Great Salford Swim

Sunday saw my first proper swim at Salford Quays it was a miserable day weather wise, but I truly enjoyed the whole event. I’d had my feet up since Thursday when I did about 30 lengths in the pool.  I was in the last wave of the day so watched some of the start on telly had some lunch before shooting over to the Quays. We parked up easily and walked around some of the quays, Nathan and I followed the elite men’s race around the course and then I went on to get changed.

I was a bit nervous about not finishing although I knew I could do the distance in the pool and I’ve done a fair amount of swimming in Windermere last year, this was not the pool and wasn’t a leisurely summer dip in a lake a lot of the talk was about how cold the water was. I checked in donned hat and gogs and then had a quick dunk in the water prior to starting.

Well it turned out that the water was around 14c, the wave got started and I must admit it never bothered me at all I was quite comfortable with the temperature. I think maybe braving Windermere previously may have helped and getting regular soakings kayaking.

Bernie and Nathan followed me around; another great attribute to the venue is that it’s great for spectators they can virtually stay in contact with the swimmers all the way around. The water quality was also better than I was expecting. In hindsight I don’t think that anybody who entered would fail as long as they took their time with all the backup facilities and encouragement from the crowd, finishing should be guaranteed.

This is one venue I would recommend if like me you were doing it for the first time. Anyway I finished in 45.46mins so I’m more than happy with that for a first attempt. It’s definitely one up from my 25 yards badge achieved a few years back in junior school.