Swim Serpentine
On Saturday 20th September Hyde park in London hosted the annual swim serpentine event.
This is swim event covers distances from 1/2 mile up to 2 miles!
Now when you say a mile you don't think of a massive distance as when we're walking or driving somewhere there's constant twists and turns and you forget how far you've gone, but when you have a 1 mile course marked out on the lake and you can only just see both ends of the course you start to realise how long a mile really is! And some of the competitors are swimming 2!
In this photo you can see the purple turn buoys closest but you can't quite see the turn buoys at the other end.
This is a long and busy event which meant I drove up the night before dropping my kayak and kit off at the lake in the evening before parking and walking to find my accommodation. Surprisingly easy, I found it, checked in and got settled in for a good night sleep before an early start the next day...until 11.55pm. When the fire alarm went off. So up I got, put some semi decent cloths on to hide my PJ's and outside I went, joining all the other guests looking equally tired and all in PJ's off some sort.
Turns out it was a false alarm and we were all aloud back to our rooms for a few more hours sleep. At 6am my alarm went off and with groggy eyes I slowly crawled out of my bed.
After making myself presentable I went downstairs, checked out of the hotel and picked up my breakfast (provided free of charge by the company), this included a chocolate croissant, apple juice, nature valley bar and a galaxy chocolate bar. I wandered back to Hyde park and the lake to enjoy my free breakfast, enjoying the calmness of the place before everything starts and competitors start turning up.
Whist sat I also admired the vast range of kayaks that were placed along the edge of the path stacked 2 or 3 high, this photo was taken at the start of my breakfast and more and more kept turning up, this was going to be a very busy event I thought to myself.
I was right! It was a super busy event from the first wave at 8:15am to the last at 16:50pm.
The weather stayed dry but over cast all day making it a rather pleasant day on the water, comfortable in a jumper and didn't need to change layers throughout.
The last wave at 16:50pm was a 2 mile wave which was 2 laps of the lake and a major effort from all swimmers so well done.
I got off the water just after 6:30pm, where we then played Jenga with the trailer to take our boats up to the car park rather than carrying them. Loaded my car up, got changed and started the long drive home from Hyde Park
