Day 7 in the Lake

The route! 1 mile is the full circuit...

Epic Swim minus two weeks (Sunday 30th June)- we had planned to do a mile in the lake with some other swimmers, this time getting in from the opposite side to where we normally swim. However, having driven past the lake from Patterdale that afternoon, and having experienced the wind all afternoon at the Ullswater Show and seen the size of the white horses on the waves, I messaged Mahiri and said 'Not on your Nelly!' Her reply was 'It might be windy on the day!' Me - 'I don't care - not getting in that!' Anyway, we decided that it was indeed too windy to go in without safety boats (thank the lord) and opted to go in on Monday instead, at 3.30pm.

I changed in to my costume at work, to spare my modesty at the lake, and was concerned I had a major VPL, as I had to dash to Aldi first. Half way to Aldi, Mhairi texted to say the lake was still very choppy, but as the wind was supposed to die down by 6pm, we decided to go later. Great. That meant trotting around Aldi in my cossie for nothing! I felt 10 years old again, and couldn't help wonder where my knickers were...

My man had left for Bridlington to work that morning at 3.30am, and I hadn't really gotten back off to sleep, so it was a struggle to keep going til 5.30pm. In fact, I didn't sit down. Prepared supper and pottered about, as I knew once I stopped that would be it. Swim over. I was talking my 15 year old son Nick into coming down to the lake with us, and we could take the dogs to have a play. You would honestly think I had asked him to chop his right arm off and eat it bit by bit the faces he pulled.

I intervened and asked his friend Olivia to come too, as he obviously wasn't capable of doing it on his own, so off we set, 2 swimmers, two teenagers and two dogs (Noah's Ark...?!), with a bribe of a can of coke for the kids afterwards - easy pleased!

After an initial kerfuffle of Flirt and Daisy not wanting to leave us, and running back along the shore before we'd even set off, Olivia and Nick managed to get them under control (of sorts). We did our usual route - red buoy, Waterside, red buoy, pink buoys and back around the boats and in. 0.7 miles in 22 minutes. Not bad going, and hardly any rest. I was goosed though, and felt the colour of our  mate the red buoy. My back was aching too. The suits are bouyant and I find my feet lift a little higher out of the water than usual, combined with 'sighting' (lifting your head to check you're not going off at a tangent) it makes me more 'banana' shape. More stretching on land me thinks.

Flirt and Daisy enjoy the lake!

That was enough for one night, I still had supper to make and it was 6.45pm by the time we got out and headed home. Thoroughly enjoyable, and had a lovely healthy supper to follow, paprika chicken, stuffed peppers, broccoli and sweetcorn. Mmmmm and zzzzzzzzz!I felt like I had been hit by a bus this morning - Mhairi must have turned the speed up last night! Today I got an email from the event organisers giving all the instructions we needed: briefing times, parking etc etc. The mile swim goes off at 12.30pm, with a deep water start from Glenridding. And it's a British theme - so I must bring a picnic and a Union Jack flag! Hoorah and Tally-ho!