Swimming 24 Miles, In 24 Hours. Who's Daft Idea Was That?

Also read :
A Marathon In A Pool (Well, Almost)
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I've talked about it, dreaded it, trained for it, regretted entering it and last weekend, completed it. 2Swim4Life - swimming a mile on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours. Who's daft idea was it to enter? Mine.

Training with Guildford City Swimming Club for up to 9 hours a week wasn't enough, extra sessions in long course pools with fellow Master's swimmer and 2Swim4Life participant Kieron Taylor saw us swimming the 100x100's, (that's 100x 100metres back to back with around 5 seconds break inbetween, or a 10k swim) followed by 150x100's (a 15k swim) - both down at the Aldershot Barracks 50m pool, the 150x100's took over 4 hours. THAT was knackering. And boring. Who's daft idea was that? Kieron's. But it was good training for 2Swim4Life. I remember saying that on the big day, we'd look back at that 150x100's and find it harder. I was so wrong.

So the big day came along, the day after Wills and Kate got married. That was a challenge in itself, staying off the beer / burgers and junk in our local community street party. Infact, I failed, but it helped me sleep!

An earlier start than planned, we needed to set up my big tent as base camp at 8am, and be ready for the Mayor of Guildford's opening speech at 9.25am, before we started our first mile. It was a hot morning, but also had a nice cooling breeze - perfect weather for lazing around in the rays, not that great when getting out of an open air pool, with a temperature of around 21c - wind chill was a worry.

Anyway, the Mayor said her thing, the adrenaline pumped, the clear blue water of the Lido shimmered in the sun and with a shout, off we all went - 8 people in my lane, lane 2. I was determined NOT to go too fast, to swim at my own pace, and take it steady "it's a marathon, not a sprint".. trouble is, that competitive streak is hard to keep at bay.. and staying on someone's toes, drafting - slipstreaming, is feels like the right thing to do. First mile flew by. 25mins to be exact and getting out feeling ok and deciding the cold water wasn't a bit of a rush - hey, we only had to get back into water another 23 times!!

1 Mile Down, 23 To Go


Pretty much did the first 7 miles without any problems at all - jumped in, churned out the lengths (all front crawl), got out, had a drink, dried off with a sports towel, put on a dressing gown, sent a tweet, crossed the mile off the white board, ate something, relaxed, had a bit of banter with Kieron / Friends / Family / Fellow swimmers and enjoyed the sunshine. Btw, Kieron was consistantly faster than me in lane 3, as he was throughout training. Maybe too fast. 21 minutes for one of his miles!

Choppy water (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


The 8th mile meant we were a third of the way through the challenge - quite a feat. Physically and mentally, I was fine - mentally, myself and Kieron had practised counting the lengths at 100's, rather 50's.. this meant we would count to 16, rather than 32 (32 lengths of a 50m pool = 1 mile) - which seemed like a lower amount. Also, rather than thinking about how many miles there were to go, I'd just focus on that mile, getting it done, and look forward to sitting down and relaxing in my camping chair for a bit, or the hammock. Of course, I'd constantly lose count, and rely on the person infront of me not to be so absent minded and make us all swim too far.

High Elbows (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


Mile 9 hurt, as did 10 - which also marked the furthest I've ever swum (15k = 9.3miles) and as the sun started to set, the cold started to become a problem - and that cooling breeze made it increasingly hard to stay warm. I was quite happy to stay at the back of the pack, and a couple of the fastest 4 in the lane lapped me, which didn't feel great. It slowly got worse. Bally (my wife) took the kids home, but came straight back to check I was ok - fortunately bringing with her, my wetsuit (and more food).. 11 and especially 12 we very hard, staying in the pool seemed warmer than getting out.. by this time the party atmosphere had gone, as had all the friends / families from the pool side, and people had started to drop out.. that in itself was demoralising - fellow swimmers would simply disappear, hitting home how hard this event was.

Halfway should've been a celebration, but I was struggling. I could not get warm. A dip in the hot tub worked a treat - both myself and Kieron stretched out a bit, and enjoyed being warm again - but getting out of that was harder than getting in the pool, and my whole body shuddered like a sudden flu type fever in the cold night air. Heading back to the tent, covering myself in two or three towels, dressing gown, 2 sleeping bags just didn't help, plus I remember thinking I only had 10 minutes before I was due back in the pool. Kieron mumbled in the tent that he "hadn't swum 150x100's to give up". Looking at my wetsuit felt like a cop out, but I had mentioned to fellow lane swimmer Matt Dawson (read his blog of the event here) that I wanted to get a least halfway before putting it on, and now was the time..

As I struggled to get into the thing, hearing the dreaded shout of "5 minutes" panic started to set it - but the change was pretty immediate - I stopped shivering for one, the wind couldn't penetrate.. hearing "2 minutes" and rushing to the pool side, I noted that Matt had also put his wetsuit on, and I didn't feel too bad. We'd survived longer than most in our lane (except for Carole, who like Kieron stayed in her cosy the whole blumming way!) and duly got in behind the faster 4. It took just 100metres to suss out that either those 4 were slowing down, or I was speeding up - a tap on the toes, and myself and Matt found ourselves leading the lane. We were flying - infact, I swam my fastest mile on mile 13 - unlucky for some. One of the fastest 2 from the fastest 4 commented on how fast we were in our wetsuits, and I think that was the last we saw of her. The lane dropped to 6.

