First 10km Marathon Swim of the Season

First 10km marathon swim of the season today! I completed the Shore Rd - Bournemouth Pier - Sandbanks - Shore Rd swim in around 3 hours 30 mins. The pace was a little slower than I'd hoped for although conditions weren't ideal as the first half of the swim was against the wind. For the whole of the first 5km I was looking forward to the wind pushing me back the other way only to find that it veered so managed to be against me again for most of the return leg!

The first section of the swim from Shore Road was also decidedly choppy although the sea state calmed down as I passed Alum Chine. The sea is warming up now and it was great to swim on a such a beautiful day, however air temperatures were lower than last week and the fresh breeze meant the wind chill made it feel pretty cold.

Today I swam with friends from Beyond The Blue. They are a welcoming group of swimmers organised as a Facebook Group and encompass all ages and abilities. They meet at Shore Rd near Sandbanks all year round for regular and ad hoc swims. Wetsuit and non wetsuit swimmers are welcomed equally. The emphasis is on fun and getting wet! Today was a pretty typical day - lots of swimmers with lots of different agendas bound together by the love of swimming and cake. There were paddlers, bobbers, dippers, sloggers as well as two English Channel soloists and representatives from three English Channel relay teams.