Swimming with an Olympian

The new editor of the good old Outdoor Adventure Guide that I launched and edited until last year recently sent me on a wee assignment which involved getting into the Serpentine in Hyde Park in order to get some swimming tips from Keri-Anne Payne, British silver medalist in the 10k open water swim in Beijing.

Here she is telling me about how she spends four hours a day swimming. I’m having the last laugh though, because she is shivering like crazy while I am toasty and warm inside my extra layer of slovenly blubber. 

An open water article will be coming up later as a result of all this. Meanwhile enthusiasm got the better of me and I begged my way onto the already full 2.25-mile Nokia Thames Swim the next weekend, and got overtaken in no time by the lovely Keri-Anne who swam by checking everybody was ok as she passed.