Friend and neighbour Big Chris turned up to buddy me through the early hours, this involved saying "right, get something to eat, and try and get some sleep, I'll wake you up with 10 minutes to go" - which he did until about 4.30am as the dawn finally started to show. More and more people were dropping out. At some point only 3 were left in lane two, Matt, Carole and myself. I was getting around 10-15minutes power naps during my rest periods, the miles were ticked off, and it was all a bit of a blur.. when the birds started to sing, I started to feel ok, the end was finally in sight - although my right shoulder was starting to be a bit grumpy, and I could feel the threat of cramps in my legs - so simply stopped kicking.

Wetsuit Is On (Photo Courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


After the 22nd mile, friends and family started to return to the Lido to cheer on those left - Jon Brayne, our coach at GCSC popped back in to see how we were doing (thanks Jon!) and Bally and the kids arrived at about 7am, it was amazing to see them, but I was so focused on finishing, I didn't really say that much. My shoulder now started to complain a lot, and I was already up to my limit for Nurofen - my stroke technique wasn't great, but I was still finishing in under 30mins - no legs and one arm - hahahaha!!

23rd mile was a struggle, but crossed off the white board.

Before hand, we'd joked that after mile 23 we'd run over to the Premier Inn and have a pint before the final mile, we didn't.

Then the moment I'd been waiting for - the final mile. Couldn't quite believe the end was in sight to be honest, I don't think anyone realistically thought I'd be able to complete this challenge, and I'd not really thought about failing. I just wanted to get in, and get the job done.



Matt was struggling too, but was still ahead of me, as was a rejuvenated Carole. Every length, every turn got a cheer from the poolside, along with shouts from my two daughters, Jasmine and Saffron. About halfway through, losing count as usual, I spotted them walking along the poolside for each length - I remember thinking they were walking really slowly.. ah. The trouble with losing count at this stage in the challenge, is you don't know when you are going to finish - the last mile went on and on and on - I'm sure Matt hadn't lost count, I was just willing it to be the next 100, and it never was.. the only way to tell it was all over was if I could see Matt stand up - but he was almost 50m ahead of me, and he kept turning and doing another bloody 100m.

And then, he stood up. No more. Last 50metres, and it would be over. I thought about a stylistic ending to this, bit of fly? Turning on the speed? Show off a bit? No. Nothing. Just finish - that's all I wanted to do. And that's what I did, touching the end to make sure it was over, then standing up, throwing my arms up in the air, as well as congratulating my lane mates, to a backdrop of cheering and clapping from the poolside. IT WAS OVER!

Lane 2 FINISHED!! Left to Right - Carole, Ritch, Matt (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


The "It's over" feeling finally sinks in! (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


Unfortunately my arms got stuck in this position.


Congratulating Matt Dawson (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


Congratulating Carole (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)

Watching Kieron finish in style, with his lane mates Lucinda Pollington and Mark Robson (read his blog here) side by side was superb, as was the applause / hand shaking and general well done from everyone including fellow Masters swimmer and open water specialist Jim Boucher.

Lane 3 Left To Right - Lucinda, Mark, Kieron


Lane 3 FINISHED (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)


Lane 3 Relief (Photo courtesy of Ruth Cordero)

Looking back, it all seems a bit of a dream. I still can't believe I've done it, and that after 24 hours I was absolutely fine - no aches, pains or strains - maybe I should've put more effort in.

To document what food, drink and supplements I was taking for potential future 2Swim4Life participants, here goes - bearing in mind I read somewhere that we were expected to burn between 20,000 and 25,000 calories during this (yeah, right!)

Banana's. Lots of them. Over 12 I think.
Cadbury Twirls. 2 x family packs
Red Bull Light. 8 x cans (Although, as coach Jon Brayne pointed out, I shouldn't drink these as I'd eventually get a caffeine low (I heard the same when Chris Moyles & Comedy Dave were preparing for their marathon 50 hour radio show for Comic Relief) and they'd dehydrate me.. anyway, I drank 6 cans from about 10pm and felt great!!)
Ham Sandwiches. Craved them for some reason - think Kieron was too.
Pasta and pesto. Horrible when cold.
Salted Peanuts. Again, crave these after a swim - loss of salt?
Granola Bars. Never eaten them before, but love them now
Nurofen and Creatine tablets. Both take away the pain, the latter seems to help with lactic acid.
Vaseline. Rubbed around the neck to stop nasty chaffing from the wetsuit
E45. My skin doesn't like me swimming - nor do my sinuses - E45 is great for the skin, not much I can do about my nose.
And in that bottle, next to my blue fake crocs - PhD Battery +3 - energy and endurance range from GNC

Oh, almost forgot. A secret little bottle containing Malvern water - taken from source from the Hayslad spring on the Malvern Hills



Right. What't the next challenge.. Channel..

Also read :
A Marathon In A Pool (Well, Almost)
Having Problems Counting To 16
And if you'd like to donate click here, all money goes directly to Help For Heroes.