I admit it. I’m nervous.
Hell. I’m downright scared.
This Sunday I am swimming 5k at the Marie Curie Cancer Care Swimathon . Along with 19,000 other people across the UK I will jump in the pool to swim for charity. I will be swimming from 2pm at the London Fields Lido – my favourite pool in London.
The Lido in January – 50m open air heated pool – in central London!
This is my first time swimming at this distance. Although I love swimming, this type of distance is a whole new experience for me. A few weeks ago I swam my first 3800m . I learned a lot from that swim, namely that I could actually (and rather comfortably) swim for an hour and a