Windsor Leisure Centre

So, this one has a sort of interesting story...

En route from Bristol to London and, after a couple of hours in the car, I'm ready for a lunchtime swim. Windsor is pretty much the perfect point in the journey. I'm absolutely certain I've swum at the main Windsor pool before. I check the list, the swim map, even the website codebase, and there's absolutely no sign of it. So I decide it must have been before I started recording pools.

Windsor Leisure Centre sits right on the bank of the River Thames, directly across from Eton College, and very close to Dorney Lake, the 1.4 mile purpose built lake used for the rowing and canoeing events at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The deja vu is confirmed as I come off the dual carriageway, swing round to the car park and head into reception. I've 100% definitely swum here before. Either way, I've been out of the pool for more than a week, so today I'm after a decent swim even more than a new pool.

I park and head in. It's definitely not a cheap swim at £9.20 plus parking, but you can tell from the front door it's a good pool. On the left side of the building there's a family fun area with water slides and kids' splash pools. The main lap pool has a row of poolside changing stalls down one side, with a low wall of lockers, padlock lockers, perfect, dividing the changing area from the pool deck.

I head over to one of the two fast lanes. Each already has a couple of decent pace swimmers, so I jump in and make a start. I'm planning the usual 3.2km session, 55 minutes of fun, starting with a 1.6km mile and then a mix of 200s and 100s. I spend most of the swim trying to work out exactly when I've been here before. For it to predate the swim blog it would have to be 2016 or earlier. We've been to Windsor quite a lot when the kids were small because they loved Legoland, but I'm sure it's more recent than that. If I've swum here for the blog and somehow forgotten it, there will be a photo. And Apple Photos lets you browse on a map.

Swim done, changed and back to the car, heading for the Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road, but first... Apple Photos... and there it is!

Back on 04 March 2020 I make one last swim before Covid, the day after my last pre Covid entry at Morbley Sports Centre, and as the weeks of closed pools and no swimming turn into months, I must have completely forgotten to add this one. I'm usually pretty careful to check the map and list if I think there's even the remotest chance I may have already swum a pool I want to add to the blog. Anyway, Windsor Leisure Centre turns out to be the last pre Covid new pool on the list. It will be nearly 18 months before I add another pool. Those really were crazy times. I've included one of the original photos, seeing as I went to so much effort!

Looking back through Garmin and swim.com, that swim on 04 March 2020 is followed by just one more swim at my local pool before lockdown. And I'm glad I've come back for another swim. The original swim is a rather short 1km of 10 x 100s, which feels a bit odd. There must have been a reason.