Talyllyn Cool Mile Oct 2023
After our first winter of outdoor cold water dipping, we began to look at ways of extending the buzz! Most of the group have been competitive swimmers since childhood but I have not. I have always loved to swim and have used swimming as exercise but, if I was going to swim long distance, I had to learn to swim front crawl.
Thankfully, Elspeth is an excellent teacher and had me gliding and learning to breathe in the baby pool at Brecon Leisure Centre before teaching me the art of front crawl. I haven’t looked back.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. My first event was a cold swim at Lake 32 organised by the Bluetits and it did not go well. I didn’t cope with the cold and couldn’t catch my breath all the way round. It knocked my confidence and I had to swim some serious pool lengths to get it back.
Thankfully, a summer of one mile events (including the Great North Swim) prepared us for our first cool mile and we chose an event organized by Weswimrun at Talyllyn in Snowdonia.
Training at our base at Spring Valley Lakes throughout October was challenging. We swam in rain and wind almost every week and, with the temperatures dropping, we were hoping that we were well prepared for the 10 degree water of Llyn Mwyngil.
We booked ourselves into the Tynycornel hotel on the side of the lake and set off on a Friday afternoon in the hope of arriving in the light so we could have a good look at the course (followed by dinner and a glass of vino). The drive over the Cambrian Mountains is truly spectacular and dropping down into the valley below Cadair Idris to arrive at the lake set the scene perfectly for the challenge ahead.
Tynycornel Hotel is a find! The moody sunset made for an exciting course walk before we retired to the roaring log fire for a cup of tea and a fantastic evening meal before an early night.
The day of the race arrived with a sunrise even moodier than the sunset of the evening before and air temperatures struggling to top 5 degrees. Weswimrun is a chap called Mike who was on site before 7am and did a great job of signing us all in. There were 53 on the start list but only 46 finished. It was a great atmosphere and the water temperature was confirmed at 10.1 degrees.
Mass starts at these events are intimidating – some people call them ‘washing machines’ because of the flailing arms and legs as everyone sets off. I tend towards the rear of the pack so that I can start at my own pace because I’m only competing against my own times. Before this event, my PB was 51 minutes for an open water mile but that was in warmer water.
There was a five minute acclimatization before the start so we sank into the icy water to work through the inevitable brain freeze and get the breathing right before we set off. There were wetsuit swimmers and skin swimmers in a diverse field of people of all shapes, sizes and abilities wearing and towing every colour of the rainbow.
The training runs at Spring Valley paid dividends. There were three laps of the course ahead – exactly the same as our Spring Valley course save for the people swimming around us. I find swimming with other people challenging. Swimming in a straight line is difficult and, with so many different abilities in the water at the same time, it is easy to be kicked or thumped as you’re swimming along, especially when you’re a bit slow like me! On the second lap I was overtaken by the top couple of swimmers and, on rounding the last buoy to begin the final lap, I was literally (and in my view needlessly!) punched in the head by an overtaker! It’s all part of the experience but just a bit annoying to have to take time to shake it off.
The final lap saw me overtaking skins swimmers and making comfortable progress to attempt a push to the finish. As I rounded the last corner and pushed down the final straight I could hear my team mates shouting me over the line and my new PB of 46:44 felt like a real achievement.
Prize giving involved hot drinks and a sea of Dry Robes before we headed home with a stop for fish and chips in Aberdyfi and a Welsh traffic jam on the way back over the Cambrian Mountains.
The plan is to try and keep training through the winter at Spring Valley Lakes and attempt some more cold(er) water events as the winter months come through and then on to longer events in Spring and Summer 2024.
Note:
Cold water wild swimming is not for everyone but if you are interested in having a go, it is a good idea to join your local Bluetits group - they are all over Facebook and are a fabulousl friendly bunch.
Weswimrun events are well organised, inclusive and small enough to be friendly. Their different events can be found here https://www.weswimrun.org/.