Aiya Napa is a town in Cyprus, it is mainly a summer holiday place. Thus during the November period, it is quite a quiet place as temperature starts to turn cold.
Usual food in Europe
I first got to know about Oceanman was when I got to know more swimmer friends. I found out about this Oceanman. The full Oceanman distance is 10K , there is a half for 5K, and 2K. Finally a Ocean kids. When I wanted to sign up for it, I was thinking of doing the 10K, but after a while I thought , I had never been to Cyprus before and really do not want to DNF there. Furthermore the cut off time was really a bit tight for quite a slow turtle like me for a 4hr 30min swim.
Aiya Napa
Clear Blue Sea of Aiya Napa
Beautiful sea caves
The race site is in Aiya Napa , east side of the Cyprus Island. The island is not very huge and has a few major cities, Nicosia, Limassol. Aiya Napa is more like a summer town where people only come here during the summer vacation. So coming here early Nov is already considered late. Thus the town was pretty quiet. The main road there with all the bars, restaurants and tons of souvenir shops and super market is the Nissi Ave. I stayed in an Air B and B near to the Aiya Napa Monastery, which is a small old monument on the town. This place is also where all the major buses run through. There are only 2 types of buses here. One ran by the Osea company and one is the Inter city bus. But to speak the truth it is very confusing. When I arrived the airport, I wanted to save money and take bus. However, the usual airport bus does not go Aiya napa anymore cos not enough passengers. If not it would have just cost 10 eur, but because I am not sure about the bus net work, I end up taking the taxi, which is 50 eur.
That is a big difference, only for 30 km plus. Feeling tired to have to navigate and also google does not have info about the bus, I decided to just take the taxi. My air bnb was large and comfy and situated at the quiet side away from the crowd. It comes with large toilet with bathtub, full kitchen so you can cook and one big bed with a balcony ( not much view as it faces the carpark) and a small sitting area. But I am good with it and below the place is just the supermarket which sells stuff at a good price. The shop belongs to the owner of this rentals too.
Race Pack Collection
The goodie bag
At the Nissi Beach Bar collection
Old school checking of registration
Supposed to be a Adams Hotel in Nissi beach which is 3.5km away from my place. I walked there in the morning just to get a feel what the place is like. The streets were pretty empty. Many restaurants were already starting to close for preparing the winter.
It was changed to Nissi Beach Club which is also where the start point is. Just a small set up with no crowd when I came for the collection. The race pack is in a little yellow drawstring bag. We were given a Tee, swim cap and time chip. I ordered a Ocean woman swim suit. There was no race expo but you can certainly sit down at the beach bar to have a drink.
Race Day
Me dress up for the day
ten K start line
The following day I went for a day tour to the major sights in Cyprus and went to Mt Troodos also. It was really cold up there. The weather was really nice, not so cold in the day and colder at night when you are indoors. Jumping to the day itself. Race for 5Km starts at 08:15am and I woke up before six, had a bit of breakfast and did some warm up. After that, I made my way walking to Nissi beach. The morning was cold maybe about 13 deg celsius, but once the sun is up its gets better.
The race site is just the beautiful beach front of Nissi beach. I thought the organiser will provide the sun umbrella and the sun chairs, but turns our you need to pay for them. There is a guard walking around to get you to pay, 2.50 eur each for the chair or the umbrella.
The group joining the race is rather small and mostly are locals and people from the region. I guess I am the only one from Asia.
The RACE
Expensive receipt for the chair and umbrella
Sun was shinning but water was really cold. The ten k swimmers mostly had wet suits, but there were some daredevils or maybe its the norm for them. Temperature of the water is 23 deg. But to speak the truth I felt colder. The race route was changed and we were only informed last minute on the day itself:( Something which I would like to reflect on. So instead of one loop, we had to do 2 loops for the 5km.
The 10 K had to do 4 loops. All of us just wore the band and start swimming without having to cross the mat. The first 1 km was still okay for me, but I could feel that the water was starting to feel colder and colder. Beginning part was quite difficult to swim as it was shallow, then suddenly, it dipped down pretty deep. The scary part was I could see everything very very clearly! Not only top down but also ahead. It was as if I was swimming in a very big swimming pool, I could see the people swimming in front and beside too.
Half way through I was feeling colder and I couldn’t stand it, I had to hold on to my buoy and get some sunlight before going down again. I felt a bit like wanting to give up cos I was trembling. But somehow the mind told me to keep going only 2 more k to go.
Finishing
The medal
With the event tee and medal
By Nissi beach
Struggled to finish but the timing was decent 2 hours 14 min. I had nothing to complain. Then I realise the fastest in my age group is 1hr 20 min !
Well, to speak the truth, the beach is nice, the weather is good and there were many perfect cameo opportunities. But the organisers were not very keen and paying a 100 eur for the 5km , I felt a bit not that worth because it felt just like any other Tanjong swim besides the safety coverage. The organisers also never relay change messages through the email, or social media. The event can be an opportunity for all to have many photographic memories, but there was no photographers to be seen. Even if just one of the staff to use handphone and take our pictures will be such a bonus. The medals was another sad thing, since it is a sea water race, shouldn’t they use materials which are not corrosive by salt? The medal was already tarnished by the time I reach back to the hotel. Some how there was not hype and vibe in the whole race but I did manage to meet a few Greeks and talk about swimming. Checking with other Oceanman participants who joined the Bali one in July. They reflected that the organiser is same , kinda aloof. Well maybe we should organise it ourselves in Sentosa, but the scenery will not be that nice though.