The Great North Swim

Oh what a fabulous day! I woke up early and was feeling rather trepidatious. Jude and I whizzed up the M6 to Bowness where we were lucky with a parking spot. We joined the queue for the ferry to Brockhole in the sunshine, there were lots of lovely people we chatted to. The atmosphere in Brockhole was great and the organisation was excellent. There will have been ten thousand swimmers there by the end of tomorrow. Olympic open water swimmer Keri-anne Payne was there to motivate and encourage every wave that entered the water. (We all felt like olympians by the end of it)

Once I had my wetsuit on and we entered the water to acclimatise I was buzzing and ready to go. We had to pick our way over stones to enter the water but then it was glorious.....nineteen point five degrees...

I enjoyed every stroke, every wave, the view, the company....everything. I had wobbly legs as I got out of the water and then with the stones I had to walk over to get out I lost about thirty seconds before I crossed the line with my time chip. I still beat my time from the Manchester swim though and did it in 45mins and 27 seconds.

There were people in turquoise t-shirts everywhere and we all shared that smug 'we did it' grin as we passed each other. We had a celebratory ice cream and then caught the ferry back to Bowness. I drove us home and now it has all caught up with me and I am shattered. 

Roll on the next swim in July.....The Henley Mile!!!