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Christmas Pudding Events and ICY DIPS

Whatever your passion for fitness or sport you will normally find that at Christmas time there is a fun element to the sport including races or final training sessions. Take running groups, many seen donning a Father Christmas hat, tinsel earrings or anything glittery and they are set to go. Fun runs around Christmas can be large organized events where each participant receives a Christmas pudding or it can be the local running groups who just enjoy the lighter side of running and a pre prep for the festivities.

If Swimming is your passion the Christmas emersion into water normally involves one of the outdoor variety, an icy dip in the sea for those in coastal towns or maybe a chosen lake or river. These are undertaken without wetsuits and wearing nothing more than a normal swimsuit, a silicone swim cap (for warmth if nothing else) and a smile.

Overseas is no different with swimming enthusiasts taking to the icy waters in the name of festive fun. I myself have had the great fortune to have been able to join in with the Christmas tradition of Club Natacio Sitges which entailed dashing across the marina in Sitges, Spain for the four years plus that I lived there. On one selected day between Xmas and New Year on a cold and normally crispy morning we would gather at the quay side and wait patiently for the swimmers to assemble and the safety talk to begin.

Firstly, the kids race, this was only about 50m for any child under the age of 10, my two boys were members of the swim club and because I was swimming in the adult’s event, they wanted to swim in the kiddies event. Swimsuit, silicone swimming caps and goggles on and off they went to the pontoon. Once the whistle blew they all dived in and whilst some stopped to get their breath back, others splashed their way down the course and scrambled up the ramp to awaiting dry, fluffy towels and a mug of hot chocolate provided by the club. 

Then it was the adults turn and there were far more nerves and trepidation than there was from the kids. We lined up along one of the wooden pontoons which was approximately 600m from the ramp. When the whistle sounded half the swimmers dived in with the same reaction as the children, screams of shock and excited chatter followed by the familiar splashes of front crawl arms. I was always one of the last to dive in, the sheer terror I anticipated was met with reality when I took the plunge and hit the water. Despite the silicone swim cap, it was like a turbo charged head freeze from eating ice cream too quickly and as I surfaced from the dive I went into an efficient front crawl as I could when your shoulders don’t work properly and you need to breathe every stroke. By the time I reached the ramp to climb out my body was warm and tingly and for those few moments I felt I could have happily swam on, such is the miracle of adrenalin but my husband and children waited with a towel and the pull of that too great.

Following a steaming cup of hot chocolate the commemorative medals were handed out for completing the task and the participants then headed for their cars and the warm showers that home provided. Challenge over until the Summer where the long sea swim awaits.