All the Way from Oregon

SLSC member made it into the Sunday Times - Cowboy Hat and (stuffed) squirrel - that's all it takes !

Margy and Alison discussing the success of the Championships

The Cold Water Championship are behind us and, yes, they were of course a roaring success! Margy and (her) huge team of volunteers made it all happen (again!)

Before you ask I will be posting (lots) of photos from the day ... I just haven't got around to looking through all the masses of shots I took .. but I will.

After a day off I was back at the Lido today .. I really was so cold all day yesterday ... standing in the cold for 8 hours on saturday with that icy, icy wind took it out of me ... but only for a day .. I was back (for my fix!) this morning ... I wasn't sure what I was going to do .. widths or lengths .. well I had been swimming lengths before the CWChamps but having to (only) swim a width in 3 degrees on the saturday was quite alright!

Anyway, I soon wizened up ... and inspired by what Mike shared with me when I interviewed him for the boo, I just had to get back to my 2 lengths.

Just imagine Mike had come all the way from Oregon to take part in the Championships! As he put it : "it was love at first sight!"

Mike - all the way from Oregon - was back at the lido to swim this morning

and he's in ... acclimatising a touch before...

... setting off on what turned out to be "monster swim" (sue took off before mike)

.. in fact Sue and Chris invited Mike to come and join them .. they took off just before Mike .. little did they know how long Mike was planning on staying in the water..:)

Mike on his first length coming to the deep end of the pool - where I was curious to see whether he would do a tumble turn...

no, he didn't! he never even touched the end of the pool .. he simply did a funny turn ... Mike is used to swimming in lakes in Oregon you see ... and not in a (supersized) cage :)

although Mike warned Chris and Sue that he was a slow swimmer ... he soon caught up with them!

Sue and Chris got out after 4 lengths ... Mike had other plans - he stayed in for another six! And was not even to be seen in the sauna afterwards! I think the two Carls will have found a great sparing partner in Mike ... however, Mike is off to new waters soon - I hope he'll come back to the lido to tell us about it before heading back to Oregon!

Chris brought this amazing photo - taken at Parliament Hill Lido where this swimmer is walking water! You can see the photo outside our caf.