Banishing the Lakesman Swim Demons by Ann Sellars

At the start of 2022 I sustained a knee injury which stopped me doing all my regular exercise. So at the grand old age of 57 I asked hubby Paul (aka Sellars Elite Coaching boss) to teach me to swim. I literally couldn‘t swim as I‘d always avoided lessons as a child, as I hated the water. I had blagged my way, walking on tip toes, doing breast stroke arms, not getting my hair wet. So now was the time to get some goggles and get on with it!

Paul came swimming with me for a while until I could do a few lengths, he gave me some drills to work on and told me to keep practicing. The knee wasn‘t improving and I ended up having surgery but was back in the pool after a few short weeks.

He then told me he had treated me to a gift. I was thinking maybe a new handbag or some jewellery, but no, he had bought me a wet suit (really) and announced he was taking me open water swimming. The first time was a bit scary but not as bad as I‘d imagined. He then told me he had entered me in the Lakesman 1.9km swim event in June.

We were in Keswick for the Lakesman triathlon and so we practiced twice in Derwent Water and it seemed to go okay. However on race evening I was totally overwhelmed with the event and got in trouble almost immediately. I battled on, thanks to the final kayak guy Mark who kept encouraging me, but I finally called it a day after 1km and had to be fished out. Paul had helped to organise the event and son Dan & daughter Rachel were dishing out the medals so you can imagine my total disappointment in having to DNF. A couple of days later we swam in the lake again and I completed the distance so I knew I could swim that far.

Over the summer we were in France and I was swimming in Lac de Chalain most days. It was a balmy 26 degrees so no need for a wetsuit. My confidence was growing as I was swimming in pan-flat water with just a tow float.

I asked Paul to find me an event where I could hopefully banish the Lakesman Swim demons. He found the Epic Events Windermere 1 mile swim which would take place on our wedding anniversary. We agreed to keep it top secret so as not to add any pressure, so didn‘t even tell the family. This almost worked until some eagle-eyed members of SEC spotted us on the start list.

Race day was warm & sunny and water around 17 degrees. I was very nervous again, but Paul agreed to stick with me all the way around the course. Poor guy ended up doing breast stroke to stay at my pace. I‘ve never been so happy to see a huge inflatable duck which marked the end of the mile.

I can‘t say I loved it and I‘m still not a great swimmer but I am super proud to have completed the event. I really couldn‘t have done it without Paul‘s help and support. I know there is work to do on my stroke and some winter weight training to build some arm muscles, but I‘m really pleased with the progress so far. If you‘d told me 12 months ago that I would swim a mile in Windermere I would have laughed.

Sellars Elite Coaching is about supporting athletes of all abilities, and all Coach Paul asks for is your commitment. So I take my hat off to every one of the triathletes on the team, but want to stress that with the right help and encouragement we can all achieve our goals.