As you can see from the title this was a deviation from my normal race and was in the water rather than on land. I used to be a competitive swimmer when I was in my teens usually having a gala each weekend during term time so I still am a fan of making a splash in the water.
However; my training of the aquatic variety was not very good this year. I had done three training swims ahead of the London triathlon but as the last blog post revealed I was then unable to train in any shape or form due to the lovely cyst I had "drained" so it meant I was heading to the Lake District for the Great North Swim with only three training sessions under my belt.
Oh well; I wasn't going to be competitive and just wanted to complete the race and have fun. I love the Lake District and being up there was absolutely beautiful. My new favourite place was Buttermere which I discovered the day after the race; however Winderemere was definitely a nice surrounding to be swimming in.
The night before the race I deviated from my normal schedule and had a glass of wine. I know...how rebellious is that? I did carb up as it was an early start for the race itself.
The Great North Swim was split over three days and during that time there were 10,000 people taking part. I had no idea it was going to be that big!
Getting to the start was fun and despite me having forgotten to bring a towel and flip flops (to get to the start once I had changed) there were plenty of stalls for me to pick some up and pretend that I knew what I was doing!
There were different waves of competitors every 30 minutes and I was in the pink wave...are they trying to tell me something? With me wet-suit and fuchsia swimming cap firmly on I made my way to the starting pen. We all had to acclimatize by doing a small lap in the lake which wasn't chilly but did hurt when coming out of the lake across all those rocks! A nice surprise though was that Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington was on the sideline waiting to see us off on our race (plus she was at the finish line too...see pictures later!)
Whilst waiting for the start I could hear over the PA. that some of the fast swimmers from previous waves were finishing already and was astounded when I heard that a 12 year old had finished the half a mile race in just 12 minutes! There was no way I would be doing my mile swim at that pace so I decided it would be best for me to leave the front of the field open for the under thirteens.
We were soon on our way and it felt great swimming in such a clean fresh lake. We were crossing the lake and turning back on ourselves to finish pretty much next to where we set off. It did go surprisingly quickly and I didn't feel crammed in at all as the swimmers from our wave were pretty spread out. The hardest part is keeping an eye on your route to ensure that you don't go of course or accidentally pass through one of the markers on the inside which would mean disqualification.
But doing the odd second of breaststroke ensured that I stayed on track and finished in a time of 29 minutes 24 seconds which placed me 396th which was not bad at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it and despite feeling wobbly for my first few steps out of the water would absolutely do it again. I hear there is a Great Scottish Swim in Loch Lomond so that may need to be added to the agenda for next year....anyone fancy joining?
Gathering in our pen:
Pink hats on and at the ready:
Goggles...check:
Looks like we are surrendering but it's actually just our group warm up stretch:
Go!
The first stretch in a wonderful setting:
Me / the lone swimmer:
Me and Becky Adlington at the finish (how dare she not look at the camera eh?!)
and already starting to undress in front of her....
Finished!
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