I had spent two weeks in Dahab, Egypt, just beforehand, training constant weight with Lotta and Linda at Freedive Dahab. There I had gone from 25m to 45m in depth, a huge jump for me! But the dark, cold European water frightened me a little, and it took a lot of pep talk from Daan to convince me to announce 40m for the competition. But when the day came, I did my dive, coming up with a tag and a big smile :)
The dynamic discipline was taking place in the lake, going straight ahead and following a rope, which was a new experience for most people. I went into the water in only my swimming suit, as cold water is famous to help increase the dive reflex. Breathing up therefore included some shivering, but once I started swimming, it was rather okey. After loosing track of the tennis ball which marked the different distances, I thought I’d better get up. I ended up at 127m, which was the longest distance among the women.
The last thing on the program on Sunday was static. Eva and I had arranged our announced times so we could coach each other. She went first and made a very nice dive past 5 minutes. Then I started preparing for my own dive, doing some very nice warm-ups and feeling good. But when the count down started, I realised I had been in the water for too long already, and I was starting to shiver. I started the dive, trying to relax the muscles, but it was impossible. When I came up at 4.13, I was a little on the edge even though I wasn’t close to my PB at all. My body had simply spent too much oxygen trying to keep warm, so that was a mistake and lesson to learn from.
I ended up on second place overall and a national record, which I was very happy with.
