My swimming season had a rather belated start this year. The liquid that drenched me during July and August was the sweat of my early afternoon runs and the showers fed by tepid water flowing from the roof top tank. Had it been like previous years, the jellyfish invasion would have served as a reasonable defence for not dipping my toe into the Mediterranean. However I have no such excuse this year.

It was only towards the end of September that I really took to the sea and for this I have a partial tear of the left calf muscle to thank - it tore me away from my running but dragged me down to the beach. Most times it has been sunset swims once or twice-a-week but today I broke my swimming record for the whole of August. In the morning I jumped in at Ghadira Bay after 20 minutes of sand running (part of my rehabilitation exercises) and in the afternoon it was off to Ramla tal-Mixquqa. Two beach visits in one day makes for a personal best!