Category: News Archive 2012

Next time you are dithering on the poolside on a Saturday morning, spare a thought for Karen, Sam, Sian, Linda, Margaret and Sylvia who signed up for the Outdoor Swimming Society’s December Dip which took place last Saturday.

It seemed a good idea in June when the mornings were balmy and the dips in the Lavender Patch were very pleasant.  However jump forward six months to a very chilly December morning at the open air, UNHEATED, Parliament Hill Lido in north London and a few people were having second thoughts.

No reassurance was gained when we arrived to find the digital display showing water temperature at 3 degrees.  There is nothing like a bit of peer pressure and along with 420 other people we gradually stripped off to our cossies (plus the odd glove and bootee which were allowed).

The lifeguard, who swims there every day gave us some last minute advice – jump in if possible, breathe out long and slow (just in case we forgot!), and get dressed as soon as possible afterwards.

We let the first wave go so we could gauge the reactions of the first swimmers.  Most seemed quite exhilarated so we made our way poolside for Wave 2.  Two widths – thats all we had to do – the fact that a width is 28m made it a bit more of a challenge though.

Countdown and we were in – it is so cold that you can’t actually tell how cold you are – your skin just goes numb.  First width done then on the return you just start slowing down, even though you think you are still swimming the same rate.   Straight out – photos taken as proof – and into a warm shower and layers and layers of clothes.

Now for the science bit – apparently your body sends the warm blood out to your extremities to warm you up which is why you don’t feel the cold to start with.  The cold blood then returns to the core which is why you start to shiver five to ten minutes after you get out.  Strange sensation.

“Glass of ginger wine, coffee and mince pie all help to warm that core back up though”

It was quite a long way to go to swim less than 2 minutes but if you are down that way next December its worth a try.

They also offer the Arctic Challenge which is 2 lengths (thats 60m lengths by the way).

And just in case you have any spare time there is a prize for the best dressed swimmer.  The guy who won this year only “wore” stick on scales and a scallop shell!

Go on – you know you want to!!

Sylvia (if I can do it – you can) Franklin

 

Jan and Paul Jurczuk are going to be in situ at the Waterfront at Barton Marina from 8.30pm on Saturday 8th December.

The event – The Arizona Ironman.

For good conversation and stories of past events and future plans the evening time will pass quickly even if the ironman event takes a bit longer.

Jan and Paul hope to see you there.

The evening was a fantastic celebration of a great year of Olympic sport especially triathlon with a gold and bronze by the Brownlees. The event saw all of the Olympic team members both men’s and women’s enter the hall to the applause and cheers of the attendees culminating in a standing ovation for Alistair Brownlee.

It was also great to see Chrissie Wellington speaking about her year out of competition and getting back to the basics of the sport and enjoying doing sport on an ad hock basis rather than a prescriptive training and competing programme for the love of sport.

Steve Cram was a guest presenter and interviewer. He showed his personal pictures of his experiences at the Olympic games which had everyone riveted and jealous of his perfect commentators position for all the athletics events.

Next up was the group and one to one interviews by Steve Cram on all the members of the men’s and women’s Olympic team running through when did you find out you were in, what was it like running up to the day, what happened during the race.

There was the obvious comments on Jonathan Brownlee’s penalty for mounting the bike too early in the Olympic triathlon. He clearly didn’t think it was him at the time as he was laughing to himself that Alistair had made a mistake yet again only to realise it was himself and shouted ‘It can’t be me I’ve never had a penalty in a race – ever! I can’t believe it!’ numerous expletives and the realization ‘I’m going to have to deal with this one.’ Of course, Alistair was very sympathetic as any older brother would be (i.e. not my problem!!!!)

A big question was what was more important the bronze in the Olympics or becoming the men’s world triathlon championship winner – Jonathans answer was firm and un shaken – ‘without any doubt or question Bronze in the Olympic games!‘

It was great interviewing and a great privilege to be there in such a wonderful year of sport. The interview could have gone on for many hours and nobody in the room would have complained it was that engrossing.

A fantastic year of sport, a fantastic year for triathlon, a great night out with wonderful food and Olympian company – not forgetting a triathlon specific goodie bag for each person who attended!

– David