Five swimmers from the Isle of Man travelled to Lake Windermere in Cumbria last weekend (12th - 13th September) for one of Britain's most popular open water challenges.
Mark Gorry, Nigel Hendy, Liz Corlett, Hazel Thompson and Pippa Edmonds were amongst the 6,000 competitors who converged on Lake Windermere for the second annual Great North Swim.
In its inaugural year, the one-mile swim attracted several hundred competitors of all abilities, from world-class Olympic athletes to leisure swimmers looking to raise money for a chosen charity or simply fulfil their own personal goal.
Such was its success that the event was voted 5th in the Top 100 Open Water Swims in the World and entries for the 2009 Swim, sponsored by British Gas, quickly swelled to 6,000.
This year's Swim was subsequently staged over two days, with groups of 200-250 swimmers entering the water at half-hourly intervals.
Special Elite Classes once more attracted some of the world's greatest swimming Olympians, including the UK's Keri-Anne Payne and Welshman David Davies.
On the day, two Britons claimed podium finishes in the Elite event.
In the women's race, only three seconds separated Silver medallist Katy Whitfield from Germany's Nadine Pastor, who bagged a winning time of 18 minutes and 14 seconds, while in the men's race, Tom Allen, who came sixth in this year's World Championships in Rome, took Bronze with a time of 16 minutes and 26 seconds.
There was further star presence in the form of double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington, who came to cheer on her GB teammate Jo Jackson in the Elite event and to offer moral support to the amateur swimmers, many of whom had never previously tried open water swimming.
The start and finishing point for the one-mile course was Low Wood Marina, where an estimated 10,000 spectators had gathered for the event.
Bright, warm sunshine, a friendly atmosphere and distant views of the stunning Lakeland fells made for a particularly memorable event.
Differing media reports have placed the surface water temperature on the day at everything from 15.3 to 17 degrees Celsius.
Had the temperature dropped below 15 degrees, wetsuits would have been compulsory. As it was, the majority of participants chose to 'suit up' for added warmth and buoyancy.
Two of the Isle of Man entrants, Mark and Liz, were amongst those who opted to do the Swim without a wetsuit.
Along with Nigel Hendy and Hazel Thompson, they belong to a group of open water enthusiasts who swim in the Irish Sea throughout the year, so they found Windermere comparatively mild.
Mark, who lives in Port Erin, was one of four swimmers who successfully completed the first End to End sea relay down the Island's west coast in June 2009.
In 2005, he was also part of a 5-strong Manx relay team which swam from Whithorn to the Point of Ayre to raise money for the Isle of Man Children's Centre.
His Great North Swim time of 27 minutes and 19 seconds saw him placed 319th out of 6,000 in the event.
Mark comments, "The whole event was really well organised, and great to take part in.
"We were set off by Becky Adlington, which inspires you straight away.
"The first hundred metres or so was more like a game of waterpolo as people jostled for position, but once it spread out you could really enjoy the swim.
"The mountains of the Lake District were a magnificent backdrop, and the weather and water conditions couldn't have been better on the day.
"Everyone was clapped in to the finish, and when the commentator, seeing me crossing the line, announced that I had a Manx swimming costume on, it got a big cheer from the guys who'd come over to support us all."
Mark, who was the driving force behind the Bay Swims - three open water challenges which formed part of this summer's Queenie Festival - says of the Great North Swim, "Hopefully it will motivate others to take up the growing sport of Open Water Swimming.
"Having had around fifty people enter the Queenie Festival Bay Swims, to go in an event with over 6,000 was another level completely.
"I don't think we'll quite be able to match them for numbers, but we're planning more Bay Swims for next year's Queenie Festival and I'd encourage anyone looking for a new challenge to give it a go."
The Great North Swim, which is due to be televised on Channel 4 later this year, is one of a series of four regional events from the same stable which now occupy an iconic place in the open water calendar.
The last to take place this year will be the Great East Swim, held at Alton Water in Suffolk, on 26th September.
For more information, visit www.greatswim.org.
If you fancy trying open water swimming on the Isle of Man, click here.
Pictured: Swimmers strike out across the waters of Windermere.
