Anna's Story

“I have had an intense fear of water my whole life. This includes being in water, near water, on water. In August 2018 I decided to take the steps to learn how to swim.  I read a lot of articles, watched a lot of videos.  My first 'swim' session was me stood in the kids 0.7m pool in Vancouver, gripping onto the wall and trying to slowly lower my chin into the water.  

I was terrified. I did this for 30 minutes.  And then came back a couple of days later to repeat.  And then again, and then again, until finally, after many lessons, and many swim sessions, and jumping off the 3m diving board and swimming in open water I decided to sign up to the Vancouver Aquabike at Stanley Park.
It is a 1.5km open water swim followed by a 38km cycle.  Earlier in the year I found out about the Swim Bowen Society and the annual swim, I thought this would be an ideal practice for my Aquabike and hoped to do the 700m event.  Sadly the world threw us all a curve ball, and the Swim Bowen event won't be taking place, and I doubt the Aquabike will either.  But I still intend to do both this year - I have ordered my first ever wet suit and Swim Buddy, and in a couple of weeks will be heading to Sasamat Lake to try out my legs at open water lake swimming. 

I'm saddened that I won't be able to experience this all with everyone else on race day, but I'm still proud of what I have achieved, and will definitely be signing up next year.

Cheers for taking the time to read my entire life story :D,
Anna