Last year, during a time when we were free to travel, I spent the year living and studying abroad. As exotic as that sounds, the visions of sunbathing on warm beaches and swimming in turquoise seas was not quite what I was faced with at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, situated on the shore of the Great Lake Superior. I was continually warned by Minnesotans of the extremely cold winters that they face, with temperatures sometimes reaching as cold as -25°C. With this in mind, myself and other international students, in just our bikinis and swim trunks, went for a dip in Lake Superior mid-August. It was FREEZING. We ran in, ran straight back out and never went in it ever again. Google said the average temperature of the lake during August was around 13°C. 

A year on and I made the shorter journey down to a different great lake, Lake 32. After my previous experience with cold lakes, I was slightly nervous. Once I noticed the board said the lake was 13.5°C I was scared. Only 0.5°C warmer than Lake Superior!

Finally getting to meet one of the girls who can, Amberine, made the entire experience a whole lot less intimidating. We got to know each other whilst squishing into our Zone 3 wetsuits and chatting to our swim buddy Paloma, who shared some great open water swimming tips. To ease ourselves into the cold water we did 200m breaststroke with our faces above the water then, having built up the courage, we did another 200m with our faces bobbing into the water. Thankfully I didn’t find the water too cold with my wetsuit and felt very proud of myself for actually swimming and not running straight out this time.

We finished after 20 minutes and Amberine and I had a lovely time warming up in the sun, drinking tea and eating our lunch. I managed to avoid a potato after the poor reviews last time the ladies went to Lake 32, although my marmite sandwich was slightly made fun of by Lake 32 Dan. Cath, the Merthyr Mermaid, arrived as we were eating and she brought along with her hundreds of welsh cakes. A nice bit of home! 

I drove back from the Cotswolds feeling great having had such a lovely day getting to know Amberine, meeting Cath and feeling a lot more like This Girl Can swim a mile at Henley Swim Festival.