T -4 Days

So I can't see much happening on the swimming-front today.

I had my last exam this morning, and now I'm at a bit of a loose end. Have just ordered some mini-business cards because last year people kept forgetting the URL to sponsor me. And at only £10 for 100 I thought that was a pretty good deal.

I've also had more sponsorship :-) so thank you to Mercy, The Breezes and Tom. I didn't actually have to blackmail any of these! So I've now got my first 230 lengths sponsored, which is enough to get me almost to the end of Monday's swim nearly a third of the way through Monday's session (I've decided to do more lengths a day. I explain more below). It's fantastic, so thank you again to everyone to has already donated :-)

Not much else to report. I'm tempted to start my swim early, however I think it might be cheating a little bit!

If you haven't already, please can you sponsor me? I still need £897.60 £863.60 £848.60 £756.54 to get me to my target. Thank you so much :-)

Update: I've just had an email from TAG offering me T-shirts and collection buckets. This is really exciting. (I've also just had some Percy Pigs, so I'm on a bit of a sugar high! Maybe wouldn't be quite this excited if I was calm. Breathe Alex, breathe. Who am I kidding? I get excited at everything!). Thank you to TAG and Kath, if you're reading this.

Update 2: Hugh has just got off the phone with Jacqui from TAG who has given us lots of things to think about. So thank you too Jacqui :-)

I've also amended how many lengths I'm going to do a day. This was originally going to be 80, however that didn't take into account any holidays or long working days (I'll be juggling this with two jobs to try and get me lots of summer money. I shall be a pint-pulling lifeguard. I can also invigilate your exams and maintain sterile labs, but I digress). So I have amended my schedule to 100 lengths a day (2.5km, 1.55miles), rather than 80 (2km, 1.25miles). This will mean that I have 3 weeks leeway, and don't have to be cramming in the distance right before I go on holiday so that I still stay on track when I get back having taken a week off (there is no pool at the holiday home we're renting, otherwise I would be continuing the swim).

You may think that 3 weeks is a lot of leeway, as I'm only going to be on holiday for 7 days, however I wanted to keep the distance I was swimming each day to either .5 of a kilometre or a whole one. It just means that keeping track of distances in my head is easy! I'm just lucky that the numbers work out that I can do 100 lengths a day for 92 (and a bit) days and finish my 230km, leaving me with potentially almost 23 days "spare" before I have to go back to uni (because I'm too lazy to swim during term time!).

I'm also going to post a picture of the river to give you an idea of the distance. I'd like to get it embedded somewhere so that you can see my progression, but I'm not very good with computers, so I've put it on Hugh's to-do list :-P

The red pointer is how far I've gone (obviously no-where yet as I don't start until Saturday).

This map is from the British Swimming Swimfit website, which is how I will be tracking my progress. If you click on the map, it will open larger in a new window.


Update 3: Everyone keeps telling me I'm crazy. I think I'm starting to agree with them!

Update 4: Thank you also to my wonderful parents, Judie and Martin, my sister Carli, her friends Anna, Katie, and Zerelda, and my godparents Steve and Serena for sponsoring me. I'm on £55 £57 £72 £164.06 now, which is enough to sponsor me for a week's two and a half week's worth of swimming! Thank you all again :-)

...And to think that I thought today's posting would be a short one!

T -5 days

So, today I've decided to do another swimming challenge.

Last year I swam the length of the channel (in the pool. I don't like fish or poo. I like my swimming water to be chlorinated!) for Aspire, who help people with spinal injuries, like one of my close friends. I did it in 26 days, and managed to raise about £350.

However, this year I want to do something bigger and better. I've decided to swim 230km (143 miles), which is the length of the longest river in East Anglia (it's actually 230.136km, but I've rounded up to the nearest 25m, so it'll be like I'm swimming 14m into the sea!), in 115 days, the amount of time I'm home from University. I'd like to raise £920.60, which is 10p a length, (see, all of these random numbers have meanings :-P ) for The Arthrogryposis Group . Arthrogryposis is the condition which my boyfriend is affected by, so I'd really like to raise the money to help them.

I'm already starting to feel a bit daunted by this, however I've got £5 already and I'm not starting swimming until Saturday. That's my first 50 lengths sponsored already. So thank you to my housemate Akash, who I didn't have to guilt trip into sponsoring me :-P

So please, please will you sponsor me too? I'd like to be able to get in the pool on Saturday and know that my first mile and a quarter is sponsored already. I only need 3 more pounds!

PS, I also need some songs to fill my (waterproof) MP3 player up with to stop me getting bored and talking to the lifeguards. Any suggestions would be appreciated :-)