As promised, following our sub-zero camping trip to Midmar Dam last year, we made a return journey a couple of weeks ago to complete the Midmar Mile! Thankfully,
the weather was much kinder on this occasion and the water was lovely and
warm (if a little on the brownish side).
The Midmar Mile is the worlds largest open water swim (by number of competitors), topping just over 17,000 participants over 2 days of swimming.
The organisation required to co-ordinate so many people was impressive - and with 40 years behind them to fine tune proceedings, the upshot was an event run like a well oiled machine. Over 2 days of driving here and there, stopping off at the start and finish, visiting friends camping at the dam and actually swimming the event, we weren't held up once.
This is nigh short of a miracle given the organisation
of many other things in this country….starting with the government.
Although to be fair, they've only had 19 years to work on that - another
21 should see things running tickety-boo.
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| A cup of tea is always a good start to any early morning event. |
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| Then you get your numbers written on. |
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| And move quickly onto the team photo. |
Identification of each swimmer was a little over the
top with no less than FOUR types of id. Each swimmer was required to wear:
- a time band on their ankle
- an age group band on their wrist
- a waterproof barcode pinned to their bathers AND
- have their swim number drawn on an arm, a leg AND the front of their chest.
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Half of my support team!
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In a less lucid moment, one of those lovely fellows on a board
kindly re-directed me towards the finish line rather than the middle of
the dam.
Could have been interesting.
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And
here are the winners racing for the finish - for those into speed - 18:18 for the mile. |
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| I think I'm somewhere back near that white tent... |
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Yay - made it to the other side.
My support team (aka Simon) harshly accused me of not raising a heart beat
in my
endeavour, and with a time of 49:11, he may just be right…..
….didn't he know I was only
doing it for the free t-shirt??
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Only in South Africa…
Well sadly, they did actually lose a swimmer on
Saturday - a 42 year old man from Johannesburg failed to come out at the
end. In a country where random death is as common as tinea however, no-one
really let that bother them. The news was kept under wraps for the Sunday
swimmers to complete the event, with several thousand swimmers unknowingly
swimming over a dead body somewhere. I did whack a couple of legs and arms
on my way over - just hope they were all attached to living people.
Apparently the poor fellow came to the surface about Thursday.
And in more typically South African behaviour,
where children are pushed to their sporting limit, the youngest competitor
to participate in the swim was a mere 4 years old…
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| …God, I hope my time was better than his. |
And so…
…what fun! Another lovely weekend away in the
Midlands with a little dip in the dam thrown in. Unfortunately, no more swims
on the horizon for me - I've got my towel and tshirt and
I'm taking them home!
