Deciding to do a challenge can be a great thing to focus on. Be that making time for reading so that you read 6 books instead of your usual 1 a year. Or maybe it’s having fruit instead of a biscuit at work, or, in my case, it is swimming a mile in open water. I know from experience that I am not a distance anything… Running wise, my max is probably 5k at a push and with swimming I have come to find that half a mile is my comfortable distance for my body and mind.
Why I signed up for the Great North Swim
My day job is working for Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland. They provide at-home palliative care. Palliative care means that symptoms are relieved of an incurable medical condition. This doesn’t always mean end of life but for most of the cases Hospice at Home deal with, it does. They cover 1500 square miles in North and East Cumbria and all the care is free. But nothing these days is free, so my job is to help raise the funds to pay for this. One of the ways we do that is by doing challenge events like the Great North Swim. I decided I wanted to try and push myself and do a mile in Windermere for Hospice at Home. We had 4 swimmers, including myself and (at the time of writing) we raised £1,300.
Training for the Great North Swim
My training plan was, if I’m honest, a tad sketchy. I tried to get into the local pool as much as I could, but it was generally overcrowded so I couldn’t relax into a longer swim. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I find pool-length swimming can quickly get boring. And so I planned a couple of training swims in Buttermere. First swim, I had my friend walking along the shoreline with her dogs keeping an eye on me while I tried to get used to my wetsuit which I hadn’t worn in years. I knew I would be slow, so I had to consider my core temperature for the length of time I would be in the water. 15 degrees for over an hour didn’t sound like a good idea to me as I knew that my cold water resilience was lower than it has been in the past.
The problem with the wetsuit was that I found it very uncomfortable and claustrophobic, which led to that training swim being cut short, not even getting to half a mile. A rethink was needed. I have a shortie wetsuit, coupled with a Zogg silver-lined swimsuit, neoprene gloves and socks and a swim cap, which I thought would give me enough cold water protection whilst also giving me the freedom of movement to get the swim done. Using these wardrobe suggestions, my second Buttermere training swim was much more successful with half a mile completed.
On the Day
I was travelling from Brampton, so my day started pretty early. The email said I should be there 2 hours before my swim, so I set off from Brampton to Ambleside at 6.45am.
From previous experiences, parking in the Lakes can be a nightmare on a standard weekend, but we had Great North Swim on as well as an Ultra Marathon in the same geographical area, but I knew exactly where I could get a car park space with ease.
Event Parking
I parked at Miller Bridge Town Centre car park in Ambleside (///skinny.taskbar.issuer) for 6 hours, costing £7.80, and then I walked the short distance to the bus stop (///infects.taskbar.volume) to get the 555 Kendal bus (£2 single ticket). The Brockhole bus stop isn’t far away and on event day you don’t need to worry about missing your stop as the 555 will tell you what the next stop is and generally, there will be a lot of fellow passengers getting off at the same place.
Following the crowd of people will lead you to the event village where there are lots of vendors. Food, merchandise and freebies are all available.
Event Pack
Heading to the information stand, you sign in to get your event pack. I was in the yellow wave and due to my genetically large head I knew that the swim cap wouldn’t be comfortable or even stay on for the length of my swim. Luckily Suzanna Swim sells swim caps for large heads/big hair and I had my yellow cap from her on the day. I asked if I was allowed to swim in that cap and they said yes. All I had to do was to write my number on the cap. Job done. I am so glad that I did this as it made for a much more comfortable swim… head-wise.
Your event pack includes a wristband, a foam ankle timing chip, swim cap and a bag store label.
Swimmers area
Once upon a time, spectators were allowed to see the swimmers off into the water. I’m not sure when this changed, as now spectators are not allowed into the swimmer's area. It does make sense on a safety level, but I can understand spectators disappointment that they can’t watch. But Great North Swim does cater for this need as the big screen in the event village streams the swimmers going in and notifies them when swimmers are coming out.
The Swimmer's area has toilets, changing areas and a bag store which is guarded. Make sure for 2025 you bring a pen as I had to borrow a pen from a kind stranger to fill out my bag label. This is very important as the bag guards will not let you take a bag from the area without a correctly filled-out label proving that you are the owner.
