Swimming day 383 - Tuesday 6th December 2011

After a rather emotional and stressful day yesterday my stomach was somewhat topsy turvey last night, which in turn plays a little with the crones.  However it’s all a state of mind so all one has to do is refocus, get the mind back on the road to smiles and we are back in business!!

I was a little late getting up this morning which meant a rush to the beach, but I got there at 7.10am, which in these dark mornings is early enough.  Not many at the arch this morning, just six of us.  Four of them (little bob, martina, sean and paul) headed to the girly beach for one of Little Bobs micro swim, whilst Big Bob and I headed to our beach for a short swim west.  The sea was choppy again, but lighter than yesterday and the temperature was about 8.5 degrees.  We didn’t waste time getting in as we had to literally just run and dive to avoid being held back by waves.  Really it’s the best way of doing it, but it is a shock to the system.  It always gives my face the worst shock and it takes a good couple of minutes to become bearable.  The tide was mid change which meant it wasn’t pulling either way, so in terms of effort it was only a case of having to deal with the cold and the waves.  We stayed close to shore and headed to the west, reaching the end of the thistle hotel in about 9 minutes, then turned around and headed back in similar time.  The cold started to get to my breathing, but only as we reached shore.  In fact the most painful part of the swim was the walk up the beach to get our crocs back on; walking on the cold pebbles after a cold swim is extremely painful; I imagine it’s way worse than walking on hot coals.

Tomorrow we’ll probably to a similar swim as long as the weather allows; someone did say that the wind may pick up tonight though, so we shall see.

To our friend David, the oldest and bravest member of BSC, so sorry that you're unwell. Wishing you the speediest and safest of recovery.  David, even when unwell and immobile, remains an inspiration to me; to think I could do what he does at his age with his illness is almost inconceivable; a superman for sure.