4 hour lake swim (finally) DONE!

After two failed attempts at a four hour swim - the first, lasted only three long cold hours, before I called it a day and retreated to the warm showers, and my second was cut short (by two hours), thanks to my wetsuit, which for some unknown reason (I say unknown, but in reality, it could be thanks to my newly acquired fat neck that has appeared due to the excessive ‘carbing up’ I had been doing recently) had started to rub really badly on my neck, causing discomfort not dissimilar to that of how I imagine it to feel if a blunt razor were being run across it continuously for… let’s say two hours, anyway, I digress - I desperately needed to get this elusive four hour open water swim done in order to stay on track with my training plan, and today was going to be that day…

Leon (SwimYourSwim) had very kindly offered to support me, and in return to say thanks, I gave him one of my legendary sugar free cup-cakes. I didn’t reveal to him that it was sugar free, but I also bought him a huge cup of tea to help wash it down, and believe me, he was going to need every single drop of it! I had also packed one for myself in my massive food supply bag, but I knew that it was unlikely that I would eat it. Not on the back of the fact that I had so many other food to eat, but basically, because was horrid! 

We agreed to meet at three, and even I could work out that swimming until eight was actually five hours, however Leon, who clearly knew me far too well, told me he had added extra time for “faffing about” and “talking the hind legs off a donkey.” I would have been rather indignant at that, but he did have a point. That was exactly what I did, and forty-five minutes after I arrived, I finally got in (I would like to add here that Leon was fifty percent responsible for the talking side of things, and probably only ten of that was discussing strategy, food stops, and very important swimming stuff. The rest was spent discussing the merits of sugar free cupcakes (and as far as Leon knew, this was just a normal random conversation, rather than because he was eating one). This took us some time as we were struggling between us to find any to be honest, hence the length of time talking rather than swimming... 

As I got in, mindful of the many, many swans that lined the shoreline, it dawned on me that I would be the only swimmer in the lake for at least a couple of hours, which I admit made me very nervous. Leon reminded me that the only creatures in the lake were juvenile goldfish and a few sprats, and told me that the swans on this lake were absolutely NOT related to my nemesis swan at Windermere, and also that if I had a problem, he would be with me in the boat within a minute. I was marginally reassured, and knew that if I didn’t get into the lake soon, I would be in danger of not achieving four hours again. And this was absolutely not happening.

The first hour passed without incident, until I came in for my first feed. I was approaching the shoreline when I saw, very, very close up, the mother of all fishes. I was not sure who was more shocked, me or it, and in my haste to flee the scene, almost gave myself a hernia. A very inelegant, frantic exit followed, where I pretty much launched myself out of the lake at a hundred miles an hour. I was relieved that there was only Leon there. Leon oh, and several passers-by, who laughed at the commotion, whilst offering me no help whatsoever in my hour of need. I insisted on explaining to Leon, as I wolfed down my snack, how the fish looked, including length, markings, size of mouth, and deduced from my own extensive research, that it was definitely either a giant catfish or a crocodile. After an elaborate eye roll, Leon assured me that it was neither, and informed me that if it was a giant catfish it would be unlikely that there would be any birds on the lake, and probably not a lot in it either. I had read (to keep my research of aquatic livestock right up to date) that giant catfish had, in the past, been known to attack humans, but Leon also told me that for this to actually happen in the first place you had to be in the same lake as one, and also very unlucky… and as for it being a crocodile? He was ruling that out too based on the absence of any legs. He told me it was most definitely a pike I had seen, and after weighing up my odds, and as much as I was terrified of pike (and absolutely everything else in the water), I decided that I would much rather take my chances with the pike than the other two (and I really cannot believe I said that)!

As I set off again, I noticed that there were many swans on the lake, which on one hand put my mind at rest regarding the absence of any giant catfish, however despite feeling grateful to see them, was still very cautious around them and decided to continue to avoid any eye contact or do anything that they may consider confrontational (apart from being in the lake in the first place that was… ) but I did have a swim to complete, so I decided that I would avoid swimming anywhere near where they were, which meant going a little off course more than once when I had to swim around the inside of one of the buoys that the swans seemed intent on flocking to, and hovering around for no apparent reason whatsoever, aside from sheer devilment, I concluded. Going round the inside of a buoy was not illegal in any way, it was noticed though, and on my next stop Leon pointed out to me that there was no shortcuts when swimming Windermere… it was pretty much as the crow flies already, and although I told him I was not cutting corners to cheat, but rather because being at a swam beak height and all, I was at high risk of having my eyes pecked out, he countered that it would have been a valid one had I not been wearing goggles… 

