Midmar Mile 7 February 2009

Wow, after all the training I have been doing, the day finally arrived. The weather looked good as we left Pinetown, but started looking a bit ominous when we got to Midmar. The dam looked really full and as the morning progressed the clouds lifted and it turned out to be a really wonderful day.

Kate (from work), her boyfriend, Dave (replacing Paula who cracked her wrist), Dereck, Darryl and I made up a team known as PKMD (the initials of our name - very original I know!!!!)

We were in the non-company team which swam at 11:00. After Kate arriving just after 10:00 (late according to Dereck :-)) we set up the gazebo and then went off to find the taxi bus to take us to the start.

There were thousands of people there and they started in batches depending on the colour of your cap. Kate went first with the red group and we all went last with the white group.

It was a bit of a scramble initially and I found that once I was in the water, I got my space and just swam. Darryl came swimming past me, but at 90 degree angles - not sure where he was going!!!! He told us afterwards that he had actually swam into one of the life boats - I mean really - he he he!

Kate finished in 30:05, I did a time of 43:56, Dave did 45:45, Dereck did 55:26 and Darryl did 55:54. Of course lots has been said about the fact that Dereck beat Darryl, by a mere 23 seconds!!!!!

Once we got back to the gazebo, Dirk (Kate's brother) and Paula had got the skottle going and were busy cooking our boerewors. We had a good time chilling, chatting and chomping boerie rolls.

At about 2pm we decided to pack up and we drove home. Once home I went for a lie down and when I woke up at about 5:30 realised how exhausted I had been.

It was a great day and for me a great sense of achievement. I now have 3 Midmar Mile medals, and would like to consider completing another 7. I must say, I really enjoyed the swimming training and will continue as part of my general training.

Happy swimmer signing off ...