Is this the end?

Wednesday 23rd September
It has been a busy and buzzy few days as I come to terms with the end of the project. I was back at work the following Monday and I felt unreal, emotional and happily tired. My arms were very sore and I had the best physio session ever with David who sorted out my shoulders and back mainly. He and Harry warned me that there are chemical changes that happen after a swim like that! Toxins have built up in my muscles and I will miss the endorphins which have been flooding my system with the amount of intensive training I have been doing. I ventured ointo the pool on Monday and swam for an hour and a half. I felt strong and it was lovely to see the Stingrays who had waited so patiently for me on the beach. They were lively and excited and gave me a boost. I did sets of 200 IM's which felt good but I guess may have been a bit much as I had difficulty waking up the next morning.
In fact this week has been more challenging than last week, as I feel the emotional drain and the stress of keeping up with the demands of my job. Luckily I love my job, so it's no hardship!
I have been asked some technical questions about the swim. I will try to upload Harry's swim log from the day which is very interesting. It shows that I dropped my stroke from 64 strokes a minute to 50 after only 3 hours. That was unexpected and I would have been worried about that if I had known. However I managed to maintain that stroke pattern for the rest of the swim which I am pleased about. I did not drop below 49 at all.
So what now?
I am going to see if I can keep my level of fitness up, maybe lose a little weight and shape up. This means that I will need to up the intensity of anything I do, but reduce the length and time of sessions. So a little and often and be careful of myself.
I am stressed about making sure I thank everyone and I think I will spend the rest of my life thanking you all. It's also expensive as now I feel I have to sponsor everybody....for ever....take note!
The administration of the fundraising continues and we're not closing the fund yet. We are asking that you log onto www.easyfundraising.com or follow the link on this website, register with the Ailsa Craig Swim Challenge and then shop away! Many retailers like Amazon, Ebay and Tescos will give us a percentage of what you spend! Costs you nothing and we make money for the fund. Tell your friends and we will then close the fund at the end of December to give everyone a chance to do their Christmas shopping......SPREAD THE WORD! It's been set up for a while but we just forgot to broadcast it.....I wonder why???