Entirely surrounded by water: Parliament Hill Icy Swim Hootenanny

On Saturday I took part in the Parliament Hill Icy Swim Hootenanny (PHISH), a winter swimming gala at Parliament Hill Lido new for 2014! I was signed up for a 1-length leg of a four-person relay, representing The Swimmer with organiser Jonathan and two Swimmer regulars Simon and John.

It was a lovely event with not too many people and an atmosphere akin to a village fete, complete with cheesy tunes and compere making dad jokes. What's more the sun put in a pretty good showing throughout the afternoon, reflecting off the amazing stainless steel lining of the lido and making the crisp 7-degree waters a wonderful iridescent turquoise.

Ever the keen athlete, Jonathan had also signed up for the individual event of 4 lengths freestyle, and was just completing his pre-race preparations as I arrived...

Duffle coat = original Dry Robe?

Warming up

Jon plays his trump card

I was joined by relay team-mate (relaytion?) Simon and little daughter Ruby, ready to cheer ourselves hoarse for Jonathan as he took to the water...

Hooray for Jon and his trusty togs - they're grrrreat!!

With arrival of John, team Swimmer was complete and ready to strike fear into the heart of the opposition:

The formidable Team Swimmer

Grrr we're mean we are

And who should we find poolside but another Swimmer regular and super runner Elspeth, bearing a glorious medium format camera which apparently contained a 12-photo film - yikes.

Just time to get psyched before the off...

John opts for supercool sunnies

...while Simon goes for the erudite look

Ruby's banner of encouragement

Our race order was to be Simon, John, me, Jonathan, and we were up against four other teams in our heat. We all shook hands and the two Js dutifully beetled off down to the shallow end to await the theoretical baton. Then in sploshed Simon and the other starters for take-your-marks... GO!!

Simon put in a solid first leg (of the race I mean) and John followed up with a lusty stroke. The other teams were fast though, and whilst my length went off without a hitch and at my top speed, one of the teams had pulled ahead and Jonathan had his work cut out for the home straight. And blimey can he go - roaring up the lane, he was gaining rapidly on the leading team, all the while Simon, John and I cheering our very heads off from both ends of the pool. Alas, we lost out by the merest whisker, but were still delighted with a respectable second place and generally ecstatic over the whole glorious race.

Post-race high

We wasted no time in piling into the little porta-sauna they'd provided for the event - a cylindrical wooden affair like an old-fashioned caravan, full of warm air and giggling.

We stuck around for <hushed, respectful voice> The Endurance Swim, which is calculated as "10 lengths of the lido (610m) plus one length for each degree centigrade above freezing up to a maximum of 1,220m". The temp being about 7 degrees, this came out as 1,068 m, or six circuits round the edge of the pool. Lord knows how they do it - at this temp I'm generally doing 350 m and even an extra 100 m feels a bit ropey.

They set off in waves, with about 30-40 participants, the nutters, who seemed to go round and round forever (to the extent that John apparently tired of cheering and descended into some unexpected heckling). The event was accompanied by some super tunes on the sound system, which has the added bonus of saving me time on the post-production of film...