Last
weekend I finished the 2011-2012 swimming season with The Bocaina Crossing in
the Atlantic Ocean. It is a 15 km hard competition which takes place between
Lanzarote and Fuerteventura through the Strait of The Bocaina. It is a hard
challenge limited to only 80 swimmers and you should fill the application form and pay the fees in
March (138 euros). The competition is already in October and wearing a wetsuit.
The day
after The Bocaina Crossing, there is a 3400 metres open water crossing joining
Fuerteventura and Lobos Island. Most of the people who compete at The
Bocaina swim that one too, and as I
couldn´t be less than them, I also registered in that competition. Finally, I
finished both races, arriving in the 7th position at The Bocaina, and the th 6th position in The Lobos one.
XIII BOCAINA
CROSSING. LANZAROTE-FUERTEVENTURA, 15.000m. 13-October-2012.
The
Bocaina crossing is one of the great goals of the Summer season, together with
the 10 Km Cullera and the Master de Riccione World Championship, but a month
before they took place, I was almost certain that I would not swim them.
Eventhough I had entered for the competition in March, I was still without
flight or accommodation, had a left
shoulder injury which I did not know how it
would evolve, and what is more I had not yet swum a single metre using a
wetsuit.
We
found a low cost flight ( with Ryanair),
my shoulder improved thanks to the greatest
physiotherapist from Huelva, Juanito Baez, and the lodging was supplied
by Isa Janssens de La Santa. So all we
had to do was to train using the wetsuit. The training was very hard as I only
had three weeks to go, and I was already doing 3.000m per day. During the first
training period I could hardly move with the
wetsuit on, everything bothered me, it was a constant struggle, I
wouldn´t be able to make it. I talked to
Paco Travado from Training Market, in Sevilla, and four days later I had
an Aquaman Cell Gold wetsuit, in
comparison the Mercedes brand within the wetsuits, as Alberto Perez told me
( trainer for the “ Torrijos Team” and
great expert in open water competition). I used the Aquaman in waters of the
Isle of Lanzarote, and that was a different story all together, like swimming without
a wetsuit, it fits like a glove, and doesn´t give a single problem. I must say
that before that Aquaman I had tried another 6 different wetsuits.
Miriam, Paulina and I spent the week of the
competition in the Isle of Lanzarote,
training with the wetsuits from beach to beach, and a little time in the
outside, salted water swimming pool which is 5 m away from the Club “La Santa”,
and the feelings were the best, eventhough we had been a little low on training
metres in the last two months, but we had swam over 1.250 metres since the
first of November of 2011.
The
last night was not the ideal one, we had to be at the Hotel Hesperia in Playa
Blanca to prepare the identification papers and the meeting was at 7:30 pm,
therefore we got to Tinajo and to bed past 11:30pm. The alarm was set for
5:30am but as I did not change the
mobile hour, the alarm rang at 5:30am
Spanish time, 4:30 am in the Canary Islands.
I spent that hour with complete wakefulness. Heavy breakfast, and by car
to Playa Blanca with Miriam, Paulina and Isa.
Still
night time, we put on our wetsuits, as this year the three groups,
slow-middle-speedy will start with only a five minute difference and the
picture will gather the three groups.
Lanoline
on my groins, my armpits and neck. Cream on my face, and swimming hat on, to the beach, picture
taking, and steady nerves to leave in 10 minutes time. Easy programme, the
groups have to be assembled, a pirogue with an Helio gas balloon
marks the rythm. First provisioning 1:35 minutes later, second one 1:05
minutes afterward, and after that we would see. At 8:10 am the start is given.
At the
beginning the rythm is very slow, which really fits my warming up, and adjusts
the swimming to the wetsuit....I notice that my triceps hurt, but when I start
warming up it disappears. I see that the rythm starts getting stronger, and
other swimmers pass by me , but it doesn´t worry me, as they had made clear
that we had to remain grouped. After an hour swimming, they make a small stop
to assemble us, I was around the 20th position, and I had time to get to the
leading group and we continued. I remained with the head group and arrived in the 6th or 8th position.
The
first provisioning was done 1:36 minutes later, we stopped 6:30 minutes. The
rythm was very hard. We have covered 7 km, and I am glad when Miriam arrives,
as we were going really fast. I take some water, have an isotonic drink, take a
gel , and eat half a banana, and we went on our way.
After
36 minutes, 2:19 minutes from starting time, a 1´45” stop is made to assemble
us, time which I use for drinking water, and talk to Miriam who remains well
and gives me a gel, as I thought I had lost one which I had tucked into my wetsuit, near my gemelli muscles.
The
second provisioning takes place 30
minutes later, we have been competing
2:50 minutes now. We stop again during 6 minutes, I have a gel and water. We
have swum 11.700 metres and have only to
go another 3.300 metres. We are on our way to Fuerteventura and can already see
the area well, and after disgussing whether we should make another stop after half an hour or get
to the finish point in one go (this is what I wanted), it is decided not to make another stop. At
this moment I felt very well. I was very tired
but this was due to the strong rythm we were maintaining. I positioned
myself with the head group in the first
hour, all the time between the 6th and 8th position and close to
someone´s feet to use the smallest amount of energy possible.
The
start is given now to a different race. The groups have finished, as well
as the following a pirogue with an Helio
gas balloon. The pirogue goes with the first competitor and the rest do their
best.
