Saturday was the Great North Swim, iconic swimming event, as it's billed, back in Windermere after last year's cancellation due to blue-green algae in the lake.
The whole day is so memorable, starting with Park and Sail from Bowness up to Ambleside and the first sightings from the boat of the course at Low Wood marina
Then the one-mile walk from Ambleside to Low Wood, with glimpses of the swimmers through the trees
then onto the lawn in front of the hotel - normally so sedate and quiet but today unrecognisable - thronged with swimmers in wetsuits and spectators
We were in the white wave at 4pm. This time I felt better prepared psychologically and physically but my time was the longest yet 1:7:39 - only a few seconds more than Salford but I'd hoped to manage the swim in under an hour.
Everyone we spoke to said they'd found it relatively hard. Even the elites' times were also a bit longer than usual. There was quite a swell and the water was fairly choppy in the first half. Then on the return leg, to me it felt like swimming in treacle, hard work. But the main thing is I enjoyed it.
And at the end, it's like being a child getting off a rollercoaster, after all the nerves and excitement, the immediate reaction is - again, again!
So now we're weighing up the Great Scottish Swim at Strathclyde on September 24th. Not just a mile, this time 2K down the middle of the loch. Hmmm, now there's a thought...
