Pain, then gain of Xtreme Vetch’s win

Published Aug 27, 2014

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Two masters swimmers have completed a gruelling open-water swim, completing a 19km circuit in chilly waters off Vetch’s Pier to finish the challenge.

The Xtreme “12 miles in 12 hours” Swim Series was held in Durban at the weekend, when competitors had to swim through a circuit, swim at least a mile per 50mins, and were allowed 10-minute breaks.

Similar events will be held in Cape Town on October 18 and in Johannesburg on November 15.

Caren Strydom, 47, was the winner in the women’s division, while Julian Taylor, 50, of uMhlanga scooped the top prize in the men’s category.

Taylor, who finished in 10:30:00, said he was swimming an average 25mins per mile and pushing his body to take the pain.

Taylor, who volunteers as a lifesaver and is the chairman of the not-for-profit Durban Surfing Club, said he endured the pain from the start of his race and said the race “killed” him.

The race organisers gave swimmers 50 mins to complete each mile or 1.6km swim, but he said he was completing his distance in half the time.

Strydom, 47, who now lives in Johannesburg but lived in Durban for 10 years, said she started off with a time of 27 and 28 minutes per mile but by the time she had reached the last leg, she had finished in 36 minutes.

“In total, it took me around 11 hours to complete the swim,” she said.

She said that one of the challenges she faced was that the water was a chilly.

“We rested between each mile, went and had a cup of coffee and even put jackets on… so getting back into that water was quite a challenge,” she said, laughing. The challenge she faced during the swim, she said, came around the halfway mark, when her arms got tired and felt “lame”.

“I also got stung by a couple of jellies (jellyfish) but it wasn’t that bad and is to be expected swimming in the ocean.”

And Strydom, who swims every day and competes at a masters swimming level, is not new to the world of endurance swimming.

In January she swam from Robben Island to Blouberg Beach.

“It was only a two-and-a-half hour swim, but the water was really cold, only 12C! The key there was preparing mentally.”

In July last year, she completed a 6.5km swim from Asia to Europe via the Bosphorus Strait, which is normally used as a shipping channel.

“They usually close it off for a few hours so that around 1 600 people can swim the challenge.” Despite strong currents, she finished in 55 minutes.

Taylor, who had not swum in open waters for more than three months, said it was the pain that kept him going during the challenge.

In May this year, Taylor swam 38km from eMdloti to the Durban beachfront. He said that experience had left him sick and unable to train for months. He had picked up an infection in the water.

“The real test for an open-water swimmer is their ability to swim in cold water for a very long time. I am planning on swimming the English Channel next year, which is pretty cold at 16 degrees, in 12 hours, and there you start in the dark and you finish in the dark,” he said.

He added that the English Channel open water swim was more revered than climbing Mount Everest, as more people had summitted Everest than there were people who had finished the channel race.

Taylor dedicated the win to his son Nicholas, 4, whom he referred to as his inspiration.

The former Midmar Mile record holder said endurance was all about riding through the pain and said “dealing with the pain was quite exciting”.

He was thrilled by the eMdloti-Durban swim as the waters were known to have huge “unpredictable” Zambezi sharks.

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