Wednesday 22 August 2012

Looking forward to the Big Swim

That's me, five from the left, striding in trying to look the part
It's that time of year when I start to get myself ready to do the Big Swim. Departing from Port Gaverne, swimmers leave the bay to traverse just over a mile of open sea before coming into Port Isaac, the nearest safe haven. I have been doing the swim since it started four years ago, when just over 40 of us were recruited in the Port Gaverne Inn the night before. Since then it has grown to a serious event with, I believe, 500 swimmers this year, all making the effort in aid of the RNLI, a local gig club and the National Lobster Hatchery over at Padstow, a fantastic social enterprise.

The National Lobster Hatchery was set up to ensure the local supply of lobsters are re-stocked to prevent local populations from being over-fished. The enterprise is doing a great job with numbers back on the increase for the first time in generations. In order to be able to do the swim, all registered swimmers have been asked to raise money for the hatchery so, although it probably doesn't seem like the most pressing of causes if you are a conservationist or lover of Cornwall - Britain's wildest county - please do contribute a fiver, leave a comment, and, if I make it, I will get in touch.

As an FYI, I did try to set up a JustGiving page but they couldn't connect to the hatchery so I have to do this old style.

The swim is this weekend, on 26 August, I'll let you know how I do. My time last year was 44 mins, although sea conditions were really choppy, so hopefully I will do better this year. I shall be giving my friend Andy, a local surf school owner, a wide berth this year. Andy is a great competitor who finished the race in an impressive 26 minutes but nonetheless, having started the swim with me, managed to throw up just as he pulled ahead, which was by no means a highlight of my race.

For the first time, my 14-year-old Sam is going to do it with me this year. He has been training and looks really impressive as he clears the headland most days in under 15 minutes so I fully expect to be beaten by my own progeny. A sign of the times I suppose. I intend to let all the fiercely competitive swimmers get ahead of me to avoid the kicking as you can see me do in the photo above of last year's race (I'm fifth in from the top left) when I begun at a stately pace, which became increasing funereal as the distance and conditions took their toll. Wish me luck!

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