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Lake Starnberger done! :)

A. Prado
A. Prado schrieb am 16.08.2017

Hi all,

With the completion of the 4 km swim in Lake Starnberg, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all once again for your support, and also give you a brief update on the latest developments:

Lake Starnberg
The Lake Starnberg swim took place on Saturday, August 5th. It was one of those beautiful summer days in the lakes near the Alps; a great day for a swim in the open water. The water temperature was 24 Celsius - just perfect, so no wetsuit!

I completed the 4 km in 1:06:03, and came out 31st out of 451 people and 7th out of 71 in my age group. The time is a bit slower than I was expecting (we zig zagged our way across the lake on the first half of the swim due to poor visibility - the morning Sun was in our face), but I'm satisfied with the position.

This is the before and after :)


Next swims:

Abelardo Lopez (Ferrol, Spain)
My very next swim is coming up on Sunday, August 20th. It is only 2km, but it is my hometown's 27th annual open water swim, which coincides with my summer vacation, so why not? :)

The event is named after, and commemorates the life of Abelardo López (1887-1963), a legendary long distance swimmer from my hometown (more info at: http://bit.ly/2vpB3VD - in Spanish) who swam truly incredible distances almost a century ago, in the cold Atlantic, before the neoprene wetsuit was even invented, and also before these type of marathon events were fashionable. Very inspiring, and I'm happy to participate in this event organized in his memory.

Oceanman Benidorm (Benidorm, Spain)
A couple of weeks ago I received confirmation of my registration for the 10 km Benidorm Oceanman swim, which will take place on October 15th. This is the last Oceanman swim in this year's circuit, which means it's The Final. Since I finished in the Top 10 in Lake Orta in June, I get to participate in the Final as part of the World Championship tour.

The swim itself is actually very cool: it consists of swimming from the beach out to Benidorm island, swim around the island, and back to the beach. Very exciting!

This is a photo of Benidorm island and an image of the route:

La Bocaina (Lanzarote, Spain)

As I had indicated in a previous post, I was in the waiting list for the registration to the "La Bocaina" swim on October 28. This is the 15 km swim between the island of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Last week I was notified that someone had dropped out, so I was able to confirm my registration over the weekend :)

La Bocaina is a non-competitive event, which started in 1999 as a protest swim by a small group of swimmers who wanted the local government to build new swimming pools. It has since grown into an important international event drawing people from all over the world.

La Bocaina will be the last open swimming event of the year for me. I'm sure there are more events out there during the winter - ice swimming, polar bear club, etc. are actual things that exist :-0 - but those are really not for me. I'll stick to indoor pools during the winter, and to planning the 2018 open water swimming season :)

Aside from all this swimming...

The Red Cross liked this initiative a lot, and they recently reached out to me as they want to feature this initiative in their blog and in one of their partner's blog. We are working on something, but I do not know what the final thing will look like. As soon as I know more, I'll keep you posted.

In closing, I can't thank you enough for your support - donating and sharing.

It's been a lot of swimming so far (as of last Saturday, I've swam 325 km since February) and there's more to come from now until the end of the year (approx. 335km according to plan). As the Red Cross says "Together we can achieve a lot" so please keep sharing (you can share this post or simply this short link on your social media: http://bit.ly/SwimDonate) and I'll keep swimming for the Red Cross! :)

Thank you! 

Angel