It was November of 2024 and I was still disappointed by the cancellation of the SwimGP long distances events due to the foggy conditions that year. I was well prepared for the 10K that would let me sign up for the 20K the next year but didn’t want to wait too much for that. I remembered there is a 22K swimming race in the sea every year in February in Peru: “The Olaya Route”. The name honors a Peruvian independence hero that swam that distance 200 years ago. It is the main swimming event in Peru and two thoughts danced in my mind: “Is it too much?” and “Why not?”.
To prepare for “The Olaya Route” they said I should train for 6 months but I only had 2 left. The good news: I was not starting from scratch as I trained the whole year with Swim4Fun for the SwimGP 10K and gained experience and endurance. The not so good news: I had never swum officially more than 6K and not more than 8K once that year.
Sometimes these kinds of swims become something you just feel you “have to do” like a personal quest. “Why do you want to do that?”, a friend asked me. “Because it’s there” I answered with the words of the legendary mountaineer George Mallory when he was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. Everyone chooses their own Everest and “The Olaya Route” became my swimming one.
I asked our coach Bibiana to help me with a training plan for those 22K. She was as enthusiastic as I was and made a detailed personal plan for me. I followed her plan with discipline under her supervision. I am not a pool swimmer at all and not a fast swimmer either. But I swam at the pool four nights every week to improve technique and speed and did long swims in the sea on Saturdays and Sundays to build up endurance week after week.
For “The Olaya Route” you must swim with a kayak and a safety boat. You need to have a crew in the boat to assist you with the plan and strategy to follow in terms of swimming, rest and nutrition. If you don’t want to swim alone you need to find a partner that swims at the same pace, with whom you should train together and should know each other very well in the sea, plus sharing the craziness of doing such a thing together. I asked Tita, a friend with whom I swam a lot in Peru before I came to Portugal. We used to swim at the same pace and have known each other for long. We were not going to be able to train together, but we shared the craziness. She trained hard in Peru and I did the same in Portugal and we both hoped that it was going to work well once we were at the sea together.
When I was in Peru and at the shore before the start, I couldn’t believe I was there. Tita was by my side and the safety boat with the crew of friends and our kayak were waiting for us in the sea. I felt nervous and excited and could feel the nervousness and excitement of other swimmers too. We estimated to complete the 22K in 7 hours and 30 minutes at the most at the pace we both swim. However, the sea always has its own plans.
That day the sea and current conditions were like never before in the last five years. We could tell it from the beginning when the pace on my watch was not the expected one. We were swimming against a strong current right from the first kilometer. When we made almost four and a half hours to reach the first cut off time at the 11K and we were almost disqualified for a couple of minutes, we realized the chances to not meet the cutoff of nine hours for the 22K were high. Tita and I were fully committed and so were our friends on the safety boat and they made us feel their presence with their encouraging words cheering us up all the time. My shoulder started to hurt when we had only 4K left to the finish line and those are the moments you realize swimming long distances of course is a very physical act, but the most part of it is about mental strength. To be with yourself deep in your head for so many hours swimming in the sea and not giving up, that is a real challenge.
At eight hours fifty-four minutes Tita and I crossed the finish line after swimming those 22K and the feeling was unbelievable. I got my “The Olaya Route” finisher medal and felt very proud and happy. I received phone calls and messages from my family, Bibiana and my Swim4Fun friends and to feel their company from Portugal made me happier.
When I came back to Lisbon, I was honored that Bibiana accepted my finisher medal for being my coach in that swimming adventure. She deserved it greatly for being by my side while I trained in Portugal and by my side at the distance with her happiness, encouraging words and professional guidance. “What comes next?”, she asked me then and I still have some crazy ideas to answer her. Let’s see!
Carlos Campos