The Great North Swim

So today was the day!!
We were set to do our mile swim in the white wave at 11am. Along with 250 others! Round the yellow bouys to the teeny red triangle buoy in the distance and back round the yellow buoys on the other side.
Somewhere amongst these white hats is Miss K and the fact that I'm stood on dry land taking the photo is an indication of my big fat failure to prepare for the event.
I'm so cross with myself. I could make excuses about my sore neck and swollen ankle but the truth is I didn't do any preparation.
I've had since September to train and yet have only been swimming a handful of times. I can swim half a mile without too much difficulty but have never done more and never in open water.
I was hoping it would motivate me to have an event to train for but apparently not......
I will be signing up again for next year and I WILL be ready for it.
On the plus side it was good to be able to experience the day without the trauma of actually getting in the water!
Miss K - who's always been sporty and athletic since our school days - does a few of these sort of events but she was still a tad nervous and unable to relax until it was over. She was anxious to get going this morning and we got to the start line at 8am - just in the nick of time for her 11am start!!!
It was great to watch some of the other waves go off - over 10,000 people take part over the three day event. We saw tweleve year olds setting off along with seventy nine year olds! All putting me to shame.
Miss K managed a fantastic time of thirty eight minutes. Amazing!!
Afterwards she was much more relaxed and we sat down for tea and had a wander round the stalls and the start and finish lines.
It was a really beautiful day, not at all as overcast as this photo makes it look.
A sunny day in the Lakes, what a treat!
We're going to bring the kids next year and spend a bit more time up here. They'll love it!
Miss E had her first karate grading this morning which I was sorry to miss. Mr K took lots of photos and video and it looked really sweet. She's officially a Blue Belt now!!
And - proud Mummy alert! - she's been given "challenging" books to read from school. Her teacher said she can cope with it and it doesn't matter at all if there are words she can't manage. Yesterday she read the whole thing right through to me and only got stuck on "stew".
I'm so happy that she loves her reading! It'll open up such magic for her.