Karima and myself arrived to black clouds and moody waters for our debut two-mile swim in Lake Windermere on behalf of Mind the mental health charity.
We clambered into wetsuits and had a quick dunk in the acclimatization area finding the water choppy but pleasantly warm at 16 Degrees!
A brief group warm up was barked out at us mixed with a lot of motivational whooping before we were set off, 200 nutters crept into the water over sharp stones to get stuck into the long 2 lap course.
The first 400 meters were rough, the wind was rolling everyone around but once we past the first huge yellow buoy the water settled and so did my pace.
The water was very clean and clear and you could see the bottom and the odd tiddler swimming about which is very different to the lake I had been training in.
As I finished my first lap I caught a glimpse of the front swimmer heading for the finish! Talk about motivating, it kicked me into life to get moving a bit faster so I could get to the bar before the rest of the pack.
We eventually finished within 2 minutes of each other with energy to spare myself at 1 hour 20 and Karima pipping me with a respectable 1hr18, not bad for a first attempt.
The location was wonderful and the sun appeared as we ran over the finish line to collect our medals and well stocked goody bag.
We changed in the ample heated tents amongst lots of exited ladies who had just finished comparing notes or were tittering about embarking on the following wave we re-fueled and then turned our thoughts to the celebratory drink at the water front hotel.
It was a very tasty way to finish the afternoon!
If you are interested in open water swimming or perhaps competing in a Triathlon Lizzie is a full swimming teacher please do look at our packages page for swimming / triathlon specific training HERE