going under

obligatory selfie in the toilets

One of the reasons I ran away from the pub on Saturday night was a desire NOT to have too bad a hangover for Sunday. Mary had talked about another swim and I was keen to go along rather than baste in bed with alcohol poisoning. It has taken about 35 years to master the drink but finally I seem to have swapped roles. Can't promise it's other than work in progress.

So Mary has been planning, much in the way of a Marcothon, doing a Submergathon throughout Winter: comprising an obligatory weekly dip in some cold water outdoors. Currently (in this warm weather, with the sea about as pleasantly tepid as sea ever gets) the main topic associated is pronunciation of Submergathon and whether the G is hard as in iceberg or soft as in fridge. Currently the fashion is for the hard G. Technically I have joined the facebook page although I can't imagine suiting up in the driving sleet and edging down a windswept beach just to tick Mary's box.

I suspect like Graham's Tynecastle Bronze idea (a 30miler every month for 4 years) you have to approach it with a casual indifference and see how it pans out, rather than commit with gritted teeth that come hell or high water, one will be there on every occasion, injuries taped and a warm drink for afterwards. Julia introduced an escape clause by asking were some “jokers” permitted in the case of illness or ice? Sure thing. I'm anticipating the first four rainy weeks of November.

So we drove quite early in the day to Gullane. Mary wanted to do a 4 mile recovery run at low heartrate. So after parking in the car park we ran up to the main road past the big houses on the side of the golf course back to the car park, along the trail to the woods, onto the beach and back. Changing into wet suits is always a struggle but the more you do it the easier it gets. As the water gets colder I may have to pay attention to the couple of inches of bare flesh between suit and gloves and suit and feet. In fact proper wet suit shoes (preferably with some flippery toes to aid swimming) would be the thing.

Lucy turned up just before we started to head towards the beach. She nearly played her first joker today as she had considered calling off. She thought she had a hangover but given the relatively small amount of wine consumed (versus the amounts consumed in practice) I think it was the beginnings of the flu. This was confirmed 24hrs later. Meanwhile we headed beachward and because Lucy was there (“we'll aim for that far off headland”) we actually covered some distance. I didn't carry the camera because I had forgotten the bumbag and I was trying to concentrate on the swimming bit. I felt it went quite well, building on physical improvements although the mental toughness has a long way to go as yet. I have a stiff neck / shoulders today as a result. However on the bright side Leith Academy fitness and boxercise classes begin again tonight. That should kill or cure any stiffness.

quite a few big jellies around today