3550m

UpperDeeside amateur Swimming club set the challenge for the club to 'Swim the Channel in 3 hours' on Friday 11 Nov. Well, by the time 1h 45mins had passed the 32km or 1280 lengths of a 25m metre swimming pool had been completed, we had arrived in France!

I hadn't even swum a length to be honest by then so we set the challenge in the last hour to swim back across. And we did and more, we got 70% of the way across back to France again. Well, done to all swimmers for a total of 2.7 times across the channel or some 86.5km.

My contribution was 3550 metres or 142 lengths. I had set the goal of getting nearer to 4000m than 3000m so I just achieved my goal. But I had to move some in the last 8 minutes, recording 1min 20seconds for 100m. Before getting to the last 500m, we as a team set out on the following schedule, 550m a rest, 500m a rest, 10*100m with 10 second rest between 100's and then 5*200m. The third1000 metres was the most challenging, tiredness was kicking in and technique was starting to go. With around 8minutes left on the clock, I set out with renewed energy and a stretched out stroke, that took me to 300m. Then it was time to call on the legs to kick in to up the pace. They responded, the lengths look less time to complete but the lungs started to demand more O2 and my energy tank slipped into the red and by the last 6 lengths I was running on a rush of adrenaline. A sprint finish to 3550m.