Selkie Henley Classic, 25 Jun 2023

A 3am alarm is only acceptable for one of two things 1) holiday 2) a race. So today's 3am alarm was for the Selkie Henley Classic a 2.1km upstream swim, up the Henley Royal Regatta rowing course at sunrise. I first did this event 2 years ago and will continue to do it every year. 

As I drove to the event at 4am a little panic crept in as I got to the car park, there was a little mist and fog about (last year this meant a delayed start and a shortened course) - fortunately the closer you got to the river, the thinner it was, phew!

A toasty 21 degree water temperature, I still opted for a wetsuit just to help with buoyancy. There are about 5 waves depending on speed and I was in the penultimate one, the walk down to the start at 04:55 followed by race briefing and we were ready for our mass start at 05:10.

I positioned myself quite near the front, hoping to get clear water, what I hadn't banked on was quite how fast people would set off - so it was carnage, I managed to not get kicked or swum over but there were a lot of bodies which is not the most enjoyable experience - fortunately a lot of them slowed down after 200m or so and I was able to work my way back up and in to space.

The swim pace felt good, but it's always hard to tell upstream as you can't feel the current so much until you get out and look at your speed. 

The first 500m went quite quickly, then the next 1km slightly slower. Somewhere in this point I swam in to the boom so had to realign, woops! My watch buzzed for 1500m so I picked up the pace a little (or so I thought), coming closer and closer to town where you know the finish is. My watch buzzed at 2km and with supposedly 100m to go I started to push on further, also starting a little countdown in my head so I could hold the pace - well it was a long 100m that's for sure! I tapped the finishing gantry and swam to exit.

Now my time was 4 minutes faster than 2 years ago, which is huge over 2.1km, however, I know I can swim faster than that! It is hard to gauge due to the current, but I will most certainly be back next year to bring that down some more!

Lottie Lindsley