Swimming in Windermere
There has been a lot of media attention on the sewage problem in Windermere. That is why the Great North Swim in their lead-up emails to swimmers talked about the independent testing on the water. Brockholes was tested several times, all coming back with an excellent rating. This put my mind at ease as I made my way into the swimmers holding pen before the swim. Entering the pen was like going through airport security. The timing chips acted as a digital check-in. There were three screens and on each, it would show your name as you walked over the scanner.
Swimmers were offered an acclimatisation dip by the shore to get them prepared for the swim ahead. Due to the wind picking up and the fact I was in a shortie wetsuit, with my Hospice at Home t-shirt on top, I decided not to as I didn’t want to get wind chill before the swim.
After the acclimatisation dip, the announcer led a warm-up session. Everyone was in such great spirits. The announcer mentioned a Dad who saw his son off in the previous wave. His son was 65 and the Dad, at 84, was also about to do his swim. Last year he did it in just over 30 minutes. A ripple of gasps filtered through the crowd - that was some achievement. Something I knew I wouldn’t be achieving that day.
As mentioned, the wind was picking up and it was at this point where my event anxiety started to trickle down my spine. I’ve swam into wind before and I knew it wasn’t going to be fun or easy. But into the water I went…
The Swim
I kept to the back when entering the water so all the faster swimmers could get away easily and I didn’t get swum into loads. In the water and within the first 100 meters or so, people started to be audibly surprised by the waves. Opting for head up breaststroke might have been a mistake for the conditions having previously relearnt how to do the front crawl at Ullswater Swim Place. But I didn’t have my nose clip in and I’m still battling with my head down in water panic when I’m swimming in open water.
The waves were such that at times it got very intense. If you weren’t drinking it, it was going down your nose. Sorry, I’m not painting a great picture am I? I found myself thinking about Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, the Icelandic fisherman who swam for 6 hours in the ocean back to shore. I was pleased that I had read about his story as I think it helped me to push on through. He could do it in the Atlantic Ocean…surely I could do this one mile in Windermere.
The best thing about the swim was the safety kayakers and the other swimmers. Everyone was looking out for everyone. People put their hands up for others who were having trouble and when I had a rest from time to time, swimmers coming up behind me would say “Are you okay?”
Slowly but surely, I reached the end. I had done it and I was over the moon that I had. Even before the halfway marker, I was so tempted to raise my hand and get out of the water. Pushing through your comfort zones can be really uncomfortable but the sense of achievement afterwards is such a great reward. Hats off to all the swimmers that weekend.
Changing Tube
Back in the changing area after I got my medal and t-shirt, and I presented my bag label to the guard I started to get changed. Opting for the plum Changing Tube I started to get changed. During my change I overheard “I could do with one of them”, turning I see another swimmer using her teal Changing Tube. I introduced myself with some excitement as it’s always great to get customer feedback. Her friends asked me questions about the business and started to follow on Instagram @your.warmcor. Being a small business, when I see people using anything from the Warmcor lines, I get this lovely bubble of excitement and achievement. It spurred my sister and I on and we are so grateful for the feedback we receive. Here is a video of me using the Changing Tube to get into my swimming costume. I was a tad too shattered to get a post swim video.
After the swim
After the swim, I munched on my pre packed sandwich and made my way back to the bus stop, chatting with some swimmers along the way, we all said how hard the swim was but everyone congratulated each other over our achievement.
Back at the car, I enjoyed a coffee and my pecan brownie I treated myself to from Rheged that I got on the way to Ambleside. I found myself just sitting in quiet contemplation, absorbing what my day had brought.
Finally home at 5, I looked in the mirror to discover what I thought was sunburn, but it turned out to be wind burn. A very attractive pale forehead was met with beetroot coloured cheeks with a definitive swim cap line. Thankfully copious amounts of moisturiser in the evening and through the night meant I was back to my usual pale complexion the next morning. But the lesson was learned. Sun Cream should always be in your swim kit bag!
Looking ahead to 2025, Warmcor will be there! But will we be swimming or will we have a stall… You’ll have to follow our journey to find out!
