. On reflection there wasn't anything in particular that I could point out that would ultimately hinder my race. I simply wasn't fast enough on the day. A humbling yet incredibly motivating conclusion.

Congratulations to Jarrod Poort, George O'Brien and Simon Huitenga for making the Australian Podium!

The 5Km National Championships and Team Selection is just around the corner, again in Perth next weekend. I look forward to racing there and to then get stuck in to a nice block of training for the first half of this year - becoming fitter, stronger and faster!

On a side note - We travelled a little south after the race to a place called Rockingham and Penguin Island before ending up at City Beach for a calming sunset closely followed by a hair raising apocalyptic storm! This was a great afternoon spent after a fairly tiring race. Perth really does have some aesthetic magic as you can see in the full set of photos over at Flickr.

Looking West from Penguin Island into the Indian Ocean

Customary Eggs Benedict (The Real Traveller's choice of breakfast)

Until next time, just keep swimming! (And enjoy your Eggs Benny while travelling!)