The Sunday before the event we had an online Zoom meeting/briefing about the plans, what we needed to do and what we could expect. We also went through details on what we would need for the swims, how to work the trackers and got advice on what to take with us too. It also gave me the chance to go over a few of my worries with the team after the meeting, which was incredibly reassuring for me.
After travelling, the first day was supposed to involve registering, finding out what was going on and a warmup swim in the afternoon. It wasn’t compulsory but that would just give swimmers the chance to get used to the temperatures and water. However, there had been a storm, and the weather was atrocious overnight, and due to the wind, it was unsafe for us to swim in the sea. The Adriatic Sea is bumpy at the best of times so adding strong winds into the mix made it unsafe for the kayakers and it would have been tricky to keep almost 200 swimmers safe!
I had a lay in, a REALLY nice lay in, the beds were comfortable and i had taken my bed cage with me, which keeps the duvet off my legs because anything touching my legs hurts. The nice sleep was followed by a yummy breakfast. Later, we headed to the shop to grab some food for lunch and to get a couple of nutrition bits for my swimming. I quickly discovered the area we were staying in wasn’t overly wheelchair accessible as there were limited drop curbs, cobbles and stairs to get to places, but I managed it with some help from my sister and my TriRide. After heading back to the hotel, we went straight to the registration for the event.
We found the registration room and I will admit, it was a little overwhelming as it was very busy and being so much lower than everyone when in my wheelchair can be a bit intimidating. I found out my number (154 for the win!) and my sister helped me collect all my gear, including my own personalised Drybag with my name and number on, my poncho towel, my drink bottle, my swim hat and I also purchased a t-shirt too.
One thing I did really like was that the UltraSwim33.3 is as environmentally friendly as possible and request that you don’t use any single use plastics, so each person is provided with their own drink bottle, which I love and was useful for both hot and cold drinks over the following few days! I also had a bit of a chat with a few people, including the Precision and Hydration team who were sponsoring the event to ask some advice on a few things I was unsure on.
After we had got all my stuff together, I decided that since we couldn’t go for a swim in the sea, I should go for a short swim in the pool. I felt I needed to loosen up a bit after flying and it’d been a few days since I’d been in the water as I was resting before heading to Montenegro.
A few months before the event anyone attending it was able to join a few group chats on WhatsApp for the UltraSwim33.3 Swim. I posted that I was going for a pool swim I somehow ended up arranging a group of us to meet at the pool together for a short swim.
When we got to the swimming pool, I was surprised to see security on the gate to the pool and that we had to give our room number! I knew the hotel had its own beach area but being honest, I’ve not been somewhere like it before. There weren’t just plenty of sun loungers but what basically looked like double beds on the beach, there is probably a specific name for them but I’ve no clue what.
We had a bit of a rest on the sun loungers before heading back to our room to change, have a shower and head to race briefing number 1 of the weekend!
When we arrived, most people were already in the room and the energy of it was buzzing with excitement. I was a little shocked at how many people were there, just under 200 swimmers but volunteers, safety crew, medics and everyone else involved was there too meaning the room was full. What also surprised me was how organised it was, I mean a PowerPoint for a race briefing is unheard of from all my previous experiences!
Mark, the founder of UltraSwim33.3 gave an introduction, showed a short film of what we could expect. He then explained all the issues we were facing in terms of the weather and that it was going to be tricky to get the full distance in with the weather and conditions we had been dealt with, BUT, they would do everything possible to make it happen. Plan A for the following day was going to be impossible so our plan B was going to mean having the morning off.
Although, they put some talks and coaching sessions on to keep us busy during the morning if we wanted to go to them. The weather was due to be even worse overnight and into the morning, but in the afternoon we would (if all went to plan) be heading to PortoNovi and swimming to Rose Mali Beach which was approximately 5.1km. There was a huge cheer when we found out we would finally be able to get in the sea and an even bigger cheer for those that had been out to check the swim area for us.
It was explained to us again about the trackers and things we had gone through on the Zoom meeting a few days earlier and we were told everything would be confirmed in the Whatsapp chat the following morning before being dismissed.
I stayed behind for a bit so I could chat with and meet the race director in person for the first time and we agreed that we would judge accessibility needs day by day as we couldn’t predict the weather so wouldn’t know what was happening until the day. This terrified me but I reminded myself it was one of the fears I was trying to overcome at the event. I wanted to try and accept that I wouldn’t have control over what was going to happen each day, that I wouldn’t necessarily know where my crutches or wheelchair at any given time or who had them.
It felt like I wouldn’t know if I could do the swims each day until about 2 hours before the swims started! I was terrified I had gone all the way to Montenegro and wouldn’t be able to even attempt the full 33.3km because not all the swims would be accessible to me. I tried not to show the fear and took a big, deep breath and agreed that talking through the swims each morning would be the best way to go.
After the briefing it was dinner time, and I didn’t want to have to get a boat taxi to the main town because it would use a lot of energy up. Instead, we found a Pizzeria just down the road that wasn’t too expensive. Several other swimmers were also doing the same, so it was busy. I was unable to get inside the restaurant as there was a step into it, so we ate outside, part of which, thankfully was under cover because it started chucking it down again. Both my sister and I ordered a pizza and figured since it was just a pizza, it would be fairly quick to arrive; how wrong were we!
Whilst we were waiting, we were chatting about the challenge ahead and working out what I needed to get out ready and what we were going to do the following morning. I also went over the route and all the details again to remind myself of what the different shaped buoys meant and what hazards we needed to keep an eye out for (on day 1, we would be swimming past a couple of shipwrecks). During this time, I also made friends with a kitten, I hate cats normally, but the kitten liked me and for some reason I liked it. (look how cute it is!)
Over an hour later we were still waiting for our food, it was almost 9pm and frankly, I just wanted to get to bed and get as much rest in whilst I could. Just as I was getting ready to say to my sister, forget this we will get a sandwich from the shop our food arrived. I couldn’t decide if it was worth the wait or not because all I cared about was that we had food, and I could soon go to bed!
The excitement about finally swimming in the crystal-clear waters the following day was building in me more than I realised, and I thought I would struggle to sleep as a result, how wrong was I – as soon as my head put the pillow I was out for the count!