Sam Dell is new to our TORQ triathlon team. He is a very quick at sprint to half ironman distance racing and has won a number of triathlons. Being a balanced triathlete in all three disciplines he decided to stretch his swimming ability by entering 10k swim. This is his account of being horizontal in the water for 2 ½ hrs and winning his age group.

I chose this event for several reasons, one being the bragging rights! With almost 300 starters it appeared that several others also were thinking the same.

Having not trained over 4k in training I was a little nervous about this event right up to the start gun. The start however was surprisingly tame, when compared to some of the starts I have experienced in triathlon (ironman has up to 2500 athletes at once).

I started the first of the 3 laps fairly quick as I thought it was important to get up the front and join the fastest swimmers. A group formed and stuck together for the first lap before it fragmented on the second lap. However, I managed to get on the feet of someone else for much of the second lap. The third lap I stopped off at the feed station for a TORQ Gel and decided to go all out for the final 3.33km lap, looking back this may have been a bit premature to go for it and I was struggling in the final 1km. However I carried on and came in at 2h30min 8 seconds, enough for 1st in the 25-29 Cat. Quite a surprise!

This swim also really allowed for a good test of the sponsored 2XU wetsuit. It really is a quality wetsuit and was comfortable the whole way around. The flexibility in the shoulders is remarkable and really allows you to get full range of movement.

I think I will give this a go next year and go for sub 2hr30!

With thanks to our sponsors:

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