I was swimming really well, I had found my rhythm, and felt relaxed (small wetsuit issue aside – not rubbing round the neck this time, but randomly under my right arm?!?). This was with the exception of one particular spot at the far end of the reservoir, at probably the furthest point away from Leon and the safety boat. This spot was where the rocks under the water just dropped away into what could only be described as an abyss. My overactive imagination had me believing that would be the exact point that if there was a megoladon in the lake, that was where it would appear, and so because of this, I decided that the best way to overcome these outlandish thoughts was to approach the aforementioned danger zone at my normal pace, and then swim like the clappers whilst doing heads up front crawl until I was in the deeper water. Heads up. Because If I were to be eaten by any such creature, then I’d rather be completely oblivious beforehand. Unfortunately it took me until I was on the thirteenth lap of thirteen to I realise that if I swam at a slightly different angle towards said area from the previous buoy, the water stayed too deep for me to see the bottom at all, thus avoiding the drop all together and an elevated heart and stroke rate… The only silver lining from this, was that Garmin informed me once I was out that I had broken the course record during this section of the lake thirteen times consecutively! 

The second hour also went without incident, if you excluded the ‘seeing a twig and swimming away from it at world record breaking speed’ episode and then once again as I was getting out to have some food, I once again saw a humongous fish on the shoreline. To be honest, at first I did think it was a crocodile, as it was, well crocodile coloured, and once again nearly broke my neck trying to get away from it. Leon assured me that it was likely to be the same one as earlier, and there was nothing in the lake that would harm me. Leon had been known to lie before… Like when he told me there was only goldfish and sprats in the lake, for example…   

I was onto my last food stop, and decided to treat myself to the sugar free cupcake I had been thinking about none stop since I got in (not really) that I had packed myself as a special treat. Usually when I bake at home, everything would have been eaten within minutes and never made it to the lakeside, however these delicious and highly nutritious pieces of gourmet heaven had not been all that popular, and there were many, many left still at home. As I tucked into it, cupcake in one hand, large bottle of water to swill it down with in the other, as I expected it just crumbled and went everywhere. Most of it ending up on the floor, rather than in my mouth, which in itself was hard to miss, but miss I did. I didn’t want to leave the crumbs on the floor, as I was aware that the birds would eat anything, and from a purely environmental point of view, my cake was not good for them, or the lake, or indeed any human I feared, and after collecting up any larger bits, there were only (a million) tiny bits left.

Finally, I was onto the last lap, and as I finally came around the last buoy, many, many swans took to the air (fine by me), and in formation (can you call them a skein of swans)? I stopped for a few seconds to admire the view. In the air they were quite something, and then they, all gazillion of them, landed at the exit to the lake. I initially was quite touched as I thought this was to welcome me back after completing my four hour swim, but unfortunately it wasn’t. They were actually headed to where I spilt the crumbs, which meant, because there was absolutely no way I was going to get out of the lake into the middle of some swans feeding - even if it was on nasty cake crumbs, to get out (which incidentally, it looked like they couldn’t get enough of), which meant that I needed to swim an extra (small) loop whilst I waited for them to finish, Suffice to say, that by the time I had got out, I had decided that there was no way that sugar free cupcakes would even make the short list for Windermere, on account that whilst to humans they tasted awful, the swans couldn't get enough, and there was no way I was encouraging anything to be near me in the water, and the extra bit of swimming added on a few extra seconds to my swim taking it up 4:01:24… and whilst I wouldn’t say this exceeded my time, it was four hours (finally) DONE! 

One last note, you can also follow my progress on YouTube, where I do a vlog, and I post (usually) daily updates on Twitter, Instagram and on my Facebook page Open Water Woman. And for those of you that would like to read more about my Windermere one way swim in 2017, my book Open Water Woman Swims Windermere is available on Amazon.

Here are the links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcGjwT2ZHjUVgSkvkjgy2Dg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Open-Water-Woman-Swims-Windermere/dp/1980614660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546178539&sr=8-1&keywords=open+water+woman+swims+windermere

First open water mile of the year - Done!

Every week for the last month I had planned to swim a mile in the open water, and every week for the last month, for one reason or another, I still hadn’t managed it. I was all too aware that the six hour qualifying swim Coach had entered me for was coming up in a matter of weeks, and what little time I actually had spent in the open water swimming so far, was not enough, to put my mind at rest, that I would manage to stay in anywhere near as long as I needed to (I had planned on four hours). Regardless of any reasons why I hadn't achieved any great distance, or time in the open water so far, Coach told me it was really important to swim the qualifier as part of my training plan. Basically, I would be swimming. He also warned me in advance that excuses I may think of coming up with to not do it, like an inland lake sea fret, freshwater shark sighting or a bad CBA attitude were not going to be accepted! As if I would think of any so far in advance, I've just never been that organised!

