24 Hour Swim4Life

The goal - to swim 1 mile an hour, on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours.......mission accomplished!!

We had the perfect start to the day, the sun steadily rising through the clear blue sky, shimmering down on Guildford open air 50m lido. The sparkle from the water gave a false sense, as the impulse was to jump in and float around leisurely; however at around 21 degrees C this was a pool to move quickly through to keep the body temperature up.

The poolside was surrounded by the tents of the 60+ participants, which gave a festival atmosphere to the place. Old friends of the swimming fraternity meeting up at yet another event to test their personal mettle, some testing themselves ahead of a Channel swim attempt, others just there for the hell of it.

At just before 9:30am we swimmers, some very colourfully clad, were called to the pool side to receive our starting orders, this was it the first of 24 miles. As the clock struck the half hour The Lady Mayor of Guildford gave a short speech and then set us off. One by one, in our allocated lanes, we dived in and started pounding out the lengths. As to be expected in any mass event, competitive spirit took over and some of the fastest laps of the day were recorded in that first mile.

Twenty four and a bit minutes later I was out and feeling reasonably good. My plan had been to take advice from the previous 24 hour event a couple of years ago and break the mile into 4 x 400m and do 300m front crawl and 100m back stroke, but I got caught up with the others in my lane and just front crawled it all the way. During my first break I started to work on my post swim routine, in my mind it had been – shower, dry, dress, eat, stretch, sit down. However, I was worried about getting food into my stomach early enough to allow it time to settle before the next mile, so the routine went – dry, eat, dress, toilet, sit down – the stretching was quickly binned!

For food I had a good mix – simple pasta with salt and olive oil, marmite sandwiches, cake, oat and seed flap jacks, cake, jelly babies, mini rolls, chocolate, bananas, cake and Maxim sports drink to supplement it all. I found it difficult in the first couple of miles to eat much, but managed a few bites. As I got into the swing of things it became easier to eat every hour. I drank just water for the first couple of hours so as not to give my stomach too much of a pounding with the electrolytes, which worked well. The regular toilet stops after each mile told me that I was drinking plenty and keeping nicely hydrated. As we moved into the cold hours of the night I started to have hot Maxim drinks in a bid to keep the energy and heat levels up.

The first break seemed to last for ages, I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. I had to stop myself playing with my son who was happily splashing around in the kids pool area with Mel, my wife. He looked as though he was having a lot of fun, but conscious to heed the warnings of those who had done this event before, I sat passively, saved energy and watched.

The following 4 miles were pretty straight forward, although the pace was starting to drop off. In Lane 2 we started to discuss positioning and swim strategy, who was going to swim where and for how long before it was someone else’s time to take the lead. Invariably once we got going it was just a case of hanging on to the feet of the person in front long enough to conserve as much energy as possible.

During the 6th mile I started to hit a bit of a mental and physical barrier, my arms weren’t functioning quite as my brain was telling them to do so and for the first time I started to worry that I wouldn’t make the distance. My training had taken me up to 8 miles in a single day over 3 sessions as well as 4 other swim sessions and a couple of weights sessions each week. So, I felt that I was about as physically prepared as I could be (granted painting the whole of the downstairs a few days before the swim was possibly not the best prep!). My mind was wondering in that 6th mile as others started to lap me – how could I be so far behind and slow with all this preparation? What had everyone else been doing in training that I hadn’t? Questions I couldn’t answer, so I just kept on swimming. At mile 8 I felt stronger and was able to get through the lengths with relative ease, now completely ignoring those around me and swimming at my own pace, with a 50m back stroke thrown into every 400m. My mile splits were getting slightly longer, now up to around 27mins per mile, but I was very chuffed that I had made it to a third of the way.

We had been blessed with a beautiful sunny day all day, but as the late afternoon took hold the sun started to dip behind the trees and the wind started to pick up. Getting out of the cold water and being dried by the sun was now over and it was time to start working out how to get dry and warm quickly. I used a shammy to remove most of the water and then put on some clothes and sat in my tent which was still warm having had the full force of the sun on it throughout the day.
Some of the competitors had started to don wetsuits as day became dusked and quickly turned into night. A few had started to drop out due to various injuries or just because it had got too cold, the water temperature had started to drop by a few degrees. We were now down from 7 to 5 in our lane. Myself and one of the other competitors, Rich, had decided to complete 12 miles without the wetsuit, which we duly managed. That last mile without the wetsuit was an absolute killer, it was properly cold by this point and my arms felt as though they were full of cement, I managed the mile but felt awful, coming in at just under 29 minutes.

