I. Formigues – I. Medes

Driving at 5 am to the start of the race I persuade myself that this 22.3 km distance, it is not that long. Just 6 h of swim, not a problem. It turn out that waves and wind during the swim “extended” my time to almost 9 h.
Morning fog postponed the start. Water temperature was also not that comfortable (18 degree C). I felt it on the first feeding when I had to wait for a colleague – the swimming takes place in groups of 3-4 people, selected according to speed, each group is assisted by one boat – whose backpack with nutrients was mistakenly placed on another boat. After two minutes of treading water and waiting for the right backpack – being only one person without neoprene – I decided to go on alone. After several hundred meters, I was joined by a motorboat, designated as a backup escort boat which was later assigned to me as a “private” assisting boat. 8h and 43 minutes was the time to cover the entire distance, which is a lot of “strokes”, considering that I cover 18 strokes in a 25 m swimming pool.