The long road back..........

So, it's been 5 days since my return from very sunny and hot South France and the training has resummed! To be honest it's been tough, in fact, I'm in pain right now just sitting down. My first session back was an interval hill running session on the tread with Kate followed by an abs class.......nice; spinning with psycho instructor on Friday, who just kept shouting "turn your dial"....."add resistance" and a hideous resistance swim session this morning in the pool with Kate and all of our gadgetry! I'm also cycling to and from work just to catch up on some of my lost fitness..............so all in all I should be back in the zone in a weeks time. Bring on the channel!!!

3km race at Holme Pierrepont

well....

Saturday saw me compete in my first ever open water race... a 3km swim at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham.



I decided to steer well clear of the pushing, pulling, ducking and shoving at the start and kept myself near the back until the crowds started to break into smaller groups.

I progressed nicely and found a good comfortable pace.. until the lake weed struck (you'd think i'd be used to it by now!!) It was like swimming through tar... horrific. At one point I actually had to stop to try and remove myself from a tangle web of sticky weed.. and in doing so, swallowed half the lake, ending up coughing and spluttering and generally feeling as though I was about to die. Luckily I managed to recover and carried on with the race...

The water was brown and it was really difficult to see where anyone or anything was. My sighting was shocking and hence I swam a wibbly wobbly version of the 3km route!

On the home straight I picked up the pace, still feeling comfortable and was challenging another swimmer with about 200m to go... then I nearly swam head first into a concrete pontoon.. I was saved by a helpful canoeist who steered me out of danger... stopping .. again.. to say thank you I carried on full speed ahead to the finishing point recording a time of 44.45.

The race is on (before the concrete pontoon!!)... thats me on the left!



This is what swallowing half a lake does to you:


Tired but pleased I was delighted to hear that I was the first woman out of the water. The official results confirm that I was 12th overall, and first lady over a minute ahead of the 2nd place lady!!

Me with my medal:

New record in channel swimming

A new Record has been set in Channel swimming... check this out... what an achievement!

56 year old Jackie Cobell has lost 8 stone in the past 5 years and set herself the challenge of a lifetime ... to swim the channel.

28 hours and 44 minutes was her official time, which is amazing! 28 hours of cold, dirty, jelly fish infested waters is something that is not to be sniffed at!!

This is exactly the kind of achievement that we hope to insipire through out Chaneling Positivity campaign.