Last Sunday after an emergency visit to my son in the Cotswolds to sort his bad back, my husband is a Physiotherapist, we went to Henley and met Tors and her lovely dog Westie Doug. We walked the course and Tors filled me in on what I had missed when we were away in June. It was great to meet up with one of the other girls and compare notes – how our training was going and hints on how to get into a wetsuit. Thanks Tors for the meet up and hope your open water swim went ok.

Last night I went to Tri Farm where I am swimming with Sandra who I met there when she went on her first open water swim the same day as me. We instantly clicked and had kept in touch since then. Sandra had done her first mile swim at the Great East Swim in June and is still on a high from that. She has told me I am going to love Henley. We decided that we would do the full mile last night and, as it was warm swim in ‘skins’ with our tow floats.

After my lesson last week my stroke and relaxation has improved so much. It is so good to have someone to swim with and we chatted as we swam and just enjoyed the evening and the warmth – there was some dispute as to whether the water was 23.5 or 26.5 I would suspect 23.5 in water 26.5 outside. On the second lap Sandra just told me to go for it and she would see me at the end. I did the second lap and then decided to do another 200 metres, so 1800 metres in total. It feels so much better in a costume (not sure it would if it was a different time of year) and so I think my decision has been made to swim ‘skins’ for Henley – but I am a woman and could change my mind.

Having the Swim Secure tow float does make you feel much safer so thanks Swim Secure. The Dry Robe was lovely to get out to even though it was not that cold last night but after an hour in the water and the sun going down it was cosy -in fact Sandra who has one too had decided not to bring hers and regretted it as we have quite a long way to walk back to changing rooms -so thanks Dry Robe as well.

So just over a week to go and even though I am still nervous I am looking forward to the swim and hopefully fit in another mile swim at the Tri Farm this weekend between seeing Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand at Hyde Park.