Oceanman Goa, 2025
Oceanman, a global franchise, came to India. It was exciting!
My club (TCI) also held a camp during the race week. It was a relief to be in the event with the Coach and fellow swimmers, and do practice swims with them.
It was quite an experience walking in the rain to reach the venue at 6 am in the dark, only for the race to be cancelled on the first day because of bad weather.
The next day, it was a wonderful experience at the start line, standing with so many eminent swimmers (Olympians and Channel swimmers!) and newbies like me, singing the national anthem, and buzzing with anticipation. Loved every second of that experience.
I did one loop (supposed to be 2.5k) in 1 hour and 20 mins. Not really an ideal speed. But again, pool speed doesnt get translated to open water speed.
In the second loop, I saw the turning buoy being taken away by a speedboat. Some of us who were there were left wondering, from where do we make the turn? After a while, I also hit something with my leg, which felt like a net, because it was.
We were asked to abandon the race and return to the shore mid-swim. There was confusion all around, and there was no one to clarify. I swam back to the shore, grumpy and annoyed.
Apparently, there was a dispute between the local fishermen and the organisers. The fishermen decided to cast the fishing nets in the middle of the race. It could have gone badly!
Unfortunately, the organisers had to cancel the race mid-swim!
It was my first time racing with so many people bumping into me. Did not worry about that too much - a win in my books.