Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis

The 24 hour swim raises money for those suffering from MS. My target is to raise $1,000 through this swim. Thanks to my friends' generosity I'm nearly there already, but let's keep going.

Did you know: 

• The average diagnosis of MS is 30 years old.
• MS affects three times as many women as men.

Funds raised by 24 Hour Mega Swims support people with MS through:

• Go for Gold scholarships. These are awarded annually to people living with multiple sclerosis to help them reach their goals. A diagnosis of MS often causes people to re-evaluate their lives and a consequent change in their goals or career. These scholarships help people with the transition, to assist people to achieve their dreams or to help with an area of great potential. They are awarded in the categories of education, employment, travel, the arts, sport and music.
• Financial Assistance Programs. These are determined periodically to provide immediate support for people living with MS that have a significant need.

If you would like to help support the programs, please click on the '24 Hour Megaswim' button to the right and then the 'Donate Now' button on the right. 

Thanks very much for your support.

Salt Water

Last Saturday I had my first swim in salt water in weeks. Clear water, lots to look at, plenty of fish. I miss it. 

But goodness, I was cold. The water was probably about 18 degrees and I couldn't stop shivering. Those hard core training swims feel a long time ago.

Still, it will be time to start putting weight on again soon...

Test Week Done

The big 'test' weekend came and went successfully. 

I headed out to Homebush to swim at the Olympic pool on Saturday afternoon, planning to start at midday to 'practice' the start. Fortunately this was a practice run as I realised that Parramatta Road has to be one of the worst roads in Sydney - it's like a car park. Note to self: leave PLENTY of time to get there on the 23rd.

12.15pm and I was in the water. There was a big carnival on in the competition pool so I swam in the training pool - not quite the same but it's indoors, which I'm not used to swimming in, and VERY warm water, so all good practice. 

I don't think I've ever swum in a pool where swimmers pay such little notice to the lane signs. I spent much of the 5 hours overtaking breaststrokers in the fast lane. I remained perfectly calm the entire time (no, honestly, I did.) One of the lifeguards saw all my drink bottles and asked how long I was swimming for and, when I told her, she asked what I was training for and, when I told her that, she signified that she thought I was perfectly crazy. Quite.

I managed 15.6km in the 5 hours, just taking it nice and steady. The plan had been to complete 55kms in training between Monday & Saturday, before tackling the 9 hours on Sunday. This made it 55.4kms.

I made it down to Victoria Park pool for an 8am start the following morning, with even more drink bottles lined up on the pool deck to see me through the day (along with 3 bananas, some jelly sweets & mini mint slices for a treat.)

My plan is to try and stick to 3km / hour, which has to include time for feeds, toilet stops, chatting (might fall down on this last one....) So I hoped to cover 27km through the day.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Martine & Katya arrive to keep me company at 9.30am (OK, that may be a slight understatement, given the squeals of delight and little dance I gave.) I hadn't wanted to rely on anyone for company, so it was all a big bonus. There were plenty of smiles, chatter and laughter. Thank you, ladies. A little coffee stop picked me up before we started to crank through the kilometres. Millie then joined us for the middle of the day and relieved Martine & Katya. 

Anna arrived at 1pm and I hit a big grumpy patch (related?) Goodness, those things are awful. You know you've been in them before and all the logical bits of your head know you've got through them before but when you're right in the middle of them you think it's never going to end. It lasted an hour and it was pretty miserable. Thankfully, Millie made an emergency trip to Toby's across the road to bring me back a fabulous coffee and it was just what I needed. Thank you so much, Mil. 

By the time Chad arrived, the world was alright again. He swam alongside me and, with Anna on the other side, I felt like I could keep swimming all day. I broke the last three hours down into sets - 10 x 300m on 5:30; 15 x 200m on 3.30; and 30 x 100m on 1.50 (with a drink at the half hours), so plenty of rest but I held 1.37-ish pace, so I was really pleased with that. There were several moments of delirium involved but, overall, I had 13 out of 14 hours of enjoyable swimming for the weekend, which is very promising.

I managed the 27km but just went over the 9 hours to get there, by about 2 minutes (I blame Martine & Katya for too much chatting early on!) A total of 82.4km for the week. 

Thank you to my fabulous friends for the company and keeping me going.

What do you eat after a 9 hour swim?

YUM! Roast chook & veggies. How good is my husband??

Dinner was practically inhaled following 9 hours up and down the black line of Victoria Park Pool.