‘Race Recap: Swim Serpentine’

This event was rescheduled from 2020, the weather forecast promised a warm, sunny day and the water temperature was a toasty 19oC. Despite the warm water temperature, I chose to wear a wetsuit as I don’t own a tow float (a safety device).

My goal for this event was a sub-45-minute finish time.

It was a 5am wake up time to make sure that I was on the start line for 8.45am on Saturday 18th September 2021. Together with Dan (my boyfriend and cheer squad) I travelled by train to London Paddington and walked the short distance to Hyde Park.

We arrived with plenty of time to change into my wetsuit and watch the first wave go off. But also, with enough time for me to start panicking that I hadn’t trained enough – classic Nicky. I had a timing chip around my ankle which the event staff used to check me in before I got to the start line. I was entered into the One Mile (1600 metres) event, a big loop around a section of the Serpentine.

As it was a mass start, I struggled to swim properly for the first 200 metres or so whilst I made my way through the slower swimmers but I quickly fell into a comfortable pace once I had found a gap. Stupidly, I hadn’t checked the course map before starting so I didn’t know where I was going! Because of this, I decided to hang back so that I was always following someone. When you’re swimming in open water, the buoys always look further away than they actually are, so I thought the turn around point was at 400 metres (quarter of a mile). It’s a good job that I was following someone or I’d have cut my swim short! By the time I realised where we were going, and had completed the final turn towards the finish line, it was too late to make a bid for a Top 10 place, as I could see that some swimmers were already leaving the lake.

 I ended up finishing the swim in 34:57 minutes, placing 25th in my wave of 139 swimmers.

Once I had crossed the finish line and climbed out of the lake, my timing chip was scanned again (I think so that they could make sure that everyone had safely left the lake) and my photograph was taken. I collected my medal and a bottle of water and that was my event done, leaving us with plenty of time to enjoy London before our 4pm train home.

I really enjoyed the swim; the event was very well organised with plenty of measures in place to make you feel safe despite the Covid concern. Next year, I think I’m going to enter the Super Six, six laps of the one-mile course, the furthest distance offered at this event.

What’s next? Oxford Half Marathon on October 17th!

Written by Nicky Marie