Kochi Swimathon 2026
My first race with a huge group - over 40 swimmers from TCI, along with my coach racing in the same category. It was genuinely exciting.
I had a decent practice swim a day before, and an extremely bad choice of dinner before the race morning. Tasty Kerala food, but should have been avoided before a long race.
Finished the 10k in 5 hours and 25 minutes. Again, not at all pleased with the time. But glad that I got done with my first open water 10k.
Long distances are challenging physically and mentally. One has to hold on to belief and hope that we can get it done. Even when its not going well in terms of time, or the body hurts, the show must go on.
I was done by the 8k mark. Strokes fell apart and the one loop distance felt too long. I knew the second last lap was going to be the hardest. I kept saying to myself, whatever it takes, I will get over the second last lap. I knew I would never give up on the last lap. It worked.
Glad that I did a 10k rather than a 6k. I would have been able to manage a 6k in a decent time, and it would have masked the underlying issues. But the 10k exposed all the glaring deficiencies.
I realised I really need to work on the technique, and probably strength, so the technique holds under fatigue. Towards the end of the race I was hardly moving. Things were more or less fine in the first four laps, started falling apart after that. Last two laps were very slow.
Its been less than a year doing open water, so a 10k, even a slow one, is not really that bad. Felt completely secure and comfortable in water - and that is important too. Hopefully a 16k in Kochi next year! Also, its always better swimming in a group. Thanks, Tri Coaching India swimmers and friends!