I had been very lucky to have had a lot of support from my lovely wife and son throughout the day and friends and family drop in when they could. It was a great morale booster to have them around. Some friends lived just next door to the pool – Sue and Dave, who kept dropping in throughout the day, night and early hours of the morning to give me support. After getting out of that 12th mile I was frozen to the core and I had to brush Sue aside as she popped in to say hi, so I could get to some warm clothing. She said she had a gift for me, at that point all I could think about was warmth and couldn’t focus on her, until she thrust a hot water bottle into my trembling hands.....it was as though she had given me a the Elixir of life, I could have wept I felt so happy. Suddenly I was energised again and felt that I could do anything. Coupled with the fact that at mile 13 I put the wetsuit on I felt that I could go on for another 24 hours let alone another 12. It gave me the extra padding I needed to endure the cold. Putting on the wetsuit was like putting on Superman’s cape, I flew through the water, now leading the remaining swimmers in my lane (most with wet suits, but a couple without) and actually on a few of the next miles lapping some of them. I felt so strong now and although the cold was still a bit of an issue when I got out, the hot water bottle and a hot drink sorted that out. I was able to eat and drink pretty consistently throughout the night so my energy levels were balanced.

As we moved into the depths of night it was hard to stay awake between miles. I would get into the tent, stuff some food in and snuggle into the duvet Mel had very thoughtfully brought for me on her evening shift to get warm, laying my head down and dozing until I heard the shout for 5 minutes until the next mile began. Getting out of that warm tent into the cold night air just got harder and harder each time. Once I was in the water and had sprinted through the first 100m my core temperature was high enough for me to relax back into a nice gentle stroke. The wetsuit allowed me to glide through the water with relative ease. There were still some around us swimming without wetsuits, I have no idea how they managed it.

As the dawn began to break and the blackness in the sky gave way to morning our spirits began to lift even if the temperature did not, the end was in sight, there were only 5 miles left to go. About half way through the 19th mile I started to feel a twinge in my right elbow, which intensified the further I swam. It was just about bearable to complete the mile, but I was seriously worried that I wouldn’t be able to go on. This was hard to cope with mentally as we had just got through the hardest part of the 24 hours, with the sun rising it was only going to get warmer and easier. Before drying off I downed a couple of ibuprofen to give them maximum time to take hold before the next mile. At the start of mile 20 the pain was still there, but I could feel the intensity passing, although it still slowed me down I was able to complete the mile.

Before too long we had just 2 more miles to go, we were now down to 3 remaining swimmers in our lane. Each time we met at the start of the mile, we tried to joke and cheer ourselves along before getting in. Just as we were about to jump into the penultimate mile I heard my name shouted across the pool, I looked up to see Mel and Jack running toward me to give me that extra boost. I hadn’t known what time they would be back, so it was lovely to see them just before jumping in again. This mile was extremely hard, about half way through I hit the wall pretty hard, it felt as though someone had just hit the off switch, my energy levels were drained and felt very low. I pulled myself to the end of the mile and staggered out of the pool. Only one more mile to go, but I had nothing left in the tank. Friends started to appear to support me through the last mile, but I could barely speak to them. Back at the tent I stuffed as much sugary stuff I could get into my mouth as quickly as possible plus a few big swigs of energy drink and the feeling of the sun on my face started to do the trick.

Psychologically the last mile was tough, not because it was the last, but because I had felt so bad the previous mile. However, it passed pretty much as every other mile before it, my mind wondering a little, but mainly just counting out the lengths trying not lose count, I didn’t want to do any extra! And then the final 50m was ahead of me, I would have loved to have sprinted in at the end, but I had just about enough energy to maintain a constant speed, I touched the wall at the end to the sound of clapping and whooping......initially it was a feeling of relief, but now a day later it feels fantastic to have completed such a massive challenge. I have learned a lot about my swimming and myself. Plenty of work to do on acclimatisation before I hit the Channel in a couple of years, I would not have completed the challenge without a wetsuit, so I have the utmost respect for all of those that managed without.

My Kit List

Food
Maxim energy drink
bananas
Sarnies
Cereal
choc
mini rolls
oat energy bars
pasta
chewing gum
mints
carbo gels
throat sweets
Equipment
Phone
Blackberry
Goggles x 3
Swim hats x 5
ear plugs x 2
Drinking bottles
Shamies
washing line
Pegs
book
Clothing
Hoodies x 2
Warm hat
Cap
Towels x 4
Trunks x 3
wet suit
rash vests x2
flip flops
beach shoes
trainers
gloves
scarf
waterproof/ Winter jacket
tracky bottoms x 2
sport tops x 2
sport T-shirts x 3
sunnies
Toiletries
Vasaline
body glide
shampoo
shower gel
talc
Suncream
moisturisor
pain killers
antihistamine
mouthwash
toothbrush and paste
immodium
baby oil
wet ones
Camping
Tent
Chair
Mat
head torch
torch
sleeping bag
Duvet
Hot water bottle
Pillows