It is with Swimtrek, and it will be swimming around the Aeolian islands. 2km in the morning lunch on the boat and 2km in the afternoon. I am mildly apprehensive, bc I have almost no experience in open water and none in the ocean. It’s not a race, and there will be a chase Kayaker, but still…

I just finished up an Ironman 70.3 Poznan Poland over the weekend and made a rookie mistake with my goggles that almost cost me not even being able to start the race

Mins before the swim start, I went to put my goggles over my eyes from the top of my head and realized the black silicone suction on the right eye completely came off and was nowhere to be found.

After a lot of panicking and yelling asking if anyone had extra goggles, a gracious soul grabbed me and told me to ask the MC to make an announcement (thank you random stranger for telling me to do this and for calming my anxiety!!)

And miraculously another athlete had a spare and gave me them without hesitation. Huge shout out to her!

This is super rookie of me but i had no idea that the black silicone suction was something I had to keep an eye on or maintenance. With them being expensive goggles, i thought they were fine (had them for over a year now). I do swim in the pools a lot but make sure i rinse them off after every swim and always store them in the case.

Because my goggles are so expensive and hoping they’d be salvageable (which they are)i shoved them into the front of my my wetsuit. Definitely wasn’t comfortable.

Ironically enough, ended up with a PR on my swim.

The rest of the race was uneventful but lesson learned, check your goggles thoroughly before the swim!! Also so thankful to the tri community that helped me out on race day!

Also just curious what other people would’ve done if spare goggles HAD NOT been available. I thought about just swimming it with no goggles but i was worried about my eyes stinging really bad the rest of the day or getting an eye infection?

It gets mentioned every once in a while in this group, so I thought I'd share my experience of this year's Cross Balaton swim ("Balaton-Atuszas 2026") in Hungary.

For those who haven't come across it, it's held in Hungary typically on a Saturday in mid-July to early August (more on that later). The full swim (there is a half distance offering) is a ~5.2km point to point swim from Révfülöp on the North shore to Balatonboglár on the south, travelling south east (relevant for winds)

Reflections on the Race / Event

• Its a big event - With between 7k to 10k participants in the full distance each year, it is a Big Event, but really well organised and it didn't feel too crowded for me like some other big events (marathons/ironmans etc). It has a rolling start from 7am until ~12pm, with I think rush hour probably being 9am-11am. I got there as early as possible (just after 6am to register, with 7am start) and both event villages (particularly Balatonboglár) are a really decent size and didn't feel too packed while I was there.
• The Swim - The Balaton and its surroundings are stunning. You leave the hillier northern shore and can see the other side clearly, the sun had risen but was still quite low in the sky when I started (~7am) so cast a lovely golden hour hue on the course. The course itself is a marked out channel, perhaps 75m-100m wide with sail boats marking the righthand (western) side every 50ms or so and the left side marked by buoys (less frequent than the boats). This year it wasn't too windy so for the most part the lake was quite calm. I have heard in previous years it can get quite choppy. There were a few moments where swells picked up, and I haven't worked out whether this was because of the wake from the passenger ferries going past every 20mins (taking participants/supporters from one side to the other) or whether there was just a bit of chop a couple of times in the middle as gusts picked up. As the Balaton itself is quite shallow by large lake standards, it is silty in the water, so visibility under the water is negligible. If you want to use your watch to pace yourself or see how far you have gone you'll have to look at it out of the water.
• Around the Event - The Balaton is just a great place to visit around the event anyway. Pretty easy to get there by train from Budapest (and very cheap, a first class ticket costing €14) and there are beautiful hikes around the north shore, lots of great cycling and beautiful towns to visit like Tihany, Tapolca, Keszthely, Szigliget and Balatonfured. The local vineyards are great for food and of course a few celebratory drinks!

Things to be aware of (particularly for international participants)

