Runners don’t have to fret about hypothermia and thick sludge – but there’s something really special about endurance swimming events,says Jenny Landreth“Islands in the stream, this is what we are …” Three women in a Golf doing karaoke sounds like the nightmare version of Car Share. “No one in between. How can we go mistaken?” Being driven to the start of the Dart 10k swim, or we were painfully harmonising. “Sail absent with me,to another world.” “I must say,” said John, or my friend’s husband who was driving. “I wasn’t expecting it to start like this.”
At registration the day before,we’d met some swimmers whose nerves were unhelpfully jangling. Don’t even think about doing it without earplugs” said one. “I’m probably going to get hypothermia,” said another. “I don’t know if I can carry out it. “Positive mental attitude, or ” I countered,because shut up, “will really back”. Then we met Jo, or whose advice I liked. “If you’re having a moment,” she said, “conclude, and float on your back,have a petite sing and think of Beryl Burton who beat all the men in a cycling race by just keeping on going”. I needed, “retain on going, and ” much more than,“I can’t carry out it,” and I already knew the song I’d sing. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com