Longwell Green Leisure Centre

After a hot and sweaty weekend spent giving the office a bit of a summer 'tech refresh' (new Ubiquiti Unifi kit installed - geek joy!), I made a last-minute call to squeeze in a Monday night swim at Longwell Green Leisure Centre - one of the final three Bristol-area pools left on my list. It's over on the north-east side of the city, a bit of a trek from my usual haunts.

So, this one marks the first new pool in a few weeks - and it nearly didn't happen either. I arrived right on the 8:30pm session start time, only to be told at reception that it was super busy due to school summer holidays, and they weren't taking walk-ups. But the receptionist said she'd check with the manager. I assumed that was just for show, but a minute later, I was poolside… and wow - possibly the busiest six lanes I've ever seen.

The medium and slow lanes were absolutely packed - easily 10+ swimmers per lane. The two fast lanes looked a little more civilised with just five each, I jumped into the quicker of the two and made a start.

It was definitely one of those slow-going, interrupted-every-lap swims; every few meters, I was right on someone's feet, but overtaking was a mission with a constant stream coming the other way. Add to that: the pool walls were weirdly slippery on the turns - i wondered at some point if they had been waxed!

Thankfully, about halfway through the session, the numbers thinned out and things got a bit more manageable.

The Longwell Green swim crowd are certainly a younger swimmer demographic! 20s and 30s mostly - and in some lanes it was giving a bit of Love Island energy: swimmers doing decent pace in bikinis!

I swam right through to the whistle at 9:25pm, finishing with a solid 2,600m despite the late start and packed lane chaos.

And of course - the golden rule - if there's a McDonald's within line of sight of a pool, you have to stop by for a post-swim Big Mac! Burger and a side of McNuggets inhaled, and back into Bristol I went, fingers crossed for a free parking space outside Hotel Du Vin.