Katie gave an update at the end of year on how our Winter River Challenge was going (here is a 2 word summary for if you haven’t read it..NOT GREAT) and with 10 weeks to go I (Manda) thought it was time for another short update and some stats.
You can see from the below we have now swum 5 of the top rivers (HOORAH). Unfortunately for us they are the 5 shortest rivers (BOO). The Nene (161km) is less than half the length of the longest river we still have to swim, the Severn (354KM). We have only swum 40% of the total over 21/31 weeks.
On an individual level Katie has swum 171k, so pretty much the River Spey on her own. Brian is at 159km and I am at 155km, so combined we have swum the length of the Trent (297km).
Since the new year Katie and I have managed to average 9.8km a week. Each person needed to swim 9.641km a week from the start for us to have finished all the rivers by the end of April, so we are ticking off over this number weekly now. We now have an obsession with the number 9.6.4.1, which has resulted in us staying in pools and calculating if we have done enough that week to get out and just doing a couple lengths extra to make sure (one week I missed out by 5m – still crying!). You would think this is simple maths but when fatigued and with London pools that have lengths of 25, 27.5, 30, 30.5, 26, 50… THE MATHS IS HARD.
In order for us to get all the rivers ticked off in the next 10 weeks we need to swim 1382km. Divide that by 10 weeks and 8 people, you come to the conclusion that each person needs to swim 17km a week to get there. It isn’t going to happen but we aren’t giving up.
What is the plan for the last 10 weeks:
· We still have the swimathon on March 18th and some of the team have the swim for tri camp in April.
· Katie is now ahead of Brian so I am anticipating an uptick in Brian’s swim distances (you wouldn’t think it when you speak to him but he is SERIOUSLY competitive).
· There are races started to be booked in for 2016 (more on that to come), which suddenly makes people realise they need to train.
· In March Brian and Katie are planning a 100x100m set and some of the others might join them.
· Lisa is also planning on swimming the Gibraltar straights in April. A little extreme just to log an extra few metres but we need all the help we can!
· I will be slowing down (due to the human in my belly), but still plan to attempt to tick off my 9,641m each week for as long as I can.
So watch this water. We might not get all ten done, but we will try and get as far as we can!
Manda
TEAM Mermaids 