(I got my 6km swim badge in February 2017. I just received my winter swim badge last week for swimming at least 20 times during the winter season.)
I never thought I could swim 6km in the ocean. Can you?
I’m fond of sports and I like swimming, but I never tried long-distance swimming until this year. I am a regular swimmer at a local Manly swim club and I typically go swimming on weekends. Over three years, I’ve accumulated about 300km swim so far and I shall reach 350km by end of 2017. I’m quite happy about it.
My fellow swim mates talked about their 6km swim they did in January 2016 in a breakfast gathering after our regular swim back in last December. They asked me to join them this year, but I was scared. I’m a good swimmer but I was not confident that I could do it. Then they told me that “if you can’t finish, then you just swim to the shore any time. We will help you.” But, how? How can they help me in the ocean?
I had fear, but I decided to do more training and join them in January 2017 for my first 6km swim in my life. I started from 1.5km regular swim distance and extended it to 2.5km distance a few weeks later. The week before we did 6km swim, we did 3.5km swim which became ‘a piece of cake’ for me.
On the day of my 6km swim, I was a bit scared but I knew my swim mates would swim just next to me. After 2 hour and 10 minutes in the ocean, I finished my first 6km swim in my life. Was it hard? Yes, bloody hard! Was it impossible? No.
It will only be impossible, if you think it’s impossible because you limit yourself and you don’t konw your potential. Can you swim 6km? I think you can. If my 72-year-old fellow swimmer can, then I don’t know why you can’t. I’m proud of this achievement, and I’m also happy that I challenged myself.
Now I know how far I could go. I will challenge 10km next year and I will finish it in style.
Dr. C. Richard Wu @ REEAConsulting.com
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