Dursley Swimming Pool

My first effort to swim here earlier in the year lacked planning - or at least a basic check of the pool website - after a 4:30 am start and 90-minute drive (it is on the way to work!), I arrived just in time for the 6 am session only to find the pool closed for three days whilst they carried out planned maintenance work. Made all the more frustrating by the desperate need for a pee on arrival - thankfully solved by a quick dash to the next-door Tesco's toilet!

This time, I've checked the pool timetable, and all looks good - set off on my regular early Monday morning drive down the M5 motorway.

Dursley is a small market town just off the M5, near Stroud in south Gloucestershire. The 25m pool is long and narrow, with three relatively narrow lanes on one side and freeform casual on the other. The pool is quite an odd length/width/shape and not something you see often.

Jump in and make a start; it's busy, and the lanes are narrow. Complete a 2.5km swim at a very leisurely 1:37 pace!

Continue down to Bristol for our annual Christmas away day and meal tomorrow, including post-dinner and drunken curling!