This photo shows the calm before the storm…..okay, there was no real storm, it was actually a beautiful day and the lake was 15 degrees warm. But I expected a challenging environment and I’ve got to say, my first open water experience lived up to my expectations.

As you can see from the photo, I was lucky enough to have a full on support team for my first dip in the lake – not only did I have my daughter and good friends, but the man behind the camera is an experienced open water coach (okay, he didn’t come to give me a training session but I felt reassured he would rescue me if needed!).

First impressions from my first lake swim:

• The waters flipping freezing
• Everything looks green and murky
• It’s easy to get off course
• Swimming 800m feels like swimming a mile!

That said, I loved it…I think.

As I am still building up to swimming a full 1500m swim, the 800m felt a very long way, and I am grateful for my swim buddies for encouraging me to go further (I was going to stop at 600m). With a couple of months to go I am hopeful I can increase my distance and stamina, but I know that I am going to have to keep training hard if I am going to go to make the whole mile!