Part of the joy of outdoor swimming this summer/spring/autumn has been the accommodating air and water temperatures. That was blown out of the water (no pun intended) by today’s experience. A never-to-be-repeated one in all probability. It was cold and brief.
8 of us made the dip, including a couple from The Wild Ones who seem to swim a lot without wetsuits at this time of year. Hmm. Most of us were gloved a booted (Tracy B improvised with socks on her hands) and as we fumbled to get ready, Gordon and Amber looked on. Gordon was mid-run and wanted to see the pain for himself. I’m sure he had a smirk on his face. Once in, it was actually fine on the body, but the face was numbingly-cold. Front crawl had to be swapped with breaststroke when the ability to submerge one’s face became too much. We managed about 500 yards, in under a quarter hour and we got out as our bodies were tricking us into getting used to it. Then the shivering really began.
Were we in long enough to get the brown fat activated? Who knows, but we demolished bowls of soup in the Colinton Inn afterwards. A worthwhile experience if not much of a swim. Let’s park that until March at the earliest.
Happy Christmas all!
Mike Lynch