Another first for me, this time swimming with goggles.  As you know, I’ve historically been a “head-up” breaststroke girl, for which googles are not necessary.  And my memory of goggles as a youngster is that you spend more time emptying the water out of them than you do being able to successfully swim in them.  Having mastered “head-down” breaststroke, I accepted that bloodshot eyes was part of the deal of swimming in a chlorinated pool. I was, however, surprised to find I still got bloodshot eyes when swimming in the lake last week.  It was time to trial my new Zoggs goggles.

The thing with open water swimming is that it’s difficult to ditch dodgy equipment part of the way round.  It’s a bit like wearing a coat to go on a walk and deciding part of the way through that you’re too hot; you don’t take your coat back home or drop it in bush to collect later, you’re stuck carrying it.  So it was with some misgivings that I set off with my new goggles.  About 5 minutes into my swim, my fears were confirmed. Water was building up in my left lense.  I emptied it out and gave the lense a firm push onto my face, feeling my eyeball pulling hard with the suction.  Remarkably, for the remaining 30 minutes of my swim, there was no leakage!  And no post-swim bloodshot eyes.  I am frankly amazed.  Who would have thought that googles would work?  Thank you Zoggs. It’s obviously all moved on since the 70s!