Time to come out of swimming hibernation

I have been slowly coming out of hibernation all this year but it has taken until now to start feeling confident about the task I've taken on for 2012. From midday on Saturday 23 June to midday Sunday 24 June I will be swimming at SOPAC at Homebush.

The swim is part of a bigger event to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis; see the official website at www.megaswim.com. For the past three years, Sea's the Limit swimmers have taken part in this fabulous event. The first year we entered one team of 15 swimmers. Each swimmer is in the water for 15 minutes of each hour, rotating in blocks of 3-4 hours. The whole event attracted about 20 teams.

The following year, Sea's the Limit entered two teams, amongst over 30 teams for the main event, and in 2011, we fielded four teams, with the event fully subscribed at about 40 teams.

In 2012 we hope to enter four teams again, plus me. Because what started as a bit of a joke last year - that I would swim the whole thing - started to feel like a good challenge at the beginning of this year. I have since spent the last few months battling the urge to pull out because the whole thing now feels way too big for me. And while it still feels like a very big deal, I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I'll just give it a go and see what happens.

Most of my training this year has been in the pool, which is a lot less interesting than all the ocean training I did in 2010. However, it does mean I don't have to keep bugging my friends to paddle for me, and at least the water temperature is fairly constant. 

It's now only 7 weeks to go - the kilometres each week are increasing as my weight is decreasing (finally, those excess English Channel kilos are coming off.) Yesterday, I had a 7 hour test swim and it went well. I managed 23.5kms, which included pit stops (a definite downside to swimming in a pool) and feeding time. 

I held a comfortable 1.37 / 100m pace for the first 6 hours. The last hour wasn't as edifying but perhaps my head knew that the end was approaching. See, it can still freak my little head out when I think I've just swum for 6 hours and that's only a quarter of what I'll be doing. OK, I'll stop now before I have another little meltdown. 

Next test swim in 3 weeks time. Until then....