Ocean man in Europe again this time at Athens. I thought that if during summer the water temperature will be warmer like Singapore, but I was wrong 23 deg was the water temperature. Somehow my body is just not able to handle that level despite many of the participants wearing only one pieces ( even for 10K).
So this time round I booked the race the year before, and managed to get a discount from the organiser for early bird. I paid about 155SGD for the 5km race, still did not feel I am ready for the 10KM and further more, nowadays I don’t really swim that long in Sentosa ( where I do the open water weekend swims in Singapore). In the past, usually I clock a 4-5km swim but now its just 3km and at most 4km. Furthermore, after knowing the water temperature hovers around 23-24 degrees, I dare not take my chances.
Its my second time to Greece and the first being the Athens Marathon. This time I never do much sight seeing as the last time I went to the main places of interest like the Acropolis and Delphi. When I reached Athens, I felt like it was a second home. The Oceanman take place at the Vouliagmeni Beach which is towards the south of Athens, originally I wanted to stay there for the race, but there are no cheap accomodation options and the AirBnB is very large and expensive. Having no one to share the accommodation, I decided to just stay in Athens. This time my Air BnB is at Metaxourghio, along the red line. It was a nice cosy place just a little noisy as it was near a bus company, the name is Marilyn Residences. It turned out to be a good choice because actually the beach is reachable in 1 hr by taking the subway to Ellinko ( last station in the red line) and changing to bus 122 from the main road upon reaching. The Athens accommodations are much more affordable which was a bonus for me.
Race Pack Collection
For this trip, I did a one way ticket with Turkish Airlines and managed to stop by Istanbul for a short Bosphoros Boat trip before heading to Athens. The race pack collection was one day before the race itself. 5km and 10km start both same day on Sunday 22 June 2025. The collection was at the race site, I got to recce the place before the actually race, however the day before the race was a rainy day. So the pasta party was cancelled. The sea looks very pretty but I did not have the guts to go and touch the water. I did not do much the night before just had a simple dinner bought from the beach area and packed the things I needed for the second day.
Race Day
As my race starts 10:40am, I have ample time to get to the beach. I woke up around 6:30am and slowly made my way to the Vouliagmeni which do about 1 hr plus. The beach actually has an admission fee but it was free for the participants and one accompanying supporter. Everything was in place and I found my beach chair with a good shade for free this time. The race site was also more exciting than the Aiya Napa one, but the water temperature was my concern. When I went down to test, I was already shivering and somehow a bad feeling came in. Some folks were wearing the wet suit I thought maybe that was the 10Km folks.
We watched the 10Km folks flag off at 9am. The sun was already very strong up, since it was summer the day light is long morning 5:30 am the sun already slowly coming up and it does not go down until 9:15pm. I walked around check out the merchandise and also race site. Finally around 10 am, a race breifing was held by the race director telling us which buoys to look out for while on the way out and back. Basically it was a rectangular shape and the buoys should be all on your right. Every buoy is about five hundred metres, the 5k only had to do one loop. This time round I wore a 3/4 suit for the swim, the bottom portion was like neoprene but not the really water proof kind.
The first half of the race was still okay for me until it went to the open sea, the water rough and choppy, I was doing pretty well the 2km then at the uturn point I lost it and sighting of the buoys. Somehow there was a current against me preventing the going forward. What was worse was the cold, I felt colder and colder and had to occassionally hold the buoy like what I did at Aiya Napa to get some heat myself. I realise I was not moving forward at the turning point and kept seeing the same buoy over and over. A safety kayak came to me then, I guess they saw me kinda struggling, especially with the cold. The safety officer asked if I wanted to quit and go back, I asked him and found that I only left about 1.3k. I decided to push it , I still had time. But I held on to the Kayak a while to keep myself warmer, then I pushed it, after some struggle, I got out of the rough current and as we go nearer the coast it got better. I was already shivering and shaking while swimming. The safety kayak was really nice, it companied me all the way from the rough part back to the finish line. After crossing it, they carried me to the first aid station as I was already turning purple, I began to be worried whether I will get better or just feel colder and colder. With the emergency blanket ( under the hot sun) and a big woollen blanket.
Finishing thoughts
I sat there for a while and begin to wonder if I am cut up for Oceanman because the cold and seriously my timing is a bit too slow. It is not the mediocre timing and met with current, I got even slower. Another thing was the coldness, my inability to handle the cold is getting worse and worse. A little disheartened this time but still glad I managed to finish it. I sat under the sun for a while more before heading back. That night I went to a roof top bar near to Acropolis to celebrate, it was quite nice and I am glad its over at least my shivering didn’t last the whole day.
