Record Attempt: The Epic 13 (70km swimming) in under 41 hours - July 2023

The challenge is simple, actually that’s a complete lie, it’s really not that simple! There are 13 publicly accessible lakes in the Lake District, UK (see below) and the challenge is to swim all 13 consecutively. From the research that I’ve done I’ve found; one person has swum and hiked/run between them, one person has swum and cycled between them (Danny Longman and his mate, but only Danny was able to finish), and a couple of people (including Danny) have ‘just’ swum the lakes and driven between them. Danny holds the current record (lets call it a World Record!) or Fastest Known Time (FKT) of 41 hours. I had planned to have a go at the cycle/swim option, before finding out people had done any of the above. But on reflection, with the time needed to do the training for both and extra time I’d need to be away to do the actual challenge, I have decided to simplify things and go for the FKT of Swim only.

The most amazing thing about this challenge, so far, is that I was able to get in touch with Danny, he agreed to have a chat, which followed by him sharing his whole planning document. In how many sports do you get that kind of help?! Having this information has been incredibly helpful to plan the challenge. When I had a chat with Danny we debated whether the route should be fixed, or whether the challenge should be focused on swimming the longest stretch of the lakes. Leaving the logistics and working out the route open, to add a little spice and ingenuity to the challenge. We opted for the latter.

I did a recce of the some of the lakes in October last year, which showed me that this is not as straight forward as just turning up at one end of the lake and swimming to the other. For a start, the beginning and end points of most of the lakes I saw were not that obvious or easy to get to. When I swam Windermere a couple of years ago, that was simple, jump in a boat get taken to the start and just swim. Some of the lakes, even with Danny’s document, I couldn’t find how to get to the start of the lake. It required climbing over gates (publicly accessible gates I must add), walking across fields or through fallen trees in one instance. This made me revise the ideas I had about whizzing between the lakes as quickly as possible and shaving off chunks of time there. Much more to think about and work out. I have another recce planned for later this month, let’s see what that turns up.

A few other things that need consideration; what and how much kit will I need, how to deal with not spreading invasive plant species between lakes, what feeding strategy to take, whether I’m going to have any sleep or just keep going for it, how to make sure the crew knows exactly what to do, especially when I become an incoherent mess in the latter stages. I need them to be able to make the important decisions on my behalf.

When I was in the local lake training this morning I was having a tough session and thinking how on earth am I going to do this for 40ish hours! What I keep telling myself though, is that in every long distance challenge I’ve done I get into the zone on the day. Its usually the same leading up to the challenge ‘how am I going to do this’. During the event ‘just keep going, you’ve got this’. After the event ‘how did I do that’ or ‘did I really do that’. It almost feels like somebody else has done the challenge.

The training has been a difficult one to work out. I’ve been progressively building up my distance since the beginning of the year. I was so happy when the lakes opened in April (yes the lakes have to open around my way, can’t just jump in when you like!) and I could shift some of my swims to open water. Doing 10km regularly in a pool is a bit soul destroying, especially when the longest lane session is 2 hours, so the remainder of the set is done weaving in and out of families who don’t seem to be able to spot the swimmers going up and down in a straight line!

About a month ago I started to slow down and struggle with a good (for me) pace. I recognised the signs of over-training, I modified my schedule. Looking back I had been doing 30-40km per week, with the odd recovery week thrown in. I was doing double days to make up the distance between work and when lanes were available. It basically meant I wasn’t getting the chance for really good recovery. But then when I did allow myself a bit of time to recover, I started to fret that I wasn’t training enough.

This is the really hard thing, to train for something that not many people have done before, so it’s difficult to gauge what the right amount should be. I have started to think that with any endurance event that I’ve done – marathon swimming, marathon & ultra marathon running, Iron Man, 1,000 burpee challenge etc… at some point it stops being about the physical and starts being about the mental challenge and what’s going on inside your head. It’s just at what point the switch happens. I know that swimming through the night is going to be really tough, having done this a few times before. You’re obviously tired from all the swimming and on top of that because you’re used to sleeping at night, the body temperature drops and that’s when it’s difficult to stay positive. This is when the demons can come to visit. I’m planning to combat that by swimming some of the shorter lakes through the night. I think the change of getting in and out of the water will help and changing things up rather than endless swimming in the dark. Although getting back into the cold water each time will present its own mental challenges!

What's great though is that when it starts to get light in the morning of the second day, the circadian rhythm will kick in and I’ll feel more awake ( I will I will I will!!! He says trying to convince himself). The weather is going to have a massive impact on the comfort and ‘ease’ of the swim. I need the crew to keep their morale up, so I don’t have to worry about them. Heavy rains and strong winds are the things I want to avoid, but very little I can do about that. The date is set for 8 & 9th July this year. Its not an easy one to change and get the crew’s availability so I just have to hope the weather is good enough.

I’ll post an update after my next recce and update on how my training and mental state is in the month leading up to the challenge. I’ll also be posting a link to a GPS tracker on this blog for anyone interested in tracking the swim.