Lamlash Splash – from the swimmer’s perspective

During the summer of 2014 I started to take an interest in Triathlons – actually I was ‘forced’ into it but that’s a different story! This further developed an interest in open water swimming although over the years I had dabbled a bit – as a child I learned to swim in a fresh water lake. I had wanted (more a notion and a comment I had made for several years) to swim the Lamlash Splash. My in-laws live on Arran and I have always loved visiting. So on a whim I decided to enter this year.

I trained hard, practiced some open water but living inland makes this difficult. Nevertheless, on the 19th September myself and my husband made our way to the Arran, a five hour drive followed by an hours crossing on the ferry. Then on the morning of the 20th we headed over to Lamlash. As a visitor, Lamlash is beautiful, usually quite tranquil anytime I visited and it was just this on the morning of the Splash. Holy Isle sits just off the coast, a mere 1.3 miles away and the distance of the Lamlash Splash swim. I felt welcomed and one of the co-ordinators chatted with me about what to ‘sight for’ while swimming back in. Once everyone had assembled and all the boats/Coastguards/RNLI and volunteer kayakers were in place, our safety briefing done and dusted we were boated out to Holy Isle. We didn’t have long to wait at Holy Isle before we got into the water right off the end of the Pontoon. The water was cold but not freezing and didn’t feel uncomfortable after a minute or two. The fastest swimmers went out to the front of the pack. One of the nicest things about this swim once you are in the water is that because the numbers are small (only 40 swimmers altogether) there was none of the horrible bashing about you get when you swim big tri events. It was a little choppy for the first quarter or so of the swim but I really started to enjoy it about half way across. I had previously worried that I would spend the whole time just trying to get my breathing sorted but once I settled in it was wonderful, exhilarating and liberating. As I approached the anchored boats back on the Lamlash side and I knew I was nearly there I felt really excited and the local welcoming committee were just wonderful. It felt awesome to be cheered back onto the pier.

The Lamlash Splash was wonderful – it encompassed everything that makes a good event great- great organisation, great support, welcoming, beautiful location, plenty of cheering and clapping at the end which for me, a participant, made me feel very happy and proud to have completed it.

And to cap it all, a nice hot soup and roll was provided for all at the end of the event – I’ll definitely be back next year!