Brockwell Swimmers again took part in the annual Parliament Hill Ice Swim Hootenanny, or PHISH as it is affectionally called by the many dedicated cold water swimmers from all over the UK. The weather was perfect this year with blue skies, gleaming pool and surprisingly warm 7°C water.

The races were the same as previous years with individual 122m (two lengths) and 244m (four lengths) plus the endurance ice race which this year was 17 lengths (ten plus the temperature). New this year was the “Double Dipper”, a rather wacky race involving two lengths of the pool, two minutes in the hot tub and then two more lengths of the pool.

Team Brockwell (Katie Ball, Penny Prodger, Rebecca Edwards and Tim Sutton) took part in the Relays starting at 1pm. This was four lengths in total with each member swimming one length. There were the usual nerves beforehand but once the whistle blew it was head down and head for the other end. Brockwell Lido is only 50 metres so those extra 11 metres are always the hardest part.

Though not expecting to win any medals, the team pulled in a very respectable four minutes thirty eight seconds, coming 25th out of 32. Well done all.

Then off to the hot tub for a well earned warm up followed by a visit to their new sauna, and WOW! what a sauna! Four times the size of Brockwell, constant electric heating (not wood fired), great temperature, tiered wooden seating and proper head room. Apparently it is has doubled the number of swimmers using the pool in the Winter. Fusion should take note and do the same at Brockwell. Our poor old Bertha is looking very shoddy in comparison.

Thanks to Jeremy Irvine and everyone at PHISH for organising such a brilliant event. Looking forward to next year when we will be entering another Relay Team. If you want to join us please get in touch.

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