Swimming 400m seemed easy enough for ELEANOR BLACK. Then she got in the water.
The task is simple: swim 400m in a public pool without stopping. It means heading to the Parnell Baths for the kind of exercise I have not attempted in more than two years.
Following the drowning of fourmembers of a family at Te Mata Bay last Sunday, there has been a lot of talk about what it means to be "a good swimmer".
Former national swimming coach Hilton Brown has set a benchmark of being able to manage 400m.
Until I turned into an officebound sloth I was a regular swimmer who could churn through 1km in about 40 minutes, given generous rest stops (to clear my misty goggles, of course).
For this test I must swim 6 3/4 lengths of the 60m pool. I can count the last 40m off using the buoys placed every 10m along the lane dividers.
The first lap is easy. I choose freestyle and am pleased with my progress. But as I reach the wall I realise my breathing has quickened alarmingly, and if I don't switch to breaststroke I will not be able to finish the swim.
Lap two is no problem. I feel like I could breaststroke to Fiji.
My confidence is punctured during the third lap as my forearms start to ache, my hands go floppy and my feet keep popping to the surface like paddle boards. I have slowed considerably and am finding breathing tough.
With relief I settle into the fourth and fifth laps knowing I am more than halfway there.
The sixth lap is the killer. I am uncoordinated and weak. My breaststroke is more like doggy paddle and the idea of heading up the pool for the final lap is deeply unappealing.
I am past being able to count the buoys and decide that rather than stopping when I reach 400m I will finish the seventh lap, bringing my tally to 420m in around 11 minutes.
I am light-headed and my legs are wobbly as I walk to my towel.
That's in a pool.
Swimming in the sea and dealing with waves, wind and undertow is a much harder task.
