Back again. Apologies for not posting for the last two weeks but life has been a bit hectic this last couple of weeks.
First I would like to clear up a few queries. I have not yet swum the Channel yet as some of you might have thought. This is due to my event on facebook that I was unable to extend for more than a month so it ran out recently. Some thought I had already Swum. I wish I had though
My training is going well, over the bank holidy weekend I was down in Dover and I did a 6 hour swim on Saturday and then a 4 hour on Sunday before the weather turned horrible and the heavens opened. The PygmyHippo joined me for the last hour or so on Sunday.I was very pleased to see some of my mates that had decided that it would be a good idea to come camping in the area and spend some time with me, Thanks to all who came down, it was great to see you and spend some time with you all.
The week was spent doing a few 1 -2 hour swims in the pool and, Saturday I was up at 5 o'clock in the morning to head off for Heron lake where they were having a 3.8 km race in the lake, I thought it might be good to go and pit my swimming skills against all these triathletes who need flotation aids to swim. Well I only managed to get a third place out of about 30 people who started but I could have pushed it a lot harder as I did not really want to kill myself at the beginning and my time was pretty slow, 3.8 km in 1 hour and 8 minutes, I would expect to do that distance in less than an hour in those sort of conditions. The PygmyHippo (Spencer) did it in a time of 1 hour and 24 minutes.All in all a good swim.
Saturday I was fundraising again and managed to get some money but was lucky enough to get my cause out to loads of poeple so hopefully it will have been a worthwhile weekend.
With regards to my swim date I am assuming that I will be swimming in my booked slot which is somewhere between the 21st and the 27th of September. I am however on standby in the meantime so if the weather is good and a slot becomes available I will swim earlier. Thank you to all the peole who have expressed an interest in coming down and seeing me off and also driving over to france to be there when I hopefully set foot on France, I will endeavor to let everyone know when I swim as soon as I know a more definite date.
Till next time
Zimhippo off training
Instructions from the general
I'm the confused one scratching my chin
The Channel Swim "WHY?"
The 1st reason
Last year in September my brother must have been bored at work and got hold of me at the office and asked,
“Hey Graeme, how about doing something interesting next year?”
I said
“okay what is it”
Spencer
“How about we swim the channel!!”
Me
“Are you nuts, what drugs have you been on?”
That was the beginning of a conversation that was to change the way my summer for 2008 panned out, much to the disgust of a few friends and much to the detriment of my socialising but hey looking at the summer so far, I suppose it is not a bad thing.
After this conversation, I started to think about where I was in life and that I was a bit overweight: clinically obese according to my doctors. At that time I was training about 10 km a week and the nurse didn’t quite know how to break the news to me about the above fact.
I was also suffering from lower back trouble and it was really annoying me, thanks to the desk job!!!!!
I am the sort of person who cannot just go to the gym so I figured that if I wanted to tone up a bit and strengthen my body in general, this might be a good plan.
The 2nd reason
The other reason I am doing this is the fact that I will be able to raise some money for the desperate people of a country that has been torn apart by a dictator. With unemployment at about 90% and life expectancy in the mid-thirties, the country has gone from being one of the fastest growing economies in Africa in the 1990s, to having the highest inflation of any country in the world, currently sitting at 1 400 000%.
From breadbasket to basket case all in the space of 10 short years.
This country is
Even for the extremely wealthy, the everyday things like going to the shop to buy milk, bread, meat, eggs, butter, vegetables, fuel. Being able to have a romantic dinner with electric lights as opposed to candles, or just have electricity for more than about 2 hours a day is only a distant memory
Butterfly training
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