800 Rubber Suits in Wellington!

No, it's not a convention of Australasian rubber fetishists, but merely one event within the New Zealand Ocean Swim series. I spent my Saturday morning down on the beach at Oriental Bay with over 850 contestants (the ones with the rubber suits) of the three races here in Wellington and a sizable crowd of spectators who were happily not in rubber. The weather is kind, at least for us spectators but, living up to its reputation, there was a fair breeze here in Welly which made progress in the 2.8km race especially, a bit of a struggle out to the lighthouse turning point, but then helped everyone back to the finishing line.
The assembly point and finishing line for the race was next to the popular Freyberg Pool and Fitness Centre where I've been swimming a couple of times a week since arriving here 3 weeks ago. Part of the attraction was also the sauna but, let's say that it's an approximation to a sauna and leave it at that. I am not a sporty swimmer. You'll find me in the slow lane most days, happy to swim the breast stroke for a kilometre or so and never managing to do that in more than a minute or two under half an hour. I've noticed that those in the medium and fast lanes tend to go at a brisker pace. I'm not going to get a complex about it, and anyway, learning how to do the crawl properly at 51 doesn't seem an exciting prospect. So I'm thinking, how long will it take these rubberised Kiwis to swim the 2.8kms, in choppy and chilly sea conditions. The sea is never warm here, hence the need for the rubber.

I missed the start of the 750 metre race but the winners were already back after about 11 minutes! The winner is a woman, Liz Brown, in the time of 10 minutes 56 seconds. She is in the 40-49 age group. I am intrigued.

The start of the 2.8km race was preceded by a lengthy info announcement to all, spelling out the rules, the dangers, challenges and safety procedures. There are a lot of life savers on boats and boards out to watch nobody sinks as well as a helicopter or two. The start will occur in three waves, separated by a few minutes, the fastest ranked go first, the slowest ranked go last. The signal goes off and a couple of hundred tightly rubberised competitors rush into the chilly waves and quickly transform into a swarm of black arms and coloured heads, like a mass of desperate insects unable to escape their watery doom. I was thinking that there must be time for a coffee but I should have realised that in a field of competitors including Olympians the speeds are in a different league to those of even the fast lane in the Freberg pool. The crowd is clearly expectant after 30 minutes and at close range I witness the arrival of the winner, Trent Grimsey, after only 33 minutes 17 seconds. It's an easy win, with second place going to Nicolas Cuthbert who came in over one minute later. The first woman is young Charlotte Webby in a time of 37 minutes 48 seconds. As with most marathons there is a long wait for everyone to make it back and some some do not make it back at all. 630 started the race and the last back to the finishing line, at number 558, was the tired but happy Meegan Brewer in a respectable time of one hour 39 minutes.

So I can be happy, putting apart stamina, tiredness, inability to crawl and unfamiliarity with ocean swimming I could imagine that Meegan and I would have no big problem sharing the slow lane in the Freberg Pool. OK I'm only kidding myself. Truth is that I would have needed the helicopter rescue before the lighthouse. Yes, I am so jealous of these fit, middle aged Kiwis in their glistening suits of rubber.
(Action picture with iPhone, others with Nikon D300).