*Being house-bound due to the snow, ill health (I thought winter swimmers did not get colds??) and duties around Christmas all conspired to keep me from swimming. After over a month out of the water it was a relief to be able to splash about again - even if I dont think I swam more than 20 metres.
The sea was not too rough, the sun was out, the wind was low and the sky was a beautiful deep blue. It would have been mad not to swim. I decided to sandwich the swim between a run and a cycle - hoping that overheating while running would keep me from feeling the effects of the water and cycling after would prevent me from seizing up. And it worked. I was so hot that the sea felt like a giant post sauna plunge pool. I could dive under the waves and splash about (and even swim a few metres) and apart from my hands which felt like they were doing time in an acid bath, I felt absolutely fine. And I did not even have my gloves and booties (bad planning, not masochism).
It was all over a bit fast - I did not want to get too cold as I still had the cycle ride to go - and I was dry and drinking tea within minutes but it was a great feeling to swim again. I must not let it get so long between swims again.
* I forgot my camera and the support team camera battery ran out before it could take a single shot. Instead, when I got home I took a picture of the sea glimpse we get from our temporary place in Brighton - it really is just a glimpse, bottom right of picture in case you missed it!
SW
And in other news... West Bay, 1.00
It goes entirely against our Health and Safety guidelines, but today, refusing to be beaten by circumstances and, even worse, the rest of the team, I decide I can't go on another moment without swimming - I have to swim alone. It's a beautiful, flawless day and there's only one way I know to make the most of a warm, clear January day a few miles from the sea… I choose 1 o'clock as the time most likely to get an empty beach (strange that in September and October I loved having a few people on the beach to impress – now, the sight of people looking on fills me with dread) and motor down singing the old hymn "…there's no discouragement/shall make him once relent/his first avowed intent/to be a pilgrim" to the Mascot. But it's not to be. We've been spoiled by deserted beaches through December and lulled into a sense of privacy… this first lovely day of 2011, a million, billion people have poked their noses out of their burrows and shuffled, blinking on to the beach. The car park is packed and the sands full of walkers and children swarming all over OUR BEACH. On top of that, the sea is brown and swollen, muddy waves crashing and swilling on to the beach. Circumstances, yet again, have beaten me. Damn it! If only we had a private beach. Or a little tarn. Or a lovely stretch of river….
Beaten, but not defeated (I'm swimming this month even if it kills me) I content myself with many, many happy swimming memories of 2010, my best ever swimming year... some of the best, incredible evening swims in May,
The stream above Wastwater
As well as the gorgeous swims featured on the blog... the early Autumn days
delicious snacks
delicious snacks
the snow swim, Dartmoor and the Sharrah Pool... and all the hysterical, joyous, everyday swims, each one totally and utterly perfect. Happy days.
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