By Craig Foster
The idea of the Bloody Big Swim came about shortly after Johnny Meagher 
(madman going solo) convinced Todd and I (part of a team of four) that we could swim the 19.7km from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest Island in the Rottnest Channel Swim. We thought it would be a good warm up to compete in The Bloody Big Swim which is 11.2k’s from Frankston Life Saving Club to Mills Beach in Mornington as a duo to turn the arms over, get used to jumping in and out of the support boat, working with our support kayakers (the rules dictate that you require kayaker to help you navigate and a support boat to carry the beer), getting our nutrition right and working out exactly how much of the afore mentioned beer we will need on the boat for the after swim celebrations.
So it was literally heads down and tails up in the pool swimming most Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning and evening sessions (although as Shoney would tell you Monday mornings were usually a no show), joining the ½ IM and IM guys on the longer open water swims, long sessions at Lysterfield and a couple of sneaky other sessions to get the K’s up, get the stroke right and build some strength.
The swimming training seemed to be the easy part; it was trying to get a hold of a support boat and a kayaker which was proving to be the real challenge. After a bit of asking around we found out that Amanda Waaldyk’s fiancé Karl had a mate who had a boat who would possibly be up for the challenge. Todd and I offered to pay for fuel, put on breakfast, lunch and a couple of beers on the boat for Captain Anth and Karl and we had a deal. I then managed to convince a couple of mates who had kayaks that this would be a great challenge and personally rewarding for them to complete the 11.2k kayak. Again I think it was the beers that got them over the line.
I don’t know if it was pre-race jitters but it felt like we were getting negative vibes from Captain Anth regarding the boat as he had to travel a distance across the bay from Port Arlington to Frankston. We spoke to Captain Anth and Karl to get reassurances, which we did, with a gentle reminder not to forget to put on a spread as they’ll be getting hungry and thirsty. I was still a little nervous. Then on Australia day one of our kayakers (we had two for this exact reason) told me that he had hurt his wrist whilst getting thrown off his jet ski and he couldn’t paddle, I called our other kayaker “sorry mate I have cricket finals coming up and I have to play on Saturday”. 4 days out and we were in trouble. I played the guilt card saying that Todd and I had prepared for months to complete this swim, that this is what our whole season amounted to and you guys were letting us down, “you need to find replacements and fast” I told them. In the end they both found replacements, a young fella by the name of Jack who refused to wear sun screen and our good mate, Little Anth, who has just started running and swimming with Tri-Bal.
On the Friday evening preceding the race Todd ducked off to the pre-race briefing coming back home with our race pack and a PowerPoint presentation on the rules and responsibilities of the swimmers, captains and kayakers: Boats to wait at the south of Frankston pier at the start, kayaker between the boat and swimmer at all times, turn off points for boats and kayakers at the end of the race etc, etc…I started to get a little nervous but very excited at the same time. We had been discussing race tactics on and off for a while and initially thought that 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off would be a good option, knocking off about 1K each every 15 minutes. As the day got closer the time we both planned to spend in the water got shorter and shorter and we started planning the swim in a series of sprints. Speaking to Andy on the lead up to the race he mentioned that this would be the best tactic. So it was decided that would spend 6 minutes in the water swimming pretty much as hard as we could waiting to tag the other, drag ourselves onto the boat, have about 4 minutes rest after you got yourself on the boat, jump back in and go for it again.
On race day I’m a bit of a panic merchant. Looking everywhere for my goggles, oh they are in my pocket. Timing chip? On my left ankle where it should be. Swimming cap? On my head! Support boat? Still in the middle of the bay on their way. “We’ll be there in 5-10 minutes” which usually means 15-20 minutes. Panic! 20 minutes until our wave starts, I was thinking that it’s all going to pieces. 15 minutes and they’re still not in, 10 minutes, 5 minutes to go and I’m defiant, thinking we’ll swim it anyway, luckily this is when I get word from Jack that they are loading up the boat and we are good to go, Todd is on board ready for the first change over.
We’ve got to get a good start so I jostle my way to the front. There is nothing worse than being caught up in the pack, wasting energy trying to swim over people and getting swam over. The horn sounds and the duo’s are off. It’s a running sprint over the sand bars for about 30 meters until it is deep enough to swim. We are 3rd or 4th around the first boy and I’m picked up by Little Anth and Jack who guide me to Todd who is waiting in the water next to the support boat about 6 minutes away. First change over went well but could be improved on.
And so it went, 6 minutes on, 6 minutes off swimming hard, improving our changeovers, being expertly guided by Jack and Little Anth, being manoeuvred and dropped off in perfect locations by Captain Anth with Karl helping us in and out of the boat offering invaluable moral support, offering us chicken sandwiches and relaying strategy between Todd and myself.
The call went out to pick up the pace, we had about 2-3k’s to swim, we felt we were in good position as we were pulling away from the other boats and duos. Capt’n Anth had the binoculars out scanning the horizon for swimmers both back and front for threats and opportunities. We wound the time back to 5 minutes on and off and picked up the pace and then back to 4 minutes swimming even faster, ignoring the fatigue on our arms and shoulders, keeping our form. Digging deep.
On one of the changeovers I asked Karl to relay to Todd that we’ll swim in together. On what should have been the last change I jumped in off the boat as it peeled off to shore and joined Todd in the water with a surge of adrenaline pumping through my body knowing that we both were about to complete our first marathon swim. As anyone who swims in front of me knows I don’t mind sitting on their feet getting an easy ride, and this was no exception. I slipped right in on Todd’s draft and let him carry me in until about 150m from shore where we swam in side by side. I could see the bottom clearly now and resited all urges to stand up remembering Andy instructing us to swim for as far as we could in the shallows, almost at that point I saw Todd get up and start dolphining into shore. It was time to stop swimming!
Up we both got we ran the last 20m with the crowd and MC cheering us on and crossed the line in unison with our arms over each others shoulders. What an experience! What a team effort! To our surprise we finished 3rd overall for the duos in a time of 02:39:07.
We assembled a team of good mates, everyone as essential in helping us cross the line as each other; if one link in the chain was lost it would not have been possible to complete the swim, it was a fantastic team effort. Needless to say we had a few of those beers afterwards whilst discussing race tactics for next year.
Bloody Big Swim. Bloody Good Day.
