Day 235 - Tuesday 19th April 2011

Back in the sea today after too many days away from it.


After our large dinner party last night we still managed to get to bed before midnight, which was a relief. Also the kiddies were up until past 10pm, so that guaranteed no visitors at all during the night – maybe that should be the plan of action going forward!!! I was down at the Arch before 7am and all alone; only Leo was there about to get ready to go in as I marched down the beach with purpose. The sea was very shallow today, so much so that I was still walking when I reach the silver ball half way down the pier; the water was up to my shoulders at that point but I wanted to see how far out I could walk (or subconsciously I maybe fancied walking rather than swimming today!). As the sea temperature was averaging 9.1 degrees it was cold rather than painful, certainly an improvement there. Once the water was above my shoulders it was time to bring in the arm movement, raise my body to its flat position, start kicking the legs and do the thing I now consider my daily routine; swim. I carried on heading out to the end of the pier, went around the big yellow buoy that has turned up about 50 meters passed the end of the pier, swam around anti clockwise against a weakish tide, back down the other side, through the pier under the silver buoy and was standing again in no time at all. By this time, some 22 minutes from first walking in I was surrounded by eight BSC members all enjoying the blue sky, shallow sea and raising temperatures. If only I’d not planned an 8am meeting at the office I would have hung out a bit longer with them. On a day like today it really is a joy to be out there; a tad warmer would work of course, but still it is a pleasure.

This afternoon, after work, I’ll be popping on my running clothes and heading from the office down to the seafront for a run on flat ground for a change. I need to get back to running at least once a week now and being on the seafront from work really takes away any excuses not to. A run from the office to the Marina and back is probably about 8 miles I would guess? Currently my shoulders, neck and upper back are aching from the Sunday workouts and the big swim yesterday, but hopefully a long flat run with deal with that. Then tomorrow it’s back to Falmer for another pool swim; 3 hrs probably.

One thing to mention is that on 11th May, my 42 birthday (looking and feeling 42 at the moment with all these aches), I will be swimming with the Sharks at the Brighton Sealife Centre as a fundraiser. That’s definitely a first for me! Hopefully the sharks will already have had their pilchards for breakfast and won’t be interested in my skinny legs! It should be a good fun event as a number of businesses and supporters of the Trust will be there as well as local and national press. Also it should be a chance for not only more awareness but some actual fundraising; in fact I believe some companies and individuals have already said they will sponsor me on this day. We are now already just over £35,000 towards our £100,000, so fantastic so far but still a HUGE way to go.