The 2024 BEST Fest swimming festival – the 10th Anniversary edition - involved seven events over six days, three Colonia Classic races interleaved with three Challenge swims, finished off with a 4x 500m relay race. All seven sea swims take place in the beautiful bays around Colònia de Sant Jordi, a small town on the southern coast of Mallorca, about a 35-minute drive from Palma airport.
Race headquarters is the BEST Centre, a small sports complex founded by two former Olympic swimmers. Centred around a wonderful 50m open-air pool, it hosts a variety of swim clinics and training camps. I signed up for all six races, Jacky opted for the three Challenge swims. BEST Centre also organise an Olympic triathlon the day before the Fest, so we signed up for that as well!
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| Another day, another dollar! |
Sunday, Day 1 - Colonia Classic 1. A 5 km point-to-point race. This required an early bus from HQ to the Sa Rapita beach. I was a bit anxious about what lay ahead but the young team from Napoli’s Posillipo Nautical Club were on the bus which created in a rather ‘lively and distracting’ atmosphere - LOL! It was initially overcast but the predicted good weather soon arrived and indeed, conditions all week were great: clear skies, mid/high-twenties, calm – at least in the mornings. Final check-in was on the beach and the atmosphere was quite relaxed as everybody got on with their final prep - sunscreen and body glide being liberally applied.
After a short briefing, 261 swimmers entered the water: 170 in skins, 91 in wetsuits. 127 women and 134 men, including 8 ‘elites’, 5 ‘elite’-juniors, 7 ‘non-elite’ juniors and plenty of age groupers, including 69 in my 50-59 age group. We finally set off at 9:38 am and next thing you know, it’s over. 1 hr 37 minutes later I emerged on the beach back at Sant Jordi, 144th overall, 30th in the wetsuit division. There are some very talented swimmers present. The first male got out in under an hour, the first woman – an ‘elite’ junior – in just under 1:04. But there is a big range; for example, 34 swimmers arrived between 2 and 2.5 hrs. And indeed, the whole event felt very inclusive. The atmosphere on the beech before each event was very civilised, as were the swim starts, and after there was a lot of fun, with post-swim energy, refreshments, medals, music and the daily raffle. Our hotel was right on this bay, so it was a short walk home for lunch and some sleep.
Day 2, the Corberana Challenge sponsored by 220 Triathlon magazine, so you had a choice of 1.9 or 3.8 km, reflecting the half and full ironman distances. So it was 4 laps for Jacky and 2 for me, in a beautiful small bay off the small beach at Cala Galiota. The routine is now becoming clear; breakfast, walk to beach, register, get prepped, short briefing, cross timing mats to check all swimmers into the water, line up, hooter, swim. On exit, your timing chip and a manual register check to ensure that all the swimmers are back on dry land. It was all incredibly well organised and felt very safe. The kayak safety team were excellent! Jacky had a great swim and enjoyed her longest sea swim to date. The ‘elites’ skipped this one but there are still some cracking times, with Paul Newsome – Mr Swim Smooth – emerging first in the 3.8k race in 54 minutes, and the British Army Team came away with a big haul of medals.
Day 3, Colonia Classic 2, a 1500m race, a deep-water start at 10:30 am from the Es Dolc beach and finishing in the adjacent Port beach. The elites were back, but not just the Italians, the Germans had arrived! The number of full-length Arena Powerskins on display skyrocketed. I ramped up my anxiety a notch, agonising over whether to ditch the wetsuit. Temperatures were rising, the water was very calm, so I finally decided to go for it and donned my Huub swim skin. It was quite liberating, and the wetsuit never reappeared. 247 finishers in the skins division, with the top 30 dominated by the elites and juniors, times ranged from 16 to 19 minutes. The first ‘oldie’ was Paul Newsome (40-49) in 36th with a 19:14. I emerged after 27:46, 162nd, a bit faster compared to Saturday’s triathlon which was in the same bay but not quite the same course. Again, the post-race atmosphere was a lot of fun, with food, medals and raffle prizes
But the day wasn’t over. At 3 pm we were back for the Tell Me Your Time Challenge swim. At check-in you provided a predicted time for the 2.5k course, which was a variation of the one used in the morning. No timing devices were allowed, and the winner is the person who emerges closest to their predicted time. But there were two twists: the course was definitely long, more like 3k, and the afternoon wind had picked up considerably, so it was very choppy, making it a hard swim for both of us. We came in on 1:01 and 1:09, 13 minutes off our predicted times. The winner finished in 1:02:48, 13 seconds off their predicted time. Only 137 in total took part, with the elites back in the pool, but the post-race atmosphere was still buzzing.
There were several side events and after the Tell Me Your Time we attend a fascinating talk by champion free diver Miguel Lozano. The next day, we attended a talk hosted by Paul Newsome on ‘How to prepare for a 10k race’, with expert input from elite marathon swimmers Alex and Beatrix Studzinski. For this BEST Fest, Paul was accompanied by an army of Swim Smooth coaches who hosted on a range of pool-based and open water skills sessions, including 1-2-1 video analysis. It’s a shame we couldn’t take advantage of this, but our week was already pretty packed!
Day 4, Wednesday, it’s the next Challenge swim, the Es Carbo Italian Volcano, another point-to-point, this time from the Es Carbo beach back to the Port beach. After check-in, it’s a bit of a hike to the start but it’s worth it because the swim back meanders along the coast through some beautiful waters – lots of fish and I saw a cool octopus! Just as I was about to turn into the finishing straight, I saw Jacky and she proceeds to beat me out on of the water. ‘Either she’s had a great swim, or I’ve had a bit of a shocker’. It was of course a bit of both, Jacky did have a great swim, with this being her favourite event. But the week was catching up with me and I felt pretty tired. But it was all good, back to the beach to enjoy the festival atmosphere, this time with large paellas on offer.
Day 5, Colonia Classic 3, a choice of either 10k or 7k, 6 loops or 4, in the bay we finished in on day 1. I was never going to do the 10k, and even if I started the 7k, I was thinking maybe just 2 laps then call it a day. However, I was really tanked. 16k swimming in 5 days was a lot for me. Also, despite planning on taking the triathlon easy, I had smashed it (it was great fun and worth it but … …!). The 5k on day 1 was a big deal, plus agonising about ditching the wetsuit on day 3, meant I had probably expended quite a bit of emotional energy. Three back-to-back skin swims in cool water probably also took more out of me than I realised. Plus, I’m, no spring chicken anymore. So I bailed. We did of course go along to watch, and the atmosphere was great. A lot of emotion at the finish arch; some swimmers very hyped, others tearful. Great comradery amongst the various teams, especially the young Italians and Germans. That afternoon we headed over to the BEST Centre for a chilled-out pool swim.
And finally, Day 6, the 4x 500 relays. We had planned to do two legs each, alternating. But the weather had turned; it was grey, windy and choppy, so we didn’t fancy it. But again, spectating was fun. The team comradery we saw yesterday amongst the youngsters went into hyperdrive and was quite inspiring. And again, that afternoon we took advantage of the pool time available to BEST Fest entrants.
