Hey Sweeties,
As the end of the Christmas break is coming to it’s sad end (I’m so not ready to go back to work yet!), I thought it was time I got back to the blog and figured telling you about my Christmas Day swim across Weymouth Harbour would be a good start.
So, anticipating your questions, basically back in 2013 when I last spent Christmas with my in-laws in Weymouth, we were in town on Christmas Day when I first saw people swimming across the harbour. Now, some of you may or may not know that I love a challenge (remember the Yorkshire Three Peaks and the XRunner Water Wipeout Challenge?) -for me challenges provide a focus, a goal and something to work towards.
For two years I have been saying I will swim across Weymouth Harbour and then a couple of weeks ago, my confidence wavered and I thought that actually, maybe it’s not such a good idea after all. I don’t like the sea, I’m not a strong swimmer, and making the family get up on Christmas morning just to watch me swim would be a bit pointless. But I knew I couldn’t do that, I said I would swim so I bit the bullet and registered, deciding also to see if I could gain some sponsorship for Independent Age for my efforts.
The sponsorship surprised me, I set a small goal of £50 but in the end I have raised £120 as friends and family really got behind me and the swim so a huge thank you to them! I would like the say it made my legs kick harder and me to swim faster, but the water was so cold my body started to stiffen in shock soon after I plunged in!
Official photographs courtesy of Dorsetbays Photography
Without going into every detail, the water was freezing cold and even though that’s expected, I don’t think you can quite prepare for it. Lining up along the pontoon when my band colour was called, as soon as “one” was shouted in the countdown, I enthusiastically jumped into Weymouth harbour. I started by swimming in a front crawl style stroke, but soon my arms got too heavy to lift so I swam the rest of the way using breast stroke. My breathing was very short and my pace slow, but I still finished at the back of the middle lot of swimmers so not a bad effort at all. I’m really pleased I decided to enter in the non-competitive family swim rather than the women’s competitive group.
The picture above of me smiling, is just as I was out the water and it was short lived before I got very overwhelmed and burst into tears. I have never welcomed a hot cup of coffee and a hot bath so much! Safe to say, I’m really proud of myself for overcoming some fears and raising some money for Independent Age, but I won’t be swimming across Weymouth Harbour again!
Have you done anything challenging?
A big thank you to Independent Age for supplying me with a fleece and a t-shirt!
Until next time x
Oh wow, well done! I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to do that kind of swim aha!
Author 10th January 2017 / 10:56 pm
To be honest I never thought I was brave enough either, ha! But I can’t resist a challenge if I see one 🙂