Beginning of April when the pools finally opened, I had my first swimming pool session since summer 2019. It was an 8pm session and the Easter holidays so there was only four people in the pool and me, which was great for me, helped me feel less self conscious about being in a swimsuit in public after so long and I pretty much had lane to thrash around in without annoying anymore else.  It was definitely hard work and I need to do something to sort out my front crawl breathing, I am so breathless after one lap. I alternate front crawl stoke with breaststroke every other lap and that helps.  I decide that I really do need a coaching session to deal with my breathing.  I come out of the session feeling buzzed and ready to meet the other The Girl Can Team, so exciting.  

I was a bit nervous meeting the other TGC ladies the following week, but I shouldn’t have given it a second thought.  Though we all come from different backgrounds and life challenges, we all clearly were so grateful for this experience and were so excited to get started. They were true wannabe mermaids like me! What was almost even more exciting was receiving our amazing prizes to support our swim, receiving the wetsuit from Zone 3 was definitely the cherry on the cake.  After squeezing into the gifted wetsuit with some help, we had a little dip around the beautiful Lake 32 and honestly even though we only just met each other, we just laughed and laughed. 

One thing I realise about why I open water swimming especially when its still a bit nippy is that once you are in, all you can think about is you and the water, everything else temporarily evaporates from your mind, and it becomes very still.  I can hear laughing and see smiles from my fellows mermaids but the stresses of that day have for now been parked in the back of my mind.

Also meeting Cath Pendleton (crazy ice swimmer extraordinaire), Laura (previous This Girl Winner) and Julie (from TGC Henley Swim) who were there to support us through the next 12 weeks were so and totally eased our minds by answering a flurry of questions from us all, and off course supplying us with this amazing goodie bag. Two weeks ago I had no wetsuit and now I have two!?

Once it was made public that I was one of the winners of the TGC 2021, the outpouring of love and support I received from friends was so heart warming, especially my old school buddies and from from my old air cadets. Them sending me words of delight and encouragement reminded me  that they were the ones as a teenager who helped me through the struggle of wanting to swim. They stood by me when everyone else was staring at my all in one cotton birkini (from neck to ankle covering) and welcomed me to join their swim teams. It is because of them that my love for swimming was not completely quashed then and there.  Thinking about the cotton birkini i bought from a gymnastics shop at the time makes me cringe now, how times have changed and you can buy a similar coverup but in lycra now, in hindsight it was miracle I managed to stay afloat somehow!