Alice Dearing: “My most intense urban swims”

Bath-like temperatures, last lap currents and jellyfish: Alice Dearing shares her most intense urban swims

As I always say: we are spoilt by the number of places where open water swimming is accessible around the world. Increasingly, we are seeing these landscapes change and challenge what we know of ‘open water swimming venues’, growing more in touch with communities and cities across the globe. In fact, it wasn’t until I sat down and truly thought about it that I realised I have swum in numerous urban swimming races, across four continents in fact – each proving to be a unique challenge, and all of them giving me different lessons to pass on…

Barcelona, Spain

This was one of the last races I swam professionally and it was a mainstay on the LEN (European Swimming Federation) Open Water Cup circuit. It took place in September just as the weather was starting to cool in the harbour of the city. It was an interesting swim as we literally swam out of the marina, past yacht owners who watched us with cocktails in their hands, into the main body of water and back.

The main thing that I noticed at this event was the effort it took to create a space for people to swim right in the centre of one of the most visited cities in Europe. Whilst it was clearly a busy marina, they had still carved out the time for us to train and compete. It was only accessible because of a massive amount of organisation, which leads me to my first lesson…

Look out for swims around the world which can only be done as organised races. They make for some really special moments worth building up to and training for and will give you unique experiences you may not have had otherwise.

Perth, Australia

Now, I’ll admit, this is one of the swims I am most keen to forget. In 2015, we went out to Perth and swam in Swan River. This was a beautiful setting but the water was filled with huge jellyfish, which didn’t sting – I even remember a teammate placing one on his head for a photograph. He was later told they are typically riddled with lice!

Anyway, this was a cool swim in a river that meanders through the centre of the city. A key lesson that I learned here was not to let the surroundings of an event stop you from focusing on the race. I was so caught up with the wildlife and the location that it distracted me and, in turn, I gave a poor performance. These competitions cost a lot of time and money. Whilst you need to enjoy the experience of being there, you also owe it to yourself and to the work you’ve put in to be focused, as much as possible, on the challenge you have signed up to.

Tokyo, Japan

This urban swim took place for the Olympic Games under the iconic Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo. With an air temperature of 32ºC, 80% humidity and water reaching up to 30.8ºC, swimmers were really tested.

It’s competitions like these that show how important preparation and acclimatisation is. In order to deal with the heat, we spent weeks swimming in hot tubs. I would get home after training and run a bath, sweating whilst sitting there picturing the race. Actually, this whole regime put me off baths for years. Anyway, my point being that open water tests our bodies and we need to do the research and have the preparation that’s applicable for the race – be it ice swimming in Norway or dealing with the heat of Japan.

Viedma, Argentina

This being the second ever 10km I completed and also in the top three most difficult venues I have ever swum in, it deserves attention. Viedma is 500 miles south of Buenos Aires and slightly inland from the Atlantic coast. This swim had 4 x 2.5km laps where on lap 1 and 2 the current ran clockwise, on lap 3 it was slack and on lap 4 it ran anticlockwise. This meant that the swim to the finish line was against the current. I remember being in touch with the lead pack until the start of the last lap. I ended up finishing over 10 minutes behind the pack due to the fact I was practically crawling the final straight home. I mean literally – in order to be less impacted by the current, we hugged the river bank meaning I was swimming in 50cm of water.

What did I learn here? Stay in touch with people when racing. The final slog genuinely haunts me to this day and it was a lesson very early on in my career that races of any length in open water go quicker, are more successful and are more enjoyable when swum with other people. Whilst I did still get dropped on races after this, it never got to a point lower than this one.

As we can see, urban swimming is varied and fun – and I didn’t even get to talk about pools! I hope that my anecdotes and tips will help you think about your own challenges in a new light or even start scouting for new ones.