• Exact date of the race - Whilst the website sets out a specific date, it is also clear that they can postpone it across the following ~3 weekends (either having it on a Saturday or Sunday), if the weather doesn't play ball. It should be noted that as its a mass participation event, what the organisers consider to be suboptimal conditions are quite varied and wide. This year it got postponed the first week because of forecast chance of thunder storms (fair enough), the second weekend was postponed as the water temperature was forecast to be too cold, at ~22c! By my standards that is perfect (northern europe!) open water swimming conditions. So you can see, there is a pretty good chance it will get delayed if the conditions aren't (a) pretty warm and (b) pretty calm. They confirm on the Thursday before the weekend whether it is going ahead so you have 1.5 days notice. This isn't a problem if you live near to the Balaton but if, like me, you travelled from abroad and this was the big swim of your year, the first two delays (particularly the second one) resulted in some gnashing of teeth on my part (fortunately I was over for a few weeks and the date it actually landed on I was still there, just). I would therefore say that this is an international event with a big asterisk. If it goes ahead on the weekend you're there, great, but there are no guarantees. The organisers do fully refund you if the date is postponed and you can't make the new one, so at least you won't be out of pocket (well for the entry!)
• Signage - Most of the signage in the event villages is only in Hungarian. There are great maps on the website in advance, and google lens/translate can work its magic, so you can work out where to leave your stuff/register/get the ferry back. There are a lot of volunteers, a decent number of whom speak other languages (typically English/German). But I wouldn't want to roll up to it without a bit of prep beforehand to just take the stress out of registration and bag drop off/pick up.
• The Heat & Shade - With the European heatwave that was going on across summer this year, it was already hot by the time I finished (~8.30am). Whilst each of the event villages are big, they don't have a huge amount of shade, and you can end up standing waiting in the full sun for periods of time (before the swim/queuing for the ferry). I got a bit frustrated waiting for the ferry back to the North shore. Those who are staying on the south shore and taking the ferry over to the start have priority over swimmers who have finished, and they didn't let us on the ferry until 10.30am, which led to a fair amount of confusion and needless queuing in the sun. A lot of bottled water was provided which helped, but worth bearing in mind if you are a supporter with children, bringing shade/fans/water/sunscreen is a must.

Tips on the Race:

• Gear - I did see one fella in a wetsuit, but given the heat in the summer and the proclivity of the organisers to only let it go ahead in >22c water almost everyone was in swim shorts/speedos/jammers/bikinis etc. I slathered on sunscreen beforehand and hydrated a lot before the start. There is the option if you are tired to hold onto or even get on one of the sailing boats that mark out the course, and I believe (at least before they run out!) they have water and some sugary drinks if you need it. I did also see a couple of people rocking flippers and paddles and no one seemed to mind (although it did seem to go against some of the point of the challenge, but horses for courses). What it's worth keeping in mind for your practise is, focussing on body position. As this is basically non-wetsuit AND not in salt water, remaining high and flat in the water is a big thing to focus on when preparing due to the relative lower buoyancy compared to a sea swim or with a wetsuit. The one benefit of the delays in the event was a couple of weeks to train in the Balaton with the gear I had brought!
• The Start - You queue up about 4-5 abreast and are let down a pontoon in waves over the rocks by the side of the lake. You get in to water that is probably 150cm deep (you're not supposed to dive), so really you are swimming straight away rather than wading out. Even though I got there early I was still about 100 people back and walked over the timing mat and still had to wait behind people easing their way in. So if you are looking to post a fast time I'd strongly suggest (a) getting there early and (b) making sure you're in the first 30-40 starters so as not to get held up too much after the timing mat, waiting to get in the water.
• Pick a Side - I chose to swim on the right (west) side with the sailing boats on it. This had the benefit that the boats were a lot more frequent than the buoys on the other side so keeping straight was relatively easy. It did have the downside of me almost going over a few anchor ropes, as on the day there was a south easterly breeze which pushed the boats further right and away from their anchors. So doing it again I'd probably leave 10m gap to the boats, but still swim on the right. There wasn't a discernible "short cut" by going either side. It's a straight line from shore to shore. Every 500m there were larger Buoys with distances written on them which also helped with pacing.
• Sighting - The south side of the Balaton is less hilly than the north, but just next to the swim finish at Balatonboglár, there are two large hills which I used to sight with. They were high enough that I didn't have to keep my head out of the water too long to spot them and stay on course. Depending on when you start you may have the sun in your eyes as you are swimming in a south/south easterly direction. So worth bringing tinted goggles just to help with the glare.
• The Finish - The southern side of the Balaton gets shallower earlier than the north, so you can stand up in knee height water about 200-300m from the end. Again, if you are going for a "fast" time and want to eek every advantage you can stand up and run the last 300m or so.
• (NOTE - the above "tips" are more for those trying to go for a "faster time". The majority of participants take the swim nice and chilled. Lots of breast strokers, lots of chatting/families doing it all together so all in all a very inclusive event no matter your goals)

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed it. I love a point to point swim rather than multiple laps or lots of turning. The lake itself and surrounding area is beautiful and well worth a visit and I'd recommend it to anyone, just with the caveat that unless you can be over there for a few weekends in a row, there is a chance it will get delayed beyond your trip. All in all a great experience and one I'll hopefully do again if I'm in the area at the right time! Any q's, let me know.