Ready, Steady....Go!

It was the Open Water Swim at Salford Quays today. I got there in time to see the start of the first race at 9am. Jo joined me an hour later and we stayed there all day. You could follow the swimmers all round the course and we walked round and round and back and forth...we must have walked miles. It was glorious sunshine again today and we wanted to jump in water ourselves. This time next year we will be in the water though as we are going to be one of the three thousand who take part.

It was a mile long swim and the best swimmers completed in about twenty minutes. The slow ones took about an hour....and then there was Margaret. We saw her start and she was not a natural swimmer. The races started every half hour and the slowest in each race were overtaken by the next batch of swimmers. Margaret was overtaken by many swimmers and she eventually completed her mammoth swim in two hours and eleven minutes. We spoke to some of her supporters who said her husband had recently died and she had promised him she would swim the race. She gave it everything she had and it was a great achievement....we gave her a huge cheer.

Sian came down to the Quays and joined us as we watched the last race. We tried to persuade her to swim with us next year but to no avail, she will come and look after our bags and cheer us on instead.

There were all levels of swimmers, all ages and all sizes. Quite a few were breast stroke swimmers so I felt much more confident about swimming it myself. There are swim sessions every Saturday so I might have to go down and have a go soon.

What a great day.