her second sea swim

Well, happy weekend!

Today I woke up to the most beautiful sunshiney day in Devon.

And today was sea swim day!

I was going to go to Bigbury with some friends, but knew it would be busy and actually when I spoke to my hero and triathlon Queen Lesley during the week she said that they swam at South Milton Sands.

I moved to Devon 8 years ago, well, it will be 8 years ago on 20th August.
When I moved to Devon I moved to a small village near Kingsbridge, called Malborough.
I lived in a lovely house called Darkham Cottage, right next to the pub, The New Inn.

The dogs and I used to go to South Milton Sands for our nightly walk, it was just down the road. I fact, when I brought the lovely Paddy back from the rescue kennels, South Milton Sands was where we all went, Blue, General, Paddy and I.

So, I thought, a perfect place,a place of comfort and happy memories for me. A little out of the way for grockles and no kite surfers or other such getting in my way in the sea. So off I went.

I pulled into the lower Thurlestone car park, made friends with the 2 older guys working there (as I do) got a great parking spot and made my way down to the beach.

Wetsuit was on, and off I went, walked straight in and suddenly felt my legs raise form under me.

I had been told that the joy of a wetsuit is that you can float, and I started to find out how true this was.
The water was a beautiful cool blue, you could see the pebbles beneath, the sun was shining on the water making special patterns.

No one could be in this situation and not feel a certain amount of happiness.

I was at the place I found calm and peace when I moved to Devon (and after James had gone) it was my special place and I suddenly relaxed.

I floated there in the sea, gazing up at the sun, a massive smile across my face.
No one else was in the sea, they were all there on the sand, massive pasty white fat arses laying there doing nothing whilst I suddenly found my confidence to go for it!

Off I went, along the shoreline, water just over shoulder high, front crawl arms, relaxed legs and floating body!

And back the other way, and again, and again, calm, relaxed, happy in the sunshine, feeling nicely confident in the sea looking at the most spectacular surroundings.

I had to get my head in the water though, I know I haven't properly managed my front crawl breathing yet, but I had to at least stick my head under,
I did it, goggles on, deep breath and exhaled and swam, I looked at the pebbles beneath and the ripples of the tide, the water was icy cold, breathtakingly awesome.
I came up for air and went down again.

I knew this was going to take hard work and a lot of it, I had to practice that breath control in the pool. Tomorrow is Paignton swimming day so it's something to be worked on.

I swam for an hour, a whole hour in the sea at South Milton sands, and at one point a beautiful Golden Retriever was taking her first steps into sea swimming too, I encouraged her from my point in the sea and she went for it, all wagging and calm.
Better than me by far, but it gave me encouragement to see her 'no fear' approach.

I loved today, I enjoyed today, I made today count, I made massive mental progress and I shall be going back there ASAP to continue with my progress.

I am going to do this triathlon, I dont care how long it takes but I will do it and I know now after today that I can!

If you want something that badly then it will happen. Make it happen!