On Saturday, I swam in the 17th annual Flowers sea swim (Flowers is a local company!) The swim is 1 mile (1.6km) and goes along Seven Mile beach from the Royal Palms (not too far from the Marriott Beach Resort) for those not too familiar) then north to the Ritz.  The path can be seen below.

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Here we are “getting ready” for the race and showing our race identification !  I am with my very good friend Marie (from the UK) and her friend Catherine (from Australia)

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Over 730 people participated in this years event.  These pictures should give you an idea how popular an event it is.  There were even four Olympic medalists who took part in the race.  Needless to say I did not finish before any of them.

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Here people are getting in the water and lining up for the start of the swim.

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… and we are off! I don’t think I am in this picture.  In any case, I had a different strategy. I was at least 200ft offshore.  I was pretty much alone the whole swim and did not get kicked by anyone. I think it was a smart move as many people stayed close to shore and had to constantly deal with other swimmers.

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Here I am, 49 minutes later!  Not too bad for a guy that did 0 practice runs and who did the breast stroke 100% of the time!  I came in 562nd out of the 730 contestants.  There was a 75 minute limit, so I came in with plenty of time to spare.  The winner did it in just under 20 minutes; quite impressive.

We were then rewarded with sandwiches, pizza, water bottles & Gatorade.

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In closing, let me tell you that 1-mile is a very long distance to swim!

If you want to participate in next years race, it will be held on June 19th, 2010. It is open to everyone, you dont need to live in Cayman to participate. Cost is 30$US and you must register on the Web before.  More information can be found at : http://www.flowersseaswim.com/