Thursday 22 April 2010

A Long Swim

The Swimathon took place last weekend. It is the biggest fund raising swimming event in the world. The Swimathon is a 5 kilometre swim which people can enter as individuals or as a team. I took part as an individual. The Swimathon takes place in pools all over the UK. I took part in the Sunderland Aquatic Centre which is an Olympic size pool so 5 kilometres was 100 50 metre lengths.

I have done the Swimathon before but not for several years and never in a 50 metre pool which means only half as many 'pushes off the side' and therefore a bit more work than a 25 metre pool. Of course I have been practising and regularly completed half the distance in one hour at a nice steady pace. On the day I was sharing the lane with 5 others all going at different paces, lots of overtaking and slowing down when it was not possible to get past.

So I was very pleased to complete the distance in 2 hours 6 minutes and 8 seconds which is actually a couple of minutes faster than the last time I did it some years ago.

The important thing is the sponsorship - I am delighted to have raised over £600 for the WEYES building project from donations to my Just Giving page, cash and Gift Aid. So a very big thank you to everyone who sponsored me - and there is still time to give, just click the Just Giving button on the right of this page.

Who knows what is next - perhaps the Great North Swim next year (1 mile in the open water of Lake Windermere) - very cold!

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