Sunday Afternoon Swim To Goree 10.3

The swim from Dakar to Goree Island, seen above in the distance, involves crossing 5 kilometers of open water. It is an annual race that, this year, attraction over a thousand participants.

A gun went off. Many of us were looking around wondering was that it, is this the start of the race? A few began swimming. I waited, looking for confirmation. Perhaps the gun went off by accident, or the starter was merely testing it. I was expecting someone to announce, stop, stop, not yet, that was only a test! But a few more began swimming, and there was a moment of collective realization that the race had in fact begun.

While I'd been training for the swim for some weeks, my training focused more on being fit enough to get there rather than being competitive. I was looking for a well-paced, relaxed 90 minute open water swim.

Open water swimming requiring orienting yourself to direction by lifting your head out of the water, spotting a landmark, and orienting yourself to it. There are no lane lines in the sea. The head-lifting is energy draining and screws up any consistency in one's stroke, so my strategy was to find someone of similar speed to trail, and let them do all the work. There is drafting in open water swimming, as in cycling. That worked for a bit, but the effort to relocate my guide in the choppy water was about as much effort as orienting myself.

There was a swell, a significant swell, fortunately pushing us toward Goree, well, actually pushing us to the far side of the island, so, toward the end, a course correction was required.

For a long swim, getting into a comfortable pace and in the zone (a relaxed state of mind) is, for me, necessary. The zone has also come to mean focusing the mind on sensation, as you might in meditation, systematically shifting focus from area to area -- the large muscles of the upper back, to the muscles of the lower back, to the chest, belly, throat, etc., in 20 minute intervals. Ironically, swimming this way, I am much less aware of time and excursion, and more hover gently over pockets of sensation, with an emphasis on relaxation, while the body grinds away mechanically. This mechanical side of swimming, the physical act, happens of itself, it doesn't need me, so I have the freedom to go elsewhere.

Despite the swell, the water was clean and clear. While I didn't see the bottom until I got close to the island, the water was wonderfully blue, and suggested that the visibility was brilliant.

I enjoyed the swim, and there was nice comradery amongst the kids representing ISD.