It's a long way up Windermere ***LONG POST ALERT***
After months of training my Windermere One Way swim was just on the other side of taper week! Well I can’t say I was a fan of that week. I just wanted to swim, I felt sluggish and tired and when I did dip in the pool on a very hot August bank holiday Monday I decided I had a shoulder issue and that I was not going to achieve the swim at all….it was of course a fake ache but all the same I booked myself in for a massage and that did the magic trick!
On the Friday I packed up my kit back, I was travelling to The Lakes by train and so pretty much everything I was taking had to fit into my Blue Seventy rucksack and a cool bag. Not only was I taking swimming kit but also some of the now tried and tested nutrition choices – this included the now preferred Morrisons’ jelly babies and the Sainsburys chipolatas together with carefully weighed out risotto rice for the night before the swim and some home-made chilli for when I arrived in the Lakes. So quite a bag full of varied items!
On arriving at Oxenhulme station the following day I was met by the young lady from Enterprise car hire who generously waived the additional driver fee on the hire car once she heard I was swimming for two charities: Above & Beyond Cancer Foundation and the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity.
I headed over to Windermere, calling in at Booths to get the other required provisions which included mushrooms and chicken for the risotto, dips and tortilla chips to go with the chilli, a bottle of fizz and some mars bar bites amongst other things. Having dropped bags and shopping at the house I’d rented at the Windermere Marina Village I drove myself down to Fell Foot to check out the start point. The Lake just looked stunning, the sun was shining and there was literally no wind at all – perfect conditions; I could have got in there and then. I chatted to an old guy who was tidying his boat after a day pootling on the water and he was telling me stories of other swimmers; he wished me luck and then I drove back to Bowness on Windermere and had a look at my lake from there….still the water was still, and still just stunning to look at.
The next morning, I took myself to the Macdonald Hotel and had a 1000m swim in the pool, just to be sure everything was working ok…and it was and at this point it became real because the next time I would be swimming it really would be to take on Windermere. Later that morning I collected Geri from the station and we headed to Ambleside to the Wateredge Inn and had a carb fuelled lunch before checking out the length of the Lake for one last time. A quiet evening at the house watching Sunday night TV and enjoying just the one glass of wine with the risotto.
Sunday saw us up around 6.00am for a bowl of porridge; the absolute fuel of endurance swimming and given my sleep that night had not been the best; we can put that down to excitement, I needed all the fuel I could get. Arriving at Fell Foot we followed Pete from Swim the Lakes the wrong way over the cattle grid at the car park so that we could get an early start and started loading up the kayak with the in swim buffet and the sponsors sheet so that Pete could tell me who I was swimming which kilometre for – this was all to help with the mind over matter stuff; something different to focus on.
Whilst nibbling on a Mars bar – just for a final energy boost Pete and I agreed on an hourly feed strategy and he talked me through the few hand signals I needed to know if he needed to attract my attention; there was one to stop its time to eat, one to come closer to the kayak, one to swim behind the kayak and one to stop there is a danger! Then that was it, time to hug Geri and then step into Windermere. A much greyer day but still the water was calm and the expected wind actually had the potential to be a helpful south westerly; and never having really understood wind direction before I certainly knew the winds I did and didn’t want for this swim.
Pete and Geri were in radio and phone contact so that if there was any chance for her to spot me up the lake then that could happen. A quick wave for the camera and I was off…steady paced through the moored boats at Fell Foot and ahead of me just water and lots of it. Now this stunning stretch of water, the longest in England don’t you know, is full of stunning sights which provided some distraction for the thoughts of just keep swimming that were going through my head. After an hour Pete raised his hand and I came alongside the kayak treading water and taking on some drink and a peanut butter thin! Encouragingly Pete tells me I’ve completed 3km in the hour – I’m chuffed with this and even from here I’m starting to think I can do this and I can do it under my 7-hour target.
From hereon I switched on the Finis Duo and swam to some tunes and again was playing spot some landmarks- onwards and onwards I swam sighting on something close for the regularity of achievement and something far for the perspective. Next stop saw me on the chipolatas; it’s so true that different savoury tastes were a winner and although I am not a fan I can understand why people go for mini pork pies and alike as an option!!
As we made it to Bowness, earlier than anticipated Pete had called Geri who had just made it back from her swim coaching and although she raced to see us I found out later that she just missed the opportunity to jump on the ferry – however there was someone on the ferry wearing the same colour coat so I thought it was her and that she was waving me on.
