Karen writes: Good swim at last

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Whew, at last had a good swim this morning!   The water started out flat and I struck out for the eastern end of the beach, about 850m, feeling optimistic. I had to cut across a stream of other swimmers coming in from further out in the harbour, they were braver than me, I hugged the shore.   There were people netting off the beach, I was pleased (for me) to see that there wasn't anything in their nets.  I turned round to come back and the wind came up, then there were stiff little waves washing straight into my face.   I could see people running to secure their tents and towels and beach paraphernalia in the wind.   It was a hard slog on the return, then as fast as it arrived, the wind went away and the sea was perfectly  flat again.  Back to the starting point, and turn around and up the beach one more time.  I tried different strokes, the more frequent breathing but more tiring stroke which got me through the Rotorua Tikitapu 1/2 IM lake swim when I ended up in a state of panic, then as I relaxed into the swim I found myself rolling from side to side and feeling like I was racing, will have to play with that style more, it felt really nice.  Trouble is, I have to swim for an hour before I feel good!  Anyway, managed 3.4km, the most I have ever done, and feel more confident that the 4km might actually be manageable.

Run with the Te Puru runners tomorrow morning.   The weather forecast for Sunday actually looks quite pleasant...at this point!

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