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A GROUP of women are planning to make their second attempt at swimming 45km across the Bristol Channel later this month. The Henley Mermaids came within 4.5km o.
Keswick mountain festival, Lake District
This 3.6km lake swim has a fun beginning, where youâll be ferried to the start point at High Brandlehow aboard a wooden Keswick launch. Follow the course past secluded Derwent Isle to the northern end of the lake, dwarfed by the fells of Cat Bells and Skiddaw. Shorter swims are also available. The option to dance away the evening on the lakeshore to live bands is included in your swim ticket. A host of other sporting challenges take place during the festival, including trail runs, hikes and triathlons. Pitch up at the festival campsite close to the lake.
Jacob Staedler/EyeEm/Getty Images
“IT’S like pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a computer,” says Cath Pendleton. “When I’m in the water, I’m so focused on my body, my brain switches off. It’s just me and the swim.”
Pendleton, an ice swimmer based in Merthyr Tydfil, UK, is hardier than most. In 2020, five years after discovering she didn’t mind swimming in very cold water, she became the first person to swim a mile inside the Antarctic circle. Part of her training involved sitting in a freezer in her shed.
She is far from alone in her enthusiasm for cold water, however. Thanks to media reports of the mental health benefits of a chilly dip and pool closures due to covid-19, soaring numbers are now taking to rivers, lakes and the sea – once the preserves of a handful of seriously tough year-round swimmers. An estimated 7.5 million people swim outdoors in the UK alone, with an increasing number swimming through the winter. Global figures are hard to come by, but the I
The Merthyr Mermaid: Who is Cath Pendleton?
The BBC Wales documentary features an ordinary woman from Merthyr Tydfil who s done an extraordinary thing
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Cath Pendleton is an NHS worker from Merthyr Tydfil. She s also known as The Merthyr Mermaid and is the subject of a BBC Wales documentary which airs on Monday, December 14.