My first Open Water Swim!

Today I swam for the very first time in open water!

I enrolled on an "Introduction to Open Water Swimming" course 
with a company called "Active Blu" to gain the skills and knowledge needed to survive my "Great North Swim" challenge in a few weeks time!

The course started at 9.30am and was based at Brockhole on the shores of Lake Windermere.  

I am very fortunate to live just a 30 minutes drive from this idyllic location and I arrived bright and early feeling extremely nervous and apprehensive! 

The weather forecast hadn't looked good but the good fortune gods must have been looking down on me as it was infact a bright and sunny morning! I don't think I could have coped with a choppy lake in the rain!

There was just 6 of us in the group and very surprisingly we were all females!

Emma, the coach from Active Blu leading the course started off telling us what we would hopefully gain from the experience and the itinerary for the morning.  Just as she was getting into the flow of things the fire alarm went off!  

Emma was unaware of any alarm checks being carried out so we had to vacate the premises!  Once we had trudged down all the stairs to assemble outside we were informed that it had just been an alarm check and they had forgotten to tell us ... this did absolutely nothing for the nerves!

So back up the stairs we went and we were then asked to introduce ourselves and say what we hoped to learn and how we felt about OW swimming!

Once all the introductions had been done and our anxieties shared it was time to struggle into our wetsuits!  

As I don't have my own I was borrowing one for the course from Emma.  She gave me an extra small men's to try and it was a perfect fit although slightly difficult to get into when you don't really know what you are doing!

Once were were all togged up we set off down to the lake shore! I don't think I have ever felt more scared in my life!  

I am in the purple hat - my face says it all!

What was I doing and more to the point why?! 

Emma explained that the water temperature was around 13C and therefore it would feel exceptionally cold!

We started off by paddling in up to our knees before splashing our hands in the water and dripping water over our necks and face to get accustomed to the temperature.  

The bed of the lake was extremely rocky and very difficult to walk on so it was easier just to get in the water and swim rather than staggering around getting sore feet!

I braced myself and sunk down into the water before starting to swim.  The water obviously WAS cold, but I didn't get the "take your breath away" feeling I had anticipated.

All week I had truly prepared myself for torture so the reality wasn't too bad!

We did a few floating and sinking exercises to show us that our wetsuits wouldn't let us sink even when we wanted to!  

Then it was onto the real stuff - swimming!

I could feel the nerves starting to get the better of me and my breathing started to become laboured so I had to really focus on my stroke to try and remain calm!  

Once I stopped thinking so much it all became a lot easier!

We practised open water skills 
such as sighting, "pack swimming" and drafting!  

On the day I will be happy just to swim!


We spent about 50 minutes in the lake and I didn't feel cold at all until I got out!  My fingers and toes were shockingly white but once I got into the hot shower and had struggled out of my wet suit I was OK!

I expected to spend the rest of the day shivering but once I was dressed (in many layers!) I very quickly warmed up!

So I survived my first Open Water swim!

I am going to another training session on Thursday evening - I need all the practise I can get before the BIG event!

Tomorrow I have Liverpool Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon!  I think I must have used up my quart of nerves this morning because I feel very chilled and relaxed about tomorrow's race!

After all, there is no reason to panic ... it's dead easy to breath whilst running and you can't drown!