WE DID IT!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT - full swim report appears at the bottom of our page.
(Scroll to bottom for regular updates on our training swims)
The Team :
A solicitor, a trainee solicitor and a history teacher
The Challenge :
one mile swim in the sea off Teignmouth, on 12 September 2010 organised by, and raising funds for the Rowcroft Hospice.
The Issues :
· One mile is a very, very, long way when you are swimming in the sea
· The sea is cold - even when wearing a wet suit
· It is really creepy when something brushes your foot or hand whilst you are swimming – 9 times out of 10 it is weed but it still makes you jump
· If you let it your imagination runs riot picturing all the nasties lurking in the deep!
The Aim:
Swim not sink!! and in the process raise as much money as we can for the Rowcroft Hospice, a charity providing support to people with life limiting illnesses, see left for more details of what they do.
Your bit:
Please help us complete our challenge - the more money we are raising the more incentive we will have to keep going and get to the end of the mile on 12 September.
Thanks!
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So please dig deep and donate now.
The Progress to date
Good whilst we were training in the swimming pool, but since completing our first sea swim we have realised just how far we have to go.
Saturday 7 August - 35 days to go!
Lizza is in Surrey so her training today has been pool based. Sarah & Bex swam at Preston, the day was changeable and when we went in the water was dark on the surface, and full of seaweed just below with quite a swell moving the water around the bottom of the steps. The swim was good, down to the far side of Redcliff hotel and back, but the water was murky the whole way. Wore my garmin and recorded 1.1 miles. Got out and wondered why everyone was peering over the rails (thought they had just been admiring our swim) oh no, the sun had come out and illuminated the depths, hundreds, if not thousands of sand eels were gathering all along the steps the wall... BLURRGGGHH!! we have just swum right through them.
Monday 9 August - 33 days to go!
bbbbrrrrrr ..... cold, dark and cold. It was quite windy and very overcast when Sarah and I swam this evening at 6.30pm. Sea was dark and very cold, the wind chill made it seem even colder. Swimming to the redcliff was hard, wind in our faces, and we hoped the way back was going to be easier, but somehow it was even harder, like swimming through paste. Very glad to get out, and not surprised to get some funny looks from the grockles heading home to their hotels. Surely this has got to be as bad as it gets....
Friday 13 August - 29 days to go
A sunny day for a change, just right for a lunchtime swim. Sarah and I headed to Preston and did our usual swim along the beach to the far side of the Redcliff and back. Ok really on the way out, but when we turned around we realised just how windy it was and the wind was blowing directly along the beach. This created a relatively small swell but I almost felt seasick and had to gulp to take breath as wave approached and then felt as though I was dropping down the other side. Quite disorientating. Yet again, left the water thinking it can't get worse than that!
Saturday 14 August - 28 days to go!
Me and Lizza hitting the water today, couldn't be more different to yesterday. Preston again and same swim but today there were huge thunderclouds gathering just over the railway line. Freezing getting in thanks to the wind over the water, once we were swimming it wasn't too bad. And then the heavens opened. The rain was pelting the water like hailstones and we could barely make out the beach. I am sure we were better off in the water than out, and probably drier than the poor holiday makers on the beach!!
Monday 16 August - 26 days to go
The whole team swam tonight (and got some great photos of us together - check them out!). Conditions were good, had been lovely summers day so no wind, swell or other hazards to avoid. No problems as we headed along the beach towards the pier. We paused halfway to regroup, and that was the end of the team training. Lizza saw a large fish jump out of the water fairly close by. I have a fish phobia, so I was off, nothing was getting between me and my towel! Sorry girls.
Saturday 21 August - 21 days to go
Just me and Sarah, it has been a very busy week for both of us and seemed like a very long time since our last training swim, although it was only 5 days ago. We swam off Goodrington, which I always find more challenging as it is much deeper water with rocks just under the surface in the middle of the bay. The first time we swam here I grazed my knee on the rocks and am always very wary of the same thing happening. Fortunately no such incidents. We swam from the northern wall in front of the beach huts, to the far set of buoys and back. It was nice to be back in the water.