Guillermo
Verdejo and Rafael Henríquez
quickly swim forward, and a group of four is left behind,
among which I find myself. Twenty
minutes later the group separates, two competitors start leading ,
another one goes to the right. I try to follow the one just in front of me with all my strength,
but little by little he scapes. I try to keep him in sight as I am in 5th or 6th
position and I don´t know the way, but at the end I lose him. When you are left
alone, unconsciouly you start losing speed......I look behind me to see if
anybody is catching me, but see noone. I can
now see the pier of the Corralejo
Port, and the guiding ship near, and I swim toward it. The yellow buoy is near,
I get instructions from the ship to near
it, but just there we had to turn right to go to the beach, thing which I
ignored, I hadn´t seen the arrival map, so I continued straight to the beach in
front of me (it´s like a big pier).Once nearing the coast I couldn´t see the
finish line, and I stopped completely, looking around the coast to find the
finish point and at the end on my right
I saw two other buoys. I start swimming toward them, eventhough they were some
distance away, thing which made me swim around 400 metres more than needed.
Once I reached the last buoy, I see
about 8 metres in front of me, two swimmers, who stop to verify they were in
the correct situation, and I reached them. As soon as they see me, there starts
a brutal sprint of about 300 metres,
where at the end I managed to advantage both of them to the finish line.
Finally I obtained a 7th position ¡¡¡¡¡¡
I think that the direction error cost me a position.
The time obtained was of 3hours 49 minutes and 59 seconds, in a
distance of 15.000 metres which stand between the Dorara beach at the Blanca
beach in the Isle of Lanzarote and the Old Pier of Corralejo in the Isle of
Fuerteventura. And a final 7th classified post in the Bocaina Crossing.
Deducting the time we stopped, which was 14´15´´, the swimming time in the 15km
distance was of 3hours 35 minutes and 45 seconds, which gives a partial time of
1´26” each 100. A very very strong rythm.
At the
beginning the sea was like a plate, then the north wind started, which produced
some waves, difficulting the swimming, but pushing in the direction of the
course, thing which made Guillermo Verdejo make a time of 3 hours 39 minutes
and 44 seconds, this way beating the
record in this competition. The swimmers who started the race were 76 but
only a group of 70 reached the finish
line, and 9 swimmers entered did not take the start.
Final
Classification:
1st
Guillermo Verdejo. 3h39´44”
2nd
Rafael Henríquez. 3h40´41”
3rd
Airam Rodríguez. 3h45´10”
4th
Carlos Barragán. 3h47´30”
5th
José Román Cueva. 3h48´08”
6 th
Eduardo Porset. 3h48´45”
7th
Rubén A. Gutiérrez Fuentes. 3h49´59”
8th Alejandro Moriana. 3h50´10”
9th
José Luis Romero. 3h50´10”
16th
Miriam Gómez Gómez. 3h54´58” (1º Femenina)
XIV TRAVESÍA
ISLA DE LOBOS. ISLE OF LOBOS-FUERTEVENTURA, 3.400m. 14-October-2012.
After a
massage by the physiotherapist from the Bocaina Crossing organization, who left
me as a new born child, and after buying the return ferry ticket I went to look for a place to stay in
Corralejo. Finally I stayed at the Hotel Hesperia with the Triatlon Vulcano
group and at a very good price. The only thing left to do was to have a good
supper and rest for tomorrow´s competition.
The
competition was entered by 200 people, a lot of them also came from the Bocaina
race, with the Aquaman wetsuit as an option ( if it hadn´t been for the Aquaman Cell Gold wetsuit, I would never have
used a wetsuit).
The
race was a straight line one, from near the Isle of Lobos, with starting line
from the water between two buoys, and the finish line in the sand of the old
Pier at Corralejo, repeating the finish line of the Bocaina Crossing (this time
I knew the place).
The
conditions of the sea were hard, as the wind had a North-South direction, and
the tide was against it, thing which produced many waves, and as we were
swimming in a East-West direction, the waves hit us sideways.
With
many final swimmers, most young people,
and not wearing wetsuits, the start was very quick. I start swimming hard, my
body feels really good from yesterday and absolutedly nothing hurts me. Three swimmers take
advantage and a group of about 6 swimmers follow to catch them, among which I
find myself. To be really honest I was surprised to find myself in the head of
the competition, considering there were
200 swimmers, and many of them young and after the great beating we
received yesterday.
Half
way through the competition a group of 3
swimmers start to form up in front of me, I am in the 8th position. They start leaving me, but not
many leave, thus I start my rythm and
stretch the strokes and little by little I reach them. I stay at their feet
recovering a little, until we get to the pier of the port. There the four of us
start a sprint, and soon I pass a young swimmer who wares a swimming suit and
then an older one with a wetsuit. Then I get to the same level as Alejandro
Moriana. We continue together nearly 100 metres, and I start leaving him behind
but at the end he passed by me arriving “Find Myself 1” before me.
I
finally achieved a 6th position, with a
time of 42´39’’, and also obtaining the Runner-Up position in the Senior B
level. And whatismore with the sensation of not having been swimming so much!!!!!!!!!!!!
The
final champion of the competition was Airan Rodriguez, ( 3rd position in the
Bocaina Crossing)with a time of 40´46’’, and I had an arrival time
difference with him of 1´53’’. And the
champion of my group, Senior B, was Sebastian Mascano, in the 4th position,
with a time of 40´51’’, (25th position in the Bocaina Crossing). The
competition was finalized by 180 swimmers.
In this
way I completed 31 crossings during this summer. This is the season where I
have participated in more competitions, with 19 weekends competing in the last 20 weeks. Swimming in Italy,
Portugal, in Spain in the cities of Alicante-Valencia, in
Malaga-Cadiz-Huelva, and in the Canary
Islands.
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