The first swim of August! Harlyn Bay- 4th Aug

Hi y'all.

This was a pretty good swim, if we don't say so ourselves. The weather called for staying inland, so Nay, Sarah and I (Em) headed into the water at the far end of Harlyn (after a little jog) and did 6 sets of smaller swims across the length of the beach, with Len wandering back and forth across the sand with his GPS, quite aware that all the people on the beach thought he was just a madman in a big yellow coat staring out to sea.

Things were going well in the water, though Len was panicking back on the beach that we seemed to be going futher and further out to sea (his fears being fuelled by the knowledge of a pretty strong rip tide). I think this was probably one of the quickest gettings-in of our sea swims so far; though it was fairly cold we were all straight in, heads down and we were off. It helps soooo much to have sorted ourselves out with swimming hats now - the brainfreezes we got from having nothing on our heads beforehand were HORRIBLE. Nay is white-hatted, Sarah green and I bright yellow. I am currently winning on the visibility front (and blatantly the style front) but am going to start doing some research into us possibly getting some sponsorship in the form of 4 matching bright pink hats!

We kept up a good pace and did a generally very good swim, despite a LOT of zig-zagging by all present - constant changing of direction and swimming out to sea was not helpful when trying to keep together in a group and look out for each other. The visibility of all 3 hats was thoroughly tested! The swim concluded with a nice traditional bodysurf in, almost ending in disaster when Nay and I (not so wise as Sarah who had chosen a more left-sided exit) veered off the right and almost swam straight across a random man's fishing line who was meanwhile telling Len all about the different types of shark that they get in the bay. Joy.

Exciting exciting news is that Lucy is back this weekend! Team LENS reunited! So we will be seriously getting down to it these next few weeks - I am in charge (since I live closest) of getting Lucy accustomed to the cold water and taking her out for a few sea swims on the south coast. She's going to be getting a bit of a shock following Cyprus where it's pretty boiling - but hopefully we'll get past that quickly. We are all safe in the knowledge that she is uber-fit as she joined the Cypriot gym!

Only 5 weeks to go...

Love
Em - on behalf of LENS Team. x