As fortune had it, the forecast today (and the whole weekend as it went) was hot, hot, hot! The sun was out, and the water temperature was improving. I did have some very high hopes of it reaching tropical temperatures in time for my swim, but unfortunately wishful thinking alone did not help to elevate the temperatures into the twenties, it was a good way off at 12.1oc. Nonetheless, it was a good 2oc warmer than last week. It was warming nicely, which at this rate, by my calculation, meant by the time the qualifying swim came around, I probably would be better dressed in a bikini rather than a wetsuit. I would have everything crossed for this to actually be the case. As this unfortunately wasn't the case today, I opted to wear everything I could to give me some extra insulation, including rash vest and socks, because after a chat with Leon (SYS), it was decided that I really needed to be staying in the lake and swimming for a full hour, and would benefit from the bit of extra insulation they would offer... which also happened to take forever to get everything on, so at least doing a longer swim would make all the effort worth while.

I asked Leon to not let me out before the hour was up unless I was either showing sign of hypothermia, or he saw me approaching the shoreline at neck breaking speed, which was the sign that I was being pursued by a huge shoal of giant limb eating fish, or my nemesis swan, and in either case, he was not only to let me out (and quickly), but he was to actually throw himself in the path of the pursuing wildlife, selflessly sparing his own life for me, if it came to it. 

The swim wasn’t about speed, it was about time spent in the water, and so had planned to swim very much at a more stately pace than usual around the larger lap (800m), which was open for the first time this year. I admit I was feeling a little nervous. Don’t get me wrong, I was perfectly capable of swimming the distance, but as of yet hadn’t actually swam more than 1,000m in the lake this year due to the lower water temperatures (and partly due to an over active imagination), and I’ll be honest, the thought of swimming round the large lap on my own, despite the several other swimmers already being in, was worrying me. Not from a safety point of view, as I could see the several spotters on the side, and the safety boat was on the water, but more because there was some debris on and in the water from the recent rain, and usually I would be swimming with my swim buddy Shark – really, really closely, and she usually calmed me down during swims where I may encounter objects during our swims, and if there was an actual real fish of any significant size (by which I mean bigger than a finger nail), Shark would too swim at neck breaking speed to get away. If she did this, that was my cue, and I was right with her, or slightly ahead, if she wasn’t too fast in her getaway! Unfortunately, Shark was unable to make it today, as she had (yet another) prior engagement that was happening between 8 and 10 on a Saturday morning, the exact same time that the lake was open for swimming…  I called B.S, and told her that I thought it was all very coincidental that when I’ve asked her to come to the lake (every Saturday morning since February), her diary happened to be busier than our Prime Ministers. Whilst she claimed this was sheer fluke, she assured me that her diary would definitely be much quieter once the water temperature started with a number 2 and was in double figures…

It was unusual for me to get in without something happening. Getting in usually involved endless faffing about, stubbing a toe, seeing a tadpole blocking my entry or tripping up (followed by falling in), but today I was unexpectedly seamless. I felt rather smug and set off on my first big loop of the year feeling hopeful that it would be incident free… and it was, and despite my hands being a bit chilly, I opted to do a second loop, followed by a third, and then a small lap. It was on the third lap that I had a small panic moment when I swam face first (obviously) into a brown leafy looking object, and in the frenzy that followed, managed to dislodge my goggles and swallow a nasty mouthful of cold water. Once I had repositioned them and calmed down, on closer inspection, the brown leafy looking object turned out to be an actual brown leaf. In my defence, it was huge and very close up, it was sort of fish shaped…

As I approached the shoreline, I felt quite jubilant, because despite the leaf incident, the upshot was that I had swam 3 big loops and 1 small one, without my swim buddy, and without needing to use the safety boat. I’d like to add here, in the interest of honesty, I noticed that the safety boat did suddenly appear in the very near vicinity mid leaf attack, but obviously realised I wasn’t in any immediate danger from it, and left me to it, for which I was quite grateful really. I’d have felt like a bit of a berk if I’d been rescued! Anyhow, I did indeed swim a mile and some, in fact I swam a total of 2,706 metres in a time of 58 minutes and 24 seconds, and although Leon didn’t check on how long I had been in, I took the liberty of rounding it up to an hour regardless.

The lake at Hatfield looking its best

My elevated spirits lasted right up until I got into the shower. I felt less elevated when the warm water hit my neck and I realised that a lot of my neck and jaw were very sore and very, very red, and all thanks to my wetsuit, because although I had prepared for the cold, I hadn't prepared for my wetsuit to rub (This was not a new thing for me. Happened a lot). For some unknown reason I hadn't put on some essential Glide, which some, and I include myself in this, may consider a rookie error, and completely stupid, because as a result of it, now I would need to spend the rest of this scorching hot weekend wearing a scarf, to cover up the marks that could so easily be mistaken for something else…