Whatever you say, this event is never without its little adventures!!

The Third Spencer Mile was a challenge in many ways.  An initial 25 entrants were reduced to 19 by illness and lack of fuel. Thorpe Park on Sunday 26th September was somewhat grey and the absence of any lake staff on time was somewhat worrying.  However, water was around 17/18 degrees after a very nice September (water temperatures have been down at 12/13 at this time of year to my knowledge)

The course looked rather odd with two proper buoys and a torpedo in the distance. As agreed the course was four laps of the lake, swum in waves to prevent too much contact at the early corners. As it turned out the torpedo buoy appeared either to have a very long anchor or to be drifting!!!!  In the end the measured distance was a new distance of the post Brexit “mile” of 1900 metres, but it was still a great race.

Two men and two women fought out the first places with Alan Parkins pipping Clive Benson, both in suits and Jess Campbell beating Georgie Quayle on time. However, in a unique innovation, I had decided to implement a handicap system, adding 10% to wetsuit times, which saw Georgie’s time pip Jess in the adjusted variant and indeed end up as the overall winner on adjusted times.

All good fun.

The full list of winners (everyone was a winner!) is below, with most of the swimmers in an age category of their own.  There were some great individual battles and swimmers of the day must include the highly impressive Alain Renders and Willem Heskes.  

The real disappointment was the over officious kayaker lifeguard who ushered two of our swimmers out 10 minutes early.  “I was only following orders!!!”  I have heard that excuse before and it didn’t cut much mustard then.

Sincere congratulations to Robyn MacCrae on her first open water race.  She managed to keep up with Godfrey, so well done.

Following this we had the hat ceremony and another excellent barbecue from Michael and Mila. Thank you to everyone for their donations of cake and sweet things.

For those in the club for whom this event was too cold, too far or whatever else, they missed another fabulous club event and party.  This event is now a core part of the calendar and I look forward to running the fourth event in 2022.

See you there.

Congratulations everyone.

Steve Baker

Full Results

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The third annual Spencer Mile is now ready to enter. All the details you need are below!

Date:               Sunday 26th September 2021

Venue:             Thorpe Park Lake. Thorpe Lakes, Thorpe Road, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 8PH

Course:             4 x round 400m loop.

Time:                8.30am briefing.  9.00am first wave. 

 Swimmers must be registered prior to swimming.  Late swimmers will not be permitted to compete.

Organisation

The event will be swum in waves of similar ability based on previous results. Waves of ideally 5/6 will start 30 seconds apart.

The swim will start in the water by the pier of the lake. Swimmers must touch the pier on each lap and must swim around the outside of each buoy, keeping the buoy to their left.  Swimmers finish by touching the pier at the end of their fourth lap.

Timing:              Manual.

Categories:       Wetsuit and skins.  Age groups based on every 5 years from 20+.  

Entry

Entries made by email to Steve Baker (sbaker50@btinternet.com). Please provide your DoB and whether wetsuit or skin category.

Price:               £20 each to include entry, prize, refreshments.

Payment:          Please confirm your entry by emailing Steve for bank account details for payment.

No cash will be taken on the day!  

Prizes              

Prizes for first, second and third in each age group. 

Special overall award for skins v suits where wetsuits get a 10%-time calculation penalty.    1 men, 1 women.

Party!

We will be holding a barbecue and light refreshments at the lakeside straight after the racing.  This will be from 10am till lunchtime.  Drinks will be available but warm beverages are available from the lakeside café.

Donations: Intentions to offer a cake or similar will be very gratefully received.  Please advise intention to Steve in advance either in person at training or via email.

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All fake news of course.  It was windy, cold air, warm water and there were numerous waves of socially distanced swimmers at 2-minute intervals that took to the water.  Two swimmers with other commitments did the swim prior to the group!!

What was in effect the only competition most swimmers will have this year, the swimmers braved c15 degrees, mostly in wetsuits to do the swim.

A very fast 22.11 minutes saw Simon Berry win the overall event.

Tracy Wheeler was first woman home in 24.19.

Frist female skin was Lisa Hibberd in an impressive 26.56 and first male skin was Rob Tate in 24.45.

Rob had already decided the event was too easy so cycled on to Thorpe and of course back again.

The course was twice round an 800 track. Cleary marked but made tricky by a headwind on the way back.  Whilst chilly it was by no mean cold, although FINA would not have liked it!

It was great to see so many swimmers making the effort in what was our second annual mile and of course rearranged as a venue due to the cancellation of the Thames swim due to the current disease restrictions.

Congratulations to each and every one of the competitors.

We return to the pool with this one under our belt and only 10 months to train for Spencer Mile 3.

The post Spencer Mile 2020 appeared first on Spencer Swim Team London.

So many swimmers, so many winners.  Most important what a lovely stretch of river and a lovely race.  It started in 50’s dreamland at the Sea Scout headquarters.  For you youngsters, the 50s was last century!  After the safety announcements we all got in for the obligatory 5 minutes treading water and acclimatizing.  A rapid start and an 800m stretch of green on both sides of the river.  After the halfway point we got to the hard-standing area with rowing boat sheds for the Oxford colleges.  Another 400m saw the start of the final stretch.  A well laid out series of pencil buoys of 200 m upstream and then a sprint finish on the other side to a hard landing.  The whole race bar the final 200m was upstream but to the Spencer swimmers this mattered little.

To put a smile on everyone’s face, the sun had its hat on, and the weather was just perfect.  Just enough cloud to guard against burn and enough sun to make it warm.

Overall men’s winner was Tristan Slater in an absorbing race against Rob Tate.  Tristan won by a short head but had the advantage of a suit so both men won their categories and had a fantastic race.

Sue Swaine was the women’s overall winner and unusually for her did not wear a suit, well done Sue, a convert!!!!!

Lisa Hibberd was the overall senior women’s winner.

Your ever so humble coach was first in the infinity category and second in the senior men’s.  That’s over 55 if you need to know!!!! 

Very impressive swims were recorded by James Draper in 6^th, Luke Schuberth in 8^th, Willem Heskes in 11^th and  Ed Hill in 12^th.  James and Luke in rather dapper rubber suits with Willem and Ed in hairy pink versions.  Well done Willem and Ed.

Luca Milana completed his first ever open water race and swim in water below 26 degrees.  Forza Luca.

Luca of course had a good introduction to open water swimming by pulling the coach back by the trunks and having the temerity to cut across him during the race.  Naughty Luca!

Making up the team on the day were Jane Turner and Sara Luder who had a good personal race, Michael Barnett, Nicola Malin, Mel Thomas.  14 swimmers in all.  There were three withdrawals for various reasons.

Mel had made the trip all the way from Cardiff to compete.

Well done everyone on your efforts, please see the attached spreadsheet for results and times.

In terms of the open event of which we were a part, we had no fewer than 8 in the top 20 and when you consider there were lots of suited swimmers in the race that’s a great achievement.  The total entry was 120 swimmers, so we made up a little over 10%.

Following the race there was exceptionally good cakes with tea and coffee from the organisers.  We then trekked back to a lovely spot on the river for a picnic.  What a fab event that was.

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