Sunday 2 May 2010

Suffolk Open Water Swiming Training Session 2 - Felixstowe, May 02, 2010

Above: Triathlete Nathan Pittam and 2011 English Channel Aspirant Tracy Van Dyke prior to entering the North Sea for the first time on Sunday May 02, 2010.

At about 2am this morning, I got out of bed and put 9 month old Luca into my bed and went to the spare bedroom. He is not sleeping well at the moment. At 6am, I gave Beccy a well deserved rest and took him downstairs to give him breakfast. At about 6.30am I put him back into his bed and went back to my bed to sleep until the alarm went off at 8am. Today we had the possibility of about 7 swimmers attending the first main session of the season at Felixstowe. Beccy didn't move, so I got up and got ready to head for Felixstowe on my own.

It was a cold, windy, rainy day. Not nice at all. I thought about all the swimmers in Dover, and about all the sessions I had completed in Dover in 2007 & 2008. It's only rain. Nothing stops hardy channel swimmers from entering the water. It's what we do. Mind over matter. I got in the car alone and set out for the 45 mile drive to Felixstowe.

When I got there the sea looked a little rough, the sky was grey, and it was peeing down with rain. It reminded me of the "forked lightning" swim I did in Dover Harbour in 2007, although it wasn't as bad. I headed for the Fludyer Arms to see how many people had turned up for the first swim of the season.

I was delighted that 4 swimmers had turned up to the first official session with guests. These were Tracy Van Dyk, English Channel Aspirant 2011 and three Triathletes, Nick Rowntree, Philip Beer, Nathan Pittam. That made 5 of us to swim. I gave a brief talk to everyone in the breakfast room of The Fludyer Arms, then we all headed to our respective cars to get ready for the swim.

Above: Nick Rowntree from Poole in Dorset, ecstatic about getting into the 9 Degrees C water!

Above: Left to right: Nick Rowntree, Philip Beer, Nathan Pittam and Tracy Van Dyk in the rain prior to getting in the sea.

We all got in and set off to swim from the beach to The Fludyer Arms and back again. I have to say, this was the longest cold water swim I had completed since 2008 and it was cold! I felt the familiar pins and needles in both hands, but it was to totally OK. I felt fine. I tried to ensure that everyone was OK, and we stuck together.

Above: Brief chat before going back in for the second swim to The Fludyer Arms and back. Two swims completed by all of us, and a good first week.

Above: Left to right: Tracy Van Dyk, me, Philip Beer, Nick Rowntree an Nathan Pittam in The Fludyer Arms after our swim.

Next week we will be swimming on Saturday morning at 11am. If you wish to join us, please join our Facebook group at www.SuffolkOpenWaterSwimming.com for further information.

2 comments:

seamuski said...

great to see this blog. There's a small group of us Felixstowe swimmers who've also started swimming at this exact spot this season, early May. We might be able to join you, with a little local knowledge thrown in! (where the best fish & chips are for example!). Also see our family blog Bennettswims@blogspot.co.uk
cheers for now
Seamus Bennett

Anonymous said...

Even in a rubber cap and goggles, Nick Rowntree is still the sexiest swimmer in Poole!