Swimbling challenge

Swimbling

Another day another ......... really stupid bloody challenge I have set myself. These challenges are to raise money for Macmillan for the excellent help they provided for my late Cousin John (Loki) and his wonderful family. If you would like to donate, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/doddi-deca

To help prepare for my deca ironman in June a good friend of mine who is taking on his own deca ironman this year, James Page, thought it would be a good idea to test ourselves on a long swim. Another friend of ours joining the challenge fun bus is Mark Yates, he is already no stranger to the deca (for the long read https://theinspire30challenge.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/mark_ugly_10_deca.pdf)

Three Amigos

The swim for me is the hardest of the disciplines in triathlon, mainly because I hate swimming :/ and secondly it is really difficult to train for such long distances. Most pools only provide 2 hours of lane swimming at most in my area.

This challenge is to swim 1 mile every hour on the hour for 24 hours, the maths is simple that even I can do that, 24 miles. The quicker you complete each mile the longer the break you have before starting your next mile. The challenge starts on Saturday 20th April and finished the following morning.

This challenge is all about preparing myself for the deca ironman. I am hoping to learn a lot about my body when swimming for such a long time. The most important being how to take on nutrition and also how to get/stay warm once my body temperature drops. I have genuinely just shivered whilst typing this out.

The swim is happening in an open air 50m pool. That doesn't sound too bad you think, until I learnt that the temperature is only 16oC!

For a while I have been thinking, I have this! It's just swimming. As it closer the panic of what I am attempting is kicking in.

To summarise

1. I hate swimming
2. I hate the cold
3. I hate swimming in a pool the most
4. I have never had to take on nutrition whilst swimming

Most of all I have to stay mentally strong and remember why I am doing this

Deca Ironman is on

It has been a long time and just when I thought I could 'retire' from these crazy events, my last being in 2015! my Triple Ironman . Claire at http://decauk.co.uk/ decides to host the UK's first Deca Ironman. How can I resist!

The Stats

To summarise this is a continuous 24 mile swim, 1,120 mile bike ride and then finishing with a 262 mile run all of which you have to complete within the 12 day cut off.

Putting this into some perspective it is approximately the equivalent of:

Swimming the English Channel (or a little under a marathon distance)

Cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats and back again

Running from London to the Lake District

It all kicks off on July 21st!

The Why

I was originally going to keep this on the quiet and just announce when I felt good and ready (closer to the time) but sadly my cousin John Power aka Loki Dread had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and I felt i to do something to 'help'.
Given this awful news I decided to raise money for a good cause which is why I am raising money for Macmillan. Macmillan has been amazing in helping John and his family come to terms with his illness and supporting him throughout with home care. If it was not for Macmillan he would not have been allowed home surrounded by his loving family of a wife and two amazing young daughters.

I had announced my event just before Christmas on other social media places but I have now decided to kick start my blog again throughout this journey to keep others updated and myself on track.

Sadly John passed away in the new year.

This is for you cuz

You

It would be amazing to have donations, if you would like to please use this link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/doddi-deca