Friday 27 August - 16 days to go!
We haven't been in since last Saturday, and had our first abortive swim this morning. Lizza is back for the weekend and her last swim before the real deal. We got to the beach at 7.30am and changed into our wetsuits. Then we had a look at the water. The only word for it is uninviting. It was cold, overcast, the water was murky and it was almost high tide. Thanks to the strong winds of the past few days (great kitesurfing!) we have been left with a huge swell. We couldn't see how we could safely enter the water from the steps or the beach and as the tide was still coming in getting out may have been even more of a problem. So we drove around to Goodrington to see if things were any better. They weren't and for the first time we didn't even enter the water.
I am writing this at 3pm and the sun is shining and the sea looked ok on our way past a short while ago. So fingers crossed we may get in this evening.
Friday 27 August - 6pm (still 16 days to go!)
On our return to the beach conditions were about the same but the tide was lower so we were able to safely enter and exit the beach. Fortunately the swell was so big that it didn't interfere with our swim so we had a good practice session in the end. Highlight of the swim was watching the red arrows over Dartmouth.
Monday 30 August - only 13 days to go!
Our last training swim all together. A beautiful sunny summers day (why hasn't it been like all the way through the summer!). Still a large swell crashing on the steps so it wasn't easy to get going. We swam from the slope onto Preston beach across to Paignton pier and back. Coming back the swell really caused problems, the tide had just turned and was going out, which made it feel as though we were being pulled out to sea, and not only was there the large swell but also quite a choppy surface to the water. The result, a face full of water each time we were trying to breath. Hard going, but we did it. Now we are definitely hoping for a completely flat sea in 13 days time!
Saturday 4 September - 8 days to go!
Sarah and I met at Preston to have a look at the conditions, and there was still a hefty swell and four to five lines of breaking waves. We didn't fancy it. Goodrington much the same due to the direction, so we decided to try Torre Abbey. Tucked in the corner of the bay it was relatively sheltered so we decided to head straight out from middle of the beach to the end of the pier and back. We were put to shame by a trully mammoth swim by a guy who went in off the far right of Torre Abbey swam to the five knot buoys followed the line across the pier and swam around the seawall to the beach... and then back! Think he was a bit bemused to suddenly have company off the end of the pier and stopped to do a double take. We decided to add a bit extra and follow the pier and seawall back to the beach and all in all was a good swim. Next one on Monday, hoping for slightly calmer seas as it is probably going to be our last training swim before the actual event. Keep fingers crossed everyone for calm seas.
Friday 10 September - 2 days to go!!!! eek!
Sarah and I have just been in a very murky, choppy and sea weedy sea at Preston for our final practice swim before Sunday. It was very windy so the surface of the sea was quite churned up.
Tonight, it certainly seemed a very long way from our first few swims in the summer sun with crystal clear still seas... Lizza, Sarah and I are excited and nervous and hugely grateful for all your tremendous support, theres no going back now!
Saturday 11 September - the day before!
It has been a nice day today hoping for more of the same tomorrow a bit of sunshine will make the sea look far less daunting I am sure.
Sunday 12 September - this is it!!
Hooray! We did it. Couldn't have asked for better weather and sea conditions - blue sky, sunshine and glassy surface to the sea, not a wave in sight. 162 people took to the water all wearing orange swim hats and really must have been quite a spectacle. It was amazing to be a part of it. Supported all around the swim route by kayaks and surf life savers on their paddle boards, a tremendously well organised and enjoyable event.
It did seem an awfully long way to the first marker buoy and the halfway point where we rounded the corner and headed for home. It was very strange swimming with so many others but once you got used to the splashing all around you it was fine. The warm up on the grass was probably the toughest part - imagine doing an aerobics class in a wetsuit!!
All in all a fantastic event, thanks to Rowcroft for organising it, and thanks to anyone reading this for your support, if you fancy giving us a bit more money please do.
Bex, Sarah and Lizza xxx
