Where were you when? South Blooming Chilly London

From time to time one has to wonder about the sanity of certain people and the activities they chose for their "leisure time", and this is one of those times.  Whilst most foolhardy Brits were curled up on the sofa in their post Yuletide haze,certain hardy Brit fools were out and about enjoying the awful weather of the great outdoors in a form of madness that is known as "Cold Water Swimming".

Brother DR Sweeney is known for his steadfastness and manly tones but a few people may know him as that crazy guy who likes to go swimming in the sea (he has a record for doing this, see good-luck-to-dr-sweeney-swimming-to-france) and other similarly cold places, such as The 5th UK Cold Water Swimming Chamionships were held on 26th January 2013, an event that attracted over 600 competitors and many more spectators.

Apparently at such events Wet suits are strictly forbidden and all competitors must wear a swimming costume and hat, goggles are optional. While the event took place during a rare day of sunshine, the water temperature hovered between 0 and 1 degree Celsius and he swam one width of the pool in the relay, and picked up a Bronze medal.   As if that wasn't enough he also swam another width in the public 'dipping lane', just to ensure he was receiving value for money!

This all took place at Tooting Bec lido http://www.slsc.org.uk/cwsc/ which is the largest fresh water swimming pool in the country, 100 feet wide by 300 feet long. It was dug by hand by a bunch of blokes as part of a work creation scheme back in 1906 (although it is believed that a few of them were provided shovels). Unheated, the lido is open every day of the year, but only members of the South London Swimming Club can swim in the winter, except on this auspicious occasion held bi annually.  He already has plans for 2015! Brrrrr!

Also see the nearest local equivalent at Cirencester Open Air Swimming Pool which was built in 1869 this unique pool offers the chance to swim in natural spring water heated to an average 27°C (80°F). 

Anyway, we digress, and the scores are now in

1. The Location - 3.5 (Cunning use of a fellow attendee to give the signage and in a departure from standard rules a further photo has been included below as supporting evidence - see below).

2. The Pose - 4.0 (A pretty good degree of pointless grandeur, which is a phrase that could be used to sum up the whole event - if somewhat churlishly!).

3. The X-Factor - 3.5 (For the use of portable signage and magnificence of the pose).

Making that a total of 11.0 - The highest score from someone about to do some thing so daft so soon after taking the photo.

More please.

On the right, supplementary evidence of the location and the event, just in case you were doubting the entrant's sanity in any way at all . . .