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MidMar - Saturday, 12 February

I was awake pretty early, and tried not to disturb the others my getting changed camping style (in the sleeping bag). I tried to figure out what kind of weather was outside, but it wasn’t long until Jenny unzipped the door to the tent and let bright sunshine come streaming into the tent. A little while later Jason was cooking the breakfast before a few of us headed into the dam for a quick cool down. 

Jess and I were in charge of keeping everyone’s stuff, and I ensured Jenny had everything she needed for her swim, and for afterwards. We waited with Jenny and Jason for a while at the start, and this was the point where I started to get really nervous – I guess just seeing all those people made me realize how big this event actually was, and I started to feel a little out of my league. A short while later Jess and I had driven up to near the finish (near in this case meaning a nice walk, and an easy place to get out of), and went in search of a blue tent by a ridge, to drop off a wetsuit for a woman, whose race was a bit later. Looking around, just about everyone had blue tents, and the task was made more difficult as we had no idea what the people we were looking for actually looked like (our only clue was a blue tent, and a baby). Eventually we found them, gave them the wetsuit and made our way to get something to drink and eat. We stood at shed 25 waiting for Jenny and Jason to come through the finish, while eating potato chips on a stick, and mini donuts. On my way back from getting water I ran into Jenny, with Jason close behind, and showed them where their stuff and Jess was – By the look of them, the swim was tough. We all took a walk to the Mid Mar shop, where Jenny and Jason got some memento shirts (I had a look, but I found the designs too busy for me). We left Jenny to go find some more water; Jason had found a new love of apple flavoured still water; and agreed to meet Jenny by the blue tent afterwards. About 5 minutes later we were sitting under the tent, Jason finishing his 2 bottles of apple water, and me in my bikini top trying to tan, while we waited for Jenny. An announcement came on, demanding for everyone’s attention – “A 45 year old man had started the race, however, his chip had not registered at the finish, and could everyone look around for someone lying under a tree with a chip on, and a yellow cap, or inform the organisers if they saw anything occur in the water”. Everyone became silent…. Yellow cap?... That was me, and now this guy has gone missing? What had I gotten myself into? Well, I didn’t have long to dwell on it, Jess wanted to look at the stalls, and Jason tagged along with the promise of stopping for apple water. While waiting in line I saw I had a missed call from Jenny, and it turned out she was unable to find the tent (and we were meant to how exactly?), so I went to go get her from outside the shop so that we can say bye to everyone at the tent and head back. 

 Driving back I stared at the open water, with all the swimmers, and wondered what the next day would bring, and if I should have done the Saturday swim instead. Back at camp, more people had joined us, and our little area had greatly populated. We had a quick bite to eat, before going for a swim (my fist official swim in the dam) – Jason and I decided to see how far it was from our camp to the start, and truth is, it was pretty far, so we decided to walk along the side of the dam, and walk across the more shallow end of the dam between the reeds, spying out canoes we could ‘borrow’. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, giving Jason back massages and waiting for our braai to finish. Jess and myself were pretty tired and were planning on an early night, however, somewhere along the way plans turned out differently, and by 12 I was still laying in Jason’s arms on the grass, watching lights pass by in the distance, and listening to the water and walrus snoring, that drowned out the beating of our hearts. By the morning all that had happened will no longer exist, or so I thought….

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