TL;DR - Christine and Murph are going to swim a long way (in organised events - ones with medals) this year and have been told (using short words) to fundraise!

Of "Landmark" Birthdays

Christine celebrates a birthday ending in zero this year - so in addition to the nice holidays we wanted a proper challenge. That takes the form of the Chillswim Triple Crown, which comprises end to end swims of three bits of water in the lake district

* Consiton (on 20th June) - which is 5.25 miles / 8.4km long

* Ullswater (on 11th July, yes Murph's birthday 🤦) - which is 7.5 miles / 12.5km long

* Windermere (on 5th September) - which is 11 miles / 17.6 km long - and if we finish that will mean spending about 8 hours in the water (all swimming toward the pub...)

As getting through Windermere requires a certain level of fitness we're going to treat our selves to a return trip to Montenegro and do the UltraSwim 33.3 again in October - another 21 miles / 33.3 km over 4 days (but the longest single swim is only a bit over 10km 🤣)

Those swims total 71.7km - but our aim for the year is to swim at least 365km - which will require some further commitment in the pool post training and organised swims!

Those who know me (Murph) will appreciate that I hate asking for money, but whilst these are personal challenges they are also significant ones - and various people have suggested, quite firmly, that it doesn't matter that they are personal they are still worthy of note, and I will allow that whilst I may describe myself as an accidental endurance athlete - that doesn't mean we're not putting the hours in (as I type this we're about to go and swim laps around a lake for three hours...).

Charities

We are supporting the British Heart Foundation and the Alzheimers Society:

Christine has been working as an NHS manager for Mental Health Services for Older People for over a decade and many of our friends have direct experience of what Alzheimers is and does.

Murph's family has suffered from a genetic heart condition - Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - and heart conditions more broadly will have impacted most of us directly or indirectly at some time.

We will post reports and other updates as we complete our events - so if you do feel inclined we appreciate any support you choose to offer for our efforts.