Setting the bench mark

After all that snowfall we had yesterday we were all hoping for lots of "snow swimming"! The night had been milder than the previous two nights though which meant that the pool was ice free ... and the snow was melting.

Still, there was evidence of snow and the water was still COLD - very cold 0.5 Celsius : that will do for more heroic action at the Lido.

Vince definitely set the benchmark as he declared he was swimming one length!

Up until then, Chris Chris, Sue and Batch were focusing on widths ...

But once they saw Vince dive in the deep end and swim all the way to the shallow end, their minds were set too : one length it is!

Snow framing the pool

I was in charge of taking their shoes back down to the shallow end ... and record "the historic move" :)

Chris speeding down the pool before his length

Batch setting off from the deep end

Annabel and Julia getting ready for their width

By now my hand were frozen and everybody was in the sauna ... so I swam two widths before joining them in a "semi hot" sauna which had not quite reached its usual high temperature yet ... but hey, it did the trick - and I was ready for another widths. Vince kindly took my flip flops to the other side! I can't explain how swimming feels after having been in the sauna other than to say that: "cutting through the water just feels sublime"!