This last weekend I was down in Dover to put a line under all this Channel Swimming stuff for this year. We went down on The Saturday and had a dinner at Cullins yard on the Saturday evening follwed by a trip to the White Horse pub where it is traditional for successful Channel swimmers to sign their names on the pub walls. If you are ever in the area I would recommend going and having a look at the pub as it is quite amazing to see and entire pub with writing on most of the walls and ceilings of past channel swimmers.
This was followed on Sunday by a Swim for the brave in the sea, I must admit I wimped out on this one as the weather was foul and I was sporting a bit of a cold.
Below is a summary of the years events as a wrap up to this summer.
I beleive that I was the about the 1015th person to ever swim across the Channel
I am in the top 25% of fastest times to cross the channel
I am the 3rd Zimbabwean to successfully swim the Channel. (Don't know How many have attempted it though)
I am the Fastest Zimbabwean to Swim across the Channel
From a fundraising perspective, When all is counted in, here is a breakdown of what we achieved
£3750 raised by the justgiving site
£868 Gift Aid on all of that
£1000 raised from a garden Party
£400 Donation from my company
All in all that is about £6000 raised from someones silly idea to swim the English Channel.
Well you may ask "what now?". Well I am still thinking about doing the Channel again and probably both ways this time but that will be at least 3 years down the line. My immediate future is uncertain as I will most likely leave my job shortly. This will give me the opportunity to take some time offf and figure out where too from Now.
With regards to small challenges that I am planning, next year may be a big one as A friend and I are contemplating a marathon in Africa, I am probably the worlds worst runner and have never run a marathon or even come close before but a year ago I had never swum the channel either. Kayak across the channel, cycle down Britain and 4 rounds of golf in a day. So it may turn out that you will be hearing from me again either doing all of the above of or at least some of them.
I will carry on my swimming as that seems to be the one thing that I am not bad at and there are a few people that I would like to help get across the English Channel next season but I feel that to keep me motivated I need a goal.
Well it has been the most amazing summer and I have learnt a lot about myself and my friends, family and people in general. Everyone wants to do their bit for charity and if I can become a vessel that lets people do thier bit I am glad to be of assistance. The response from people that I know and have met this year has been a truly amazing insight into the Human race.
For now that is all I can think of to say apart from
THANK YOU ALL,
WITHOUT YOU I AM NOTHING!
WITHOUT YOU THERE WOULD BE MORE PEOPLE IN ZIMBABWE GOING HUNGY THIS XMAS
FONDEST REGARDS
THE ZIMHIPPO
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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