Day 279 - Thursday 23rd June 2011

Sometimes life is all about perspective. This morning at the Arch I was chatting to a couple who have been sleeping outside the arch door for the last few days, this is an area of the beach that is shielded slightly from the weather. You get quite a lot of homeless people down that area as they have the covered over parts as well as under the pier itself; all offering some protection from the elements and not crazy busy like the middle of the city. Anyhow, I was chatting to this couple and they remarked that I must be “crazy” going into the sea in the morning, especially such a rough sea as it was today. There I was talking to a couple who have slept outside the entire night and for the last few nights at the very least, huddled together under inadequate blankets and subject to not only the elements but also to the dangers of sleeping outside in a sometimes dangerous city; and they think my lifestyle is crazy. Life is clearly all about perspective.

The sea today was rough again with large rolling waves that were breaking heavily at the shore. Getting in was easy enough, but our beach has a really deep shelf when the tide is in between going in and out (or out and in). When you come back in you have to really try to time it so that you either manage to land very close to the groin (hardly any shelf there) or you have to swim in as close as you can to the shore and then time the waves so you have a long enough break to stand up and then make a quick dash up the beach before a waves grabs you back in and spins you over. I somehow never seem to make it into the groin area, so on a day like today you have to be prepared that you might just get a bashing. I went in at about 6.50am and swam West against the tide to the Brighton Centre. It was a decent swim, quite tiring against the tide and the sea was yucky. There was foam all over the place and it was literally flying across the top of the sea like dirty bubble bath; nasty! The temperature was still under 14 degrees, 13.8 to be exact, which is still too low for this time of year.

My wrist, whilst still swollen, has stopped hurting, so tomorrow it will be another sea swim in the morning, following by a gym session after work and an hour in the pool on speed reps.