Pete warned me that the next few kilometres would be tough; it was like no mans land and we were now just over half way up the lake; so around the 9km mark and he was right the next 3kms were pretty much hell – there was just water, nothing really ahead to focus on, just a never-ending expanse of water. The only highlight of this was the Chinese tourists on one of the leisure ferries waving at us; I could just about see them, and Pete told me afterwards they were taking photos – given I was the only person swimming the lake that day I am sure my story was told a few times.
When Pete tells me we are at 12km I opt for some Mars bar bites and we agree 45 minute feeds from here to the end…so with 5km to go that would give me two more feeds before the finish. At this point I know I really have this – 5km that’s under two hours and is simply my “short” long swim distance and I’ve got this – I can see Low Wood Bay so I can really get some perspective on where I am in the water and where that Ambleside “beach” is!
At this point I’m happily listening to a Simon May Confessions Podcast and trying not to laugh out loud and take on board too much lake water. We make it to the next feed and I’m saying to Pete that Low Wood Bay seems to be going on for ever – he tells me not to focus on it and that every stroke now is taking me to the end. With that we head off again, but the battery has now died on the music and I am back to my own thoughts and I find myself thinking about all sorts of stuff, my mum, my dad, my family and friends, my motivation, the chaffing on the back of my neck which I’d been trying really hard to ignore but I just know is going to be so very sore. 45 minutes with this jumble of stuff and I’m ready for a few words of conversation and some jelly babies. As I’m treading water and chatting we are treated to a helicopter fly-pass; I like to think that Pete has laid this on for me especially and he is happy to take credit for that.
We have a tactic talk – well Pete talks me through the tactics from here because I can now pretty much see the end of the Lake. He has called Geri and said that we are nearly there, about 30 minutes earlier than expected. We have the YHA in sight and with about 10 minutes to go Pete will stop me one final time to take on a final few jelly babies so that I can tank it to the finish; who the hell is he kidding – I have maintained a steady 2.6/2.7km per hour for the last 5 hours and I’m happy to finish like that.
So off we head for the final stretch and before I know it’s our final jelly baby feed and the end is all mine and I’m well under my 7 hour target time -the photos Pete takes in this last 500 meters I am sure that you can actually see me smiling, with the YHA behind me all that is left is to swim onto the beach at Ambleside, I’m there, I’ve only gone and bloody well done it – I’ve swum 10.5 miles or 17km or 17000m in 6 hours and 35 minutes. Now for me this is where the human body is full of its own kind of magic – not only did it propel itself horizontally in water for all that time, with only about 6 minutes of being vertical it then enabled me to walk out of the water, with only a little holding on to the jetty required.
There are some photos here which will never be shared but I look like my face has taken a beating- those goggles didn’t move for over 6 hours and more importantly they didn’t steam up or leak either, I’m keen to slosh out my wetsuit – I have of course been peeing up the lake too and no one wants to be around when that comes out the feet holes! Geri is there with a hug and bottle of Lanson – what a friend she is; we all share in this fizz; it’s been a team effort. Standing on the pavement wrapped up in my Dryrobe and with my wetsuit at half-mast we get some amused looks from passers-by; Pete then pulls out a second bottle of fizz and we make light work of that too!
It’s about now I realise that the wetsuit rash is going to be bad as there is a burning sensation around my neck; I’m already not looking forward to the shower! Geri drives us back to Fell Foot Park where we reunite Pete with his car and unload the remains of the on-board buffet. More hugs, comments of what next and we are done. Pete heads off back to Ambleside and Geri and I head back to the marina village. The wetsuit gets the first bath and I take a super quick shower, the water on my neck stinging like mad!
Time to tell the world I’ve only gone and done it, drink some wine, head for some dinner, catch up with Charlie, let Rosie and Mark know that their training plans had done the job, speak to Matt in Australia and I’m euphoric, too elated to consider sleeping and yet exhausted at the same time.
Eventually bed is calling and I’m ready to oblige right until I try and lay down on my back; my shoulder blades ache so much that I have to wriggle around and prop myself up in an odd position on the pillows; I rest, I can’t say I slept much, but I did rest until daylight.
Waking up that Tuesday morning knowing that what I’d spent months training for had now been achieved left me with mixed emotions – a huge sense of achievement of course and yet a real sense of empty too. We had wisely booked some spa treatments before the train journey back to London and I totally relaxed into the hot stones massage – the warmth on those shoulders was just what was needed.
I’m lucky, I had such a great opportunity to go and do something that in my eyes was bloody awesome and two years previous had been totally out of my league; I loved it, raised loads of money for charity and would do it again in a heartbeat. So, to finish I know people have heard me say this – go find your thing then go do your thing -it’s only you that stands between you and your very own WOW. #wow #windermereoneway #findyourthing #lovetoswim
