The Run Up to Windermere: Laughter is Key to Recovery.

21st August 2019

Who was it that said ‘up nice and early’ clearly wasn’t a swimmer. However, I was up early that morning, for some reason, I woke up even before my alarm went off. For the first time this season, it was still dark as I left the house, not autumn dark but getting there slowly. It’s funny how this makes a difference to the day.

As I was driving down through the New Forest, I could see fog in some of the lower laying fields. I had a sneaky feeling the lake would be foggy too, which would mean shorter loops for safety reasons. Swimming in fog isn’t actually hard, it is a little bit odd and you can’t always see the buoys to mark the route round. 

Open water swimming can be quite a sociable activity, today I had arranged to meet my friend David Henson, he was going to join me for a swim. Dave is another double leg amputee who I met at Headley Court, I was injured later than me, however losing his legs didn’t stop Dave one bit. He has managed a catalogue of achievements over the years which include, winning bronze at the Paralympic’s in Rio, captaining the Invictus Games team, co-founding the CASEVAC Club with another injured veteran and working to complete his doctorate at Imperial College. Dave is more than just an injured bloke, he is an inspiration too many. I’ve blown quite enough smoke up Dave, now it was time to swim. 

We got changed together on the floor, and collectively bum shuffled to the water's edge. There should be a name for two double amputees bum shuffling across the floor, I’ll need to give that some thought and get back to you. Because of the fog only the four hundred metre loop was open. Not a problem, with only eleven days until Windermere I only cared about keeping my arms moving in the water.  

We didn’t swim far, probably only two thousand metres, I wasn’t that fast either. But I didn’t care I was just there to enjoy the swim. 

We got out and got changed near the lake, it was an opportunity to chat about stuff which mostly included banter of some sort or another. Finding humour in our collective situations makes us laugh, laughter is key to recovery.