Here is a message for you all from Kelly Johnson and Jan Beacham:
“Completed rotto swim 8 hours and 16 minutes, conditions were kind, the start was like a rat race, but i loved every minute of it, could see the bottom most of the way, got a few good war wounds, not blue bottles but nasty friends who i don’t like. thank you to all the B&B squad and a huge BIG thank u to julie and micheal for your support, encouragement, early morning training, crazy training sessions, and being stung, cheers love Kelly and Jan”
We have also heard from James Goins and Suanne Hunt that they completed their duo in ~7 hours and 18 minutes.
Brendan Maher completed 16.5km in 9.5 hours, sadly this meant he’d miss their 18km cut off time. I really feel for you Brendan, you had trained so hard and you sooooo could have finished.
My humble opinion is that these new cut off times of the Rottnest Channel Association are ludicrous and exclusive. Brendan for example would still have 1.5 hours to complete the last 3.5km as he was reaching the lee of the island, so receiving the benefit of the protection from the conditions. Even then this 1.5 hours is to reach the beach in time for their final cut off relating to the time of the presentation, not end of daylight hours which is what the regulations require should you attempt the crossing on any other given day. Maybe we should organise a B&B Rottnest Channel Crossing, meet all the requirements and pay the administraion fee to the association so that it is still a recognised channel crossing. This would give everyone who is interested in giving it a go the best chance of success, as the regulations require that you complete the crossing from land to land within daylight hours, hence you only need to swim to Natural Jetty, not the extra ~1.5km onto Thomson Bay. Anyway, just a thought if enough B&B swimmers were interested I’d be happy to look into it….
No news from Rowan Webb’s duo yet, they probably got straight into party mode 🙂
A remarkable and fantastic effort by all of you, congratulations and well done !!!! xox
14 comments
Gaetan
February 26, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Well done guys, very proud of you all, you are my heroes! 🙂
Results:
http://racetectiming.com/rottnest.html
If I read the results correctly, Rowan Webb and Graham finished 1st of their category in 5:05! AMAZING!
Christine Armour
February 27, 2011 at 6:48 am
Well done to Kelly and Jan and the rest of the group. You are inspiring us.
Michael [EX CI]
February 27, 2011 at 10:00 am
Congratulations to all of you. Fabuous. You too Brendan. I’ve been there and done that and I know what its like. Any other day you would have continued on and done the full crossing with ease.
The cut off times are hard to justify really. I guess they would say they are protecting you from hypothermia but I suspect it has a little more to do with the presentation as Jules says. What a fabulous effort anyway.
Anna Alvsdotter
February 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm
So proud of you all, well done!!!!
kelly
February 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm
thank you to everyone, just got out of bed after 12 good hours, feeling pretty stiff, and I don’t think my arms will ever go over my head again.
Jan and I enjoyed the swim and got to 14km around 6 hour’s so we planned to make it under 7 hours, however as Michael and Jule have both said, the conditions and time, and body, the last 4.7km took us more then two hours, so my hat goes off to Brendan for doing it solo. well done!!!
Julie's parents
February 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Well done girls and what a great time. I know how hard the swim can be, through Julie of course, bu enjoyable too.
Nick
February 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
oh, Well done People.. You are now the elite we Humble B&B have to aspire to..
Nick
February 28, 2011 at 11:58 am
Rotto Swimmers . DO not read this…
http://www.news.com.au/national/more-than-100-sharks-spotted-near-warnbro-beach/story-e6frfkxi-1226013295587
kel
February 28, 2011 at 3:30 pm
I am glad I only just saw this. Sharks were the last thing on my mind, Saw Jan this morning the lining of her mouth came away….. very pretty sight. so now who is up for Rotto next year!!! the things we do!
Jenny Knapman
March 1, 2011 at 10:43 am
As usual I am way behind on the blog….
Fantastic job done girls….
Is doing it once enough????
Tacomajim
March 1, 2011 at 7:38 pm
NEWS RE: ROTTO:
Hey Kelly & Jan (Manly1)
Hats (or should I say caps) off to you two for a job well done, especially on such a hot and deceptively benign day. The last third was the hardest bit for Suanne and myself, too. It was nice to finally be on the island but we did not hang around very long. This event is a spectacle of the sport that everyone should try at least once in their swimming lives. Our group put some video together and below is a link to some of our footage of the start of the duo wave; I am pretty sure we are looking at our Kelly heading out with some balloons tied to her bum. Is it you??? Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUGnaS8J4zQ
Cheers –
James
jan
March 2, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Back in manly and not so technically proficient as my companion.. so here’s my first post since the race…
loved it, said never again when I set foot on rotto…but you never know….
beautiful conditions and a great spectacle from the boat, the bottom of the ocean looked pretty good most of the way as well. pretty easy swimming until we decided to up the pace from 16km, and then somehow it took us another 2hrs and the rest of my energy to finish. Think we were well south of the line, but we made it anyway. in pretty good shape now, except for some shoulder stiffness in the lhs cuff (and an arm of pink zinc that refuses to come off), think this will keep me out of the water for the rest of the week but hope to see you all soon.
thanks so much for all your support, training sessions and companionship, couldn’t have done it with out you.
hope kelly makes it back from the margret river in one piece on sat after a week of celebrations – happy birthday for tomorrow kel x
kel
March 2, 2011 at 6:19 pm
hi, I am still alive and enjoying the break, did have a swim this morning, which was more like dog paddle. Thanks Jan for the brthday present, i will open it in the morning. xx
kel
March 2, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Birthday,,,too many wines this morning, hehehe