It’s a Wednesday in January. Rory sends a message to our swim group chat
“Entries are open for the Scottish Winter Swim Champs”. They had been open for an hour, and almost everything was sold out already. The event had been on my radar, but I hadn’t intended on entering this year. Nonetheless, I noticed that there were still some entries for the mixed 50m relay race, so asked some of the front crawl swimmers in the group if they would like to enter.
The swim team: Kiki, Rory, Luiza & Myself
The cheerleaders: Ryan & Bee
We were fortunate enough to be sponsored by Red Original for the event, so they helped us out with our Pro Changing Robes, making us look like a proper team!
Even though I was swimming outside regularly, it usually took me a good 5 minutes to fully submerge into the water, so the daunting part of entering into the Scottish Winter Swim Champs was having to immediately enter water sub-5C and swim straight away!
“At the starting line, competitors will receive the following commands (with the following intervals):
- Take off your clothes
- Get in the water (5 seconds)
- On your marks (3 seconds)
I honestly didn’t know how I was going to manage this, but knew I could practice getting into the water quicker than I had been, and the pressure of the event would mean I’d have to manage it somehow!
Recently I joined Kendal Triathlon Club to join their evening swimming pool sessions. As a child, I was a competitive swimmer until I was 12, so it was strange to find myself back training in the pool after a 15 year break. Alongside the inside pool training, I also committed to my acclimatisation training, swimming in Windermere and other water bodies 2-3 times a week. On the weeks where I didn’t have time to head to the lake, I would dip in my personal ice bath “Lake Bin-dermere”, which is a wheelie bin full of cold water in my garden. This is the most cold water swimming I’ve done before; it has left me feeling more grounded, and connected to the the wild swimming community.
Three months later.. we arrive at our accommodation on Loch Rannach ready for the event. Our accommodation was right on the water, so we couldn’t miss up an opportunity to go for a Saturday morning dip in the sunshine, followed by a session in the sauna!
Rory, Luiza and I headed over to Loch Tay, where the event was being held to register, leaving us with a good few hours to soak up the atmosphere of the winter swimming community. The winter swimming community is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Men and women of all shapes and sizes fill the area around the lanes in the loch, cheering and supporting their fellow competitors. At 25, I was one of the younger competitors by a fair way, which was a lovely reminder that performance in the cold water isn’t determined by youth.
A woman came up to my group and asked if any of us would like her entry into the 50m freestyle event as she wasn’t feeling too well, and I immediately said “yes” – I had been wishing there had been space to enter this race, so was very excited that I’d get to take part!
The 50m freestyle was at 3pm, and I was full of excitement and nerves as I went to the safety briefing, before heading over to the lane in my borrowed swimsuit. This was the part I had been the most nervous about, quickly getting into the water. Entry to the water is through the ladders at the end, which actually makes entry much easier than walking into water. You don’t have time to think about how cold it is and before you know it you are being told to set off.
I was surprised how disorientating it is to try and swim in a straight line when you aren’t following the line at the bottom of the pool, and I could feel myself wiggling about the lane. I reached the 25m point and focused on having a strong kick off, before sprinting the remaining 25m. The last 5m felt long, but I felt great at the finish. 50m really is a short distance, but it was the right choice for me for my first winter swimming competition.
My time was 40:404 seconds, which put me 5th out of all the women overall, and just a few seconds behind my pool sprint time of 38 seconds. Considering I’ve only been training in the pool for two months after a 15 year break, I was pretty happy with how it all went.
One of the highlights of the Scottish Winter Swim Champs is the 18 seater hot tub pool, and sauna for use after your race, making getting warm again really easy!
Our team relay was only an hour after my 50m race, so it was a quick turnaround to change into our team swimsuits and caps, and get psyched up for our race! After our safety briefing, we lined up in our order, and I got to watch from a distance as Kiki set off and immediately placed our team in the lead. Luiza was taking on the next 50m, with Rory cheering on from the sideline waiting for the instructions to get into the water. We were allowed to get in the water once our teammate had started their second length, but by the time I was allowed down to the lane, Rory was well past this point and I had to hurriedly get down the ladder into the water and swim the final 50m without much thought! We won our heat by quite a way, and were thrilled to come 5th overall with a time of 2 minutes 56 seconds (only 3 seconds away from 3rd!).
After swimming three times on the Saturday, I was tired and felt drunk-like as we waited for the award ceremony. The evening was spent trying not to fall asleep too early, and having a relaxing evening eating nice food.
We started the Sunday morning in much the same way, but swapped out the sunshine for swimming in a cloud inversion. I was the only one racing on the Sunday, so only myself, Ryan and Kiki headed back to the event whilst everyone else went home. I had been asked to join a South Lakes team for the ‘anything goes’ relay, which was another 4 x 50m race. The ‘Anything Goes’ relay, truly is a spectacle, the costumes were incredible, some fun, silly and some downright hilarious. We were pretty tame, with matching knitted hats and pom-poms, and we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere before our race. I think we finished 6th overall, but this race really wasn’t about speed, there were also awards for the best costumes!
I came away from this weekend feeling completely inspired. I never imagined I’d be an ice swimmer, but between the competition and the amazing community, I have been hooked. I can’t wait to enter more events, and maybe even some abroad in the next few years!