Swimming with a beard

I turned 25 just before Christmas and I realised at the time that I've never had facial hair. Now, I'm not someone who gets a 9 o'clock shadow at the end of the day. Infact, I don't even get a 9 o'clock shadow 2 days after I've shaved but I thought I'd persevere with the beard growing effort anyway.

Growing this beard is giving me so many different sensations and emotions. I've been compared to one of the Three Musketeers (it wasn't specified which one) and my nan almost refused to speak to me when I saw her the other day (it turns out she prefers clean shaven men) but its staying.
I've found it impacts with the Janathon, but only in good ways. When I've been running, it has kept my chin warm which I never appreciated before. The weirdest sensation though was when I went swimming today. I try to swim only front crawl but on the few lengths I did breast stroke on, I found my beard trapping the bubbles when I breathed out. I'm not sure it improved my buoyancy or increased my resistence in the water, but it felt kind of good. Kind of like when someone would tickle your chin with a buttercup as a kid.


Back to the Janathon, its swimming for today and tomorrow. My calf muscles feel like they are about to *ping* so I'm trying to rest them with some swimming sessions. It still counts for the Janathon (I was never going to win it anyway) and hopefully they will be less painful for a Friday morning gym session and 11-a-side football on Saturday.