Chapter 3 Mission for a Medal

 Jumping the hurdles

Louise Bradley, woman on a mission.....to complete the Great North Swim. Had she put in the work, more than done that, she had swam herself to exhaustion on more than one occasion! Had she moaned....not applicable  had she cried definitely but most importantly was she still returning to the water and grinning....oh yes.

The Great North Swim was only one month away and there were still several hurdles i wanted to help her get over, the fear of what lay beneath the surface, putting her face in and fish!!! Could it be done, of course it could, it was just a matter of waiting til the right time to introduce it. Well time was running away with us now so it was time to start putting those fears in a box and sealing the lid!!!

So as with all of our swims i do not tell Louise in advance what we are going to be doing, no point letting her imagination run riot before she gets in. Today was face under, time to see what lurks below!

Ellerton is a diving lake so there is plenty to see as you are swimming along, but if you are not prepared then it can spook you, the first time i saw one of the boats i almost walked on water back to the jetty, i certainly would have got a pb if i had been in a race, now the things under the water rarely spook me but at the time nothing would have stopped me from getting as far away as possible from whatever object i thought was going to pull me into the murky depths.

Louise now a pro at putting on her suit was ready in no time, the water lovely and calm, the sun shining the perfect day for it. Allowing Louise to have her normal routine of getting in and having a swim round i gently maneuvered her towards the first buoy, i told her it was time for the next step. At this point reality stepped up and the look on her face changed to one of oh god don't make me. Now i am not in the habit of making anyone do anything in the water but i do have a way of persuading people to expand themselves, to getting people to reach heights they never thought possible, one of my motto's is don't just go for the goals you set in your life surpass them. And so by hook or by crook this lady was going to have her face under and be introduced to the delights of the underwater garden below her.

Telling her that she was going to lie flat in the water and hold onto my arm, i would then swim her over the object so she can have a quick look then once she had got used to that she could hover over it on her own with me by her side with my arm ready should she need to grab it. The first swim past resulted in Louise almost pulling her whole body out of the water she moved that fast to go backwards. And then the Louise strength that she seems to be able to pull on came through and although she maybe does not realise that she is doing it, she literally gives herself a talking to then gets on with it. Sucking in a massive lung full of air she held my arm again and we attempted it again, this time only the head powered itself out of the water, instead of gently letting the air out she had held her breath almost to the point of going blue.....but she had done it, shes had a look!

Now the head was under and she was starting to relax the front crawl took on another dimension, she became more streamlined, her legs lifted and she picked up speed. Not that she noticed she was too busy looking at the baby fish darting among the weeds. She was getting it, by adding another dimension to her swimming she realised that the garden below us is as amazing as the views from the surface.

Inside i was praying that no large fish pasted by us, i think she would have stood on my head and demanded to be taken back to shore!!! Thankfully they all stayed well away and that adventure would be saved for another day! But here is proof that she does in fact have the ability and can and still continues to be able to put her face under!

What an amazing swim, now it would be impossible to get her to swim for the rest of the session, all she wanted to do now was 'see things'. Her new found confidence certainly showed in her swimming ability and pretty soon she was happy to go anywhere in the lake to 'have a look'. This is a woman that never stops talking....but now i had found a way....face under....silence for a few seconds...but i must admit i missed the constant chit chat!

The water was warming up nicely now so we were able to stay in for much longer, this gave Louise more time to relax, to practice her technique and to master the distance. I already knew she would more than cover it, it was just a matter of convincing her that she could.

The following pictures are from the swim where not only did she comfortably complete the distance but went on to do extra!!!

Next on the agenda was to find some fish....big ones!! We would save that for another day and yes the fish were BIG!!!

Meeting the fish, well this came on a VERY wet and windy day, the air temperature had dropped, it was drizzly and altogether not very pleasant  But we had arranged to swim and swim we would, it would be Louise's first proper rain swim too for those that have experienced swimming in the rain it really is quite magical. Arriving at Ellerton we were greeted by the unusual sight of fish.....lots of them jumping and splashing around in the weeds, i had never seen this spectacle before. It was the carp spawning time...and a great time they seemed to be having too. Perfect, if there was ever a time to get Louise over the fear of fish it was not, rather than take her in the normal entry place in the lake we headed over to where the most 'activity' was taking place.

Body language speaks volumes and Louise at this point was trying to crawl inside herself and make her self as small as possible (shes only tiny as it is!). Hugging arms tightly to herself, shoulders about as high as they could get, we stood and watched the fish doing their dance of love.

As we got in and started swimming the gentle inlet of water became a downpour, oh well we were wet by now and plus we would not have got out just for a bit of rain! Heading towards the fish Louise's eyes took on an owl like stance, could they get any bigger, she was more worried about what was happening behind her let along in front, a good thing i suppose as it stopped her from witnessing the sheer size of some of the fish in front!  

Quick as a flash we were at the spot where the majority of the activity appeared to be taking place, Louise hung back, probably just as well that she did, underneath us must have been around 60 carp waiting to take their place on the dance floor. An aquarium of delight awaited our viewing. I would learn later that we were witnessing, common, grey, ghost and koi carp....there were a lot of them and that was only in one particular spot of the lake. This dance of love was taking place all over the lake! Having spoken to one of the fishermen prior to getting in we discovered that while they are spawning they are not interested in food and therefore would not nip or be interested in us at all. Huge relief as we were clearly out numbered!For fish that apparently would not be interested in us they certainly appeared to be, temporarily bemused by our joining them they came over to see if we were worthy of being 'danced' with, its quite eerie to have your legs bumped up against in such a manner by a romantic fish! but they soon tired of us and went back to their hunt for a suitable female! 

The rain by this point was starting to take on biblical proportions, at times it stung the face in its ferocity but on we swam round this weed filled aquarium, it really was quite special to see, the fish flying towards us, others meandering past but all large, a fisherman's dream but as the one that we spoke to said...pointless as they were not taking the bait in their lustful frenzies  It seemed that all around us a mass spawning of carp, a few lazy perch but other than that it was wall to wall carp. 

The fish realising that we were oblivious to their advances soon lost interest in us and so we headed off to swim elsewhere. If you have read the previous Mission for a Medal blogs you will be able to compare the pics from then to now where this remarkable lady (whom i am proud to call a friend and who has taught me as much as i have taught her) has transformed herself, just see how relaxed she is now in her surroundings. The fears are dissipating, the confidence growing, the stamina and fitness 100% better, the rate of development is astonishing, the strength she has inside is now showing on the outside, physically, mentally and emotionally. Its humbling to see!

So now we are only about 10 days off of the Great North Swim, Louise is more than ready, all we have to pray for is sunshine the rest she can deal with! It will be an emotional day and not just for Louise!!! Final chapter in the amazing journey coming up soon folks!