Barry looking cold
Scary. Exciting. Exhilarating.
Having never done any real open water swimming before I decided to plunge right in (get it) and try 1 mile on Lake Windermere. I have always been a decent swimmer and my preparations in terms of fitness were OK with mile times in the 23 minutes region. However, this does not prepare you for the event itself. The water sat at 16.3 degrees which was not as cold as it could be but enough to have you gasping for breath once fully immersed. Add to this the fact that there are 350 of you piling in at once and you realise that getting any kind of normal rythm is completely out of the question!
My short sleeved swim suit was the only on there which had me nervous before even starting as everyone else looked nice and warm. After five minutes my arms felt dead and heavy and breaststroke was made more difficult because the suit was making your body float more than usual, making me have to lift my head up more. I usually do front crawl but my breathing was all over and my head would not stay in the water without reflexes just whipping it back out again.
After nearly half the swim done I realised I was not going to die and forced myself to sort the swimming out and go for it. Forcing air out steadily through my nose and and breathing easily once out of the chaos of the start I managed to pick the pace up and had a great second half to the swim. What started as a bit of a panic turned into a great all round event. I hope I can do it next year as I reckon I could knock a full 10 minutes off my time of 40 minutes just by knowing what to expect.
A years worth of training coming up……..
