Juneathon day 2 Epic Swim Coniston

This morning dawned a gorgeous morning in Ambleside, where Billy and I spent last night prior to today's swim in Coniston. After a modest breakfast we booked out of our guest house and headed over to Coniston, the sun was shining and glinting off the rivers and streams, it glowed on the false water of bluebells in the woodlands and I promised to be a good day. We arrived at Epic swim headquarters and collected our gorgeous, pink swim caps, timing chips and tshirts, the car park was filling quickly as we eased our legs into our wetsuits. We walked a few minutes to the waters edge and completed our preparations, there were not as many people as I had expected, but there were two or three hundred wetsuit clad pink headed swimmers, many of who were wearing neoprene boots on their feet and neoprene hats under their race hats, some even had gloves. The race organisers had announced midweek that the water was 11 degrees, and so warm enough for the 3.8 km race to go ahead. We didn't have any of that cold water gear, we were gonna have to cope without. When a race organiser (dressed as a pirate)came on the tannoy for the race briefing he informed us that the water was 12.5 degrees, "tropical then" said Billy. We were counted into the water and had to swim to the deep water start. This was all a bit quick for me, I tend to faff about getting into the water. We stayed to the back and side of the group, we had a second race briefing, which I couldn't hear because I had ear plugs in, there was a countdown, my finger was poised over the start button on my watch, 3....2....1 Head shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes (what!) heads shoulders knees and toes (what toes? Couldn't feel mine) and so on, then the horn sounded and we were off.
The course was marked in yellow buoys, we had to swim up 3, across 1, down 3 across 1 this was 700m and brought us back to the start, then we had to go up 4, across 1, down 4 and across 1 1500m twice and finally swim the 100 m to the finish gantry.
I set of wide off the buoys and at the back so I could settle into it, I reached the 3rd buoy and was moving up the field,but as I swam to the next buoy, my sighting was out and I drifted about 50 m away, I could see the swimmers that I had overtaken getting ahead again. It took a massive effort to get back on course. I did and settled into my swim, my watch felt loose, I worried that it would all off, then realised that even if my wrist had shrunk with the cold, it couldn't slip off my hand. I stayed wide and was soon around the first buoy again and heading out on the first 1500m loop, the scent of diesel fumes between buoys 2 and 3 was awful it made me feel quite sick, I started to worry that it may affect my asthma and I could feel panic taking hold, I took deep breaths and calmed myself focusing on the task in hand, there was a swimmer to my right, I focused on he and got back into my stroke. As I rounded the next Buoy I went in closer and kept my focus on the next buoy. As I turned that next buoy I could see in the distance the lead canoe, again moved out, I didn't want to get in the way of fast swimmers.Something hit me in the face, I jumped, it was a big stick which then lodged against my chest till I moved it. When the lead canoe passed, I was still caught in its wake I swallowed water and fought the rising panic again. As I approached the turn buoy I misjudged an ended up close to it as the faster swimmers were coming through, was bumped about and struggled to keep calm and tried to be out of the way as they sped past to the finish as I still had 1600m to swim, I was bumped about and in turn bumped into the lady who had been swimming close by for the last lap. Now it was a battle to carry on, I couldn't get my breathing right and was swimming with my head up, dragging my legs, fearing cramp. Again I approached the Diesel fumey area and looked across to my right and the swimmer was still there, she hadn't got away from me, so I got my head down and go on with it. The turn buoy seemed to never get any closer, I risked moving inwards as there was no danger of being lapped anymore. "Billy's probably finished," I thought, "I've been out here forever but it's ok, I can do this, I'm moving forwards". Just before the turn, my legs started to feel fizzy, and I daren't move them fearing cramp, I dragged them behind me on the turn and then struggled to get my head out of the water enough to breathe, the other swimmer got ahead as I floundered. Stop, float,start again, move all limbs, no cramp, now swim, swim and catch her ack up, I caught up and settled back down, actually catching a couple of other swimmers too, bait late to get my confidence now as I took the last turn (wide) and headed for the finish, suddenly, instead of the blackness of the lake there were stones and. Could put my feet down, I was wobbly but I went over the mat, had my chip removed and was given my medal. I located Billy (well he found me) and he helped me sort myself out, stopped my watch, and gave me my towel and shoes. It was over, we survived, Billy's watch said under 1 hour 30 he did so well, mine said 1 hour 39. And my watch strap had broken and was only held on by a small bit. That was lucky.
After getting home, I did a 1.5 mile run in the spirit of Juneathon, my legs were tired and my calves kept tring to cramp. Then Billy and I had a nice relaxing walk by the river with Jed.

Time for bed now, I'm shattered