The Henley Mile swim is tomorrow. To say I am excited is an understatement. Let’s Do This!

Remember my friend Verity? Last Sunday, she achieved her goal and swam the length of Lake Windermere not once, but twice in 10 hours and 46 minutes. I had the privilege of being one of her support crew on the boat. My role was to hijack her social media accounts, and provide updates about her progress. I figured having travelled all the way up the Lakes, I might as well take advantage of it and tag a few days of annual leave on after her swim.

My plan was to swim in beautiful secluded lakes: I would get up early to watch the sun rise and see the mist lift from the lake. I would swim for many miles gracefully admiring the view. After the swim I would eat kale and drink a smoothie full of super foods, perhaps do some yoga and complete my gratitude journal.

Of course, the reality was slightly different. I freaked out about the idea of swimming by myself. In the interests of self-preservation, I decided to instead book on an organised trip – one with a leader and a supporting kayaker. I slept through the sunrise and remembered my favourite part of the one yoga class I attended was the bit at the end where you do a bit of deep breathing. After the swim, I drank hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and munched my way through a large packet of Haribo. I faffed around on facebook for a bit and then had a nap.

I felt really good during the organised swim – almost like I had to put very little effort in to go at a decent speed. After we stopped and posed for a group photo, we made our way back to the starting point. It was then that I realised we had been swimming downstream. Swimming up stream is hard. I’m sure at one point I actually started moving backwards despite trying to move in a forwards direction.

After the swim, I double checked The Henley Swim website and was relieved to find out that the upcoming swim is indeed downstream.

I feel like my brain is playing tricks on me – I’m full of both doubts and confidence.

Doubts

What if that packet of Haribo catches up with me and my wetsuit is too small? What if the rubber straps on my goggles perishes over night? What if I oversleep? What if I take a wrong turn and end up in Henley-in-Arden? What if I forget how to swim? What if accidentally end up in the wrong wave preventing someone from achieving a personal best because I’m in the way? What if I don’t finish? What if I end up catching the rat wee disease?

Confidence

What if I finish? What if I enjoy the swim? What if I get a taste for personal success and victory? What if when I’ve finished, I want to do it all again?

…In my next blog post, I will see if I can answer all of these What If questions…