On 14 September, I did my longest swimming event this year in London, the Dock2Dock 15 km event. Last year I did the 10 km event but it happened just 2 days after I swam the English Channel so I was extremely tired and the result did not have a reference value of my actual ability, although it qualified me for the 15 km this year. My swimming ability was far behind most people I knew, and I believed that…
On 27 and 28 July, I raced in the England Nationals the first time after getting qualified for the Age Group Championships through the regional qualifier. I raced in the 7.5 km Age Group, 5 km Masters and 3 km Masters over the weekend. Location and travel The races were held in Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire. It is not an easy place to get to, with the best public transport option being the express bus 30 from Sheffield…
After Eastbourne Triathlon was weathered out, I wanted to do another one to see where my ability was. I looked at my calendar and 29 / 30 June was the only weekend when I was available to race, and I looked at British Triathlon website to find a race on this weekend, with a flat bike course and a flat run course. I eventually narrowed myself into choosing between Cardiff and Torquay. I eventually signed up for Torquay because it…
More photos to be added later. On 13 January, I did my craziest thing in my life: flying from the UK to Austria to swim a 250 m race and back in the UK within 24 hours. Motivation I want to get started in ice swimming, but unfortunately the UK doesn’t have enough opportunities for me to do that. There was only 1 race under IISA in the whole winter in December, the national championships, which was sold out in…
I did the race Cold Half the third time as a solo this year on 4 February. I completed the race in 5:14:26 in 2020 and 4:53:47 in 2021. However, I skipped the 2023 edition because pandemic-related travel restrictions were still in place in Hong Kong, and I had emigrated to the UK already. My intention was to go back to Hong Kong and race every year. Training Unfortunately, I didn’t have much training before this race. I now have…
I visited the Netherlands between 2023-12-14 and 2023-12-17, which was my first overseas trip from the UK without flying. I personally don’t like flying on airlines compared to other forms of public transport, mainly because it is a hassle to go to airports which are usually far away from the city centre, the strict airline security, the limited ability to carry luggage, and the need to book early as there is a strict limit on how many people a plane…
Today I raced again in a regional open water championships under Swim England rules, my second year to do so. Now I have joined South London Swimming Club so I raced for a London club in the London regional competition for a national qualifying place. The top 3 in each age group in the national distance (5 km for 19+) are qualified into the nationals. I wanted to do this race because I would like to see if I could…
The open water race season has started and my first event is BLDSA Champion of Champions. This event is 3 races, 5 miles, 3 miles and 1 mile, held successively on the same day, with the ranking determined by the total time. The race course was a triangular loop of 800 m length, i.e. 10 laps, 6 laps and 2 laps for the 3 races respectively. 5 miles The water temperature was reported as 15.3°C by the organiser. It was…
Today, I attempted to do my second marathon swim race this year but unfortunately I didn’t end up well. I pulled myself out just 3.5 km from the finish due to extreme leg pain. This blog article is only about the race itself. My marvellous train journeys will be described in another article coming later. Motivation The race of swimming the whole length of Windermere, at 16.5 km, is one of the longer distance marathon swimming races in the UK,…
On the summer bank holiday, I went to Nailsworth to race orienteering. It was a very steep courses with plenty of route choices and contour reading. In order to save words I ain’t going to show every leg here, only those with significant route choices. 5 to 6 I and the majority of people used the blue route (1513 m), but a few used the green route (1608 m). There were 7 up-contours after the valley on the final part…