What a morning, after heading to bed in the early hours of the mornings the alarm went off at 5.50, normally this is too early for me especially with only 4 hours kip. However with the sun shining in the windows and my velux it was a pleasure to roll out of bed and head downstairs for my mandatory bowl of porridge and coffee.

(The image above was from last year but we visited this spot twice today and i wanted to take my iPhone out of the bag and copy the shot, however the waves wouldn’t let me even get my balance to even attempt the selfie)

Big Chris and I had organised to meet at the Car Park at the Maid of the Loch at 6.50 to ensure we were in the water for 7am. What greeted us was one of the mornings we dream of, calm waters, bright blue sky and warm in the air; however what we were about to experience over the next 3 hours was a roller coaster.

We headed into the water and set the ‘Mapmyrun’ on my iPhone (If you are wondering how i swim with my phone – I have one of the water sealed orange buoys which drag behind us when swimming, great for not getting hit by boats!!) and were straight to the first yellow buoy. As stated earlier the water was crystal clear, calm with the sun glistening on every breathe, at this yellow buoy the first mention of Inchmurrin arose and we totally believe “The Lady of the Loch” heard this conversation, as we headed off due North and into the open waters you could feel the air pressure changing and the swell of the water beginning. The land geography in a nutshell is shelter for the first mile then the Loch opens up and at this stage we felt the changes.

Call me a coward, i call it sensible, as soon as we felt the swell and the change in conditions we both made the decision to turn and swim the distance required in more sheltered waters, the lady didn’t think we were ready to bridge the return journey to Inchmurrin (6 miles) so we duly accepted her opinion and turned due west toward Duck Bay. I have taken on the female species for most of my life and usually end up losing the argument. Therefore when the Lady of the Loch informed us that she didn’t want us to proceed we duly obliged.

Once we were back into the more sheltered waters the Loch changed again back into the tranquil place that we all love, however that only lasted for about 30 minutes as what can only be described as a temper tantrum raged through the Loch once again – the swell returned

Now i have to let you know a secret about Big Chris “Shoulders” McGrenary, he is an absolute powerhouse through the water, that is the flat calm swimming pool water but in the chop he struggles and this makes me feel a far better swimmer than i actually am, as he struggles and i feel great! bonus.

2 and a half hours into the swim and about 4.5 miles done we notice another group of swimmers heading back towards us at the well known stopping point “The Witches Hat”. As we hadn’t seen anyone since we left we stopped to have a chat an they were proud to tell us they had been to Cameron House and back and had been in the water for 40 minutes and heading back pretty tired. Its moments like these that have made me embarrassed previously by blurting out our morning achievement, so i decided to keep quiet. However “Shoulders” responded in a way that i may have done a few years ago “we got in at 7am and are approx 4 miles into our swim”

Needless to say both groups headed off in different directions thereafter and later in Costa for cake and coffee, the big man asked if that sounded a bit big headed? “Not at all big man” was my response

So there you have the first long distance LL swim of the year in the bag, 3 hours and 5 minutes with a distance of 4.98 miles. Very pleased with that until you realise only another 19.02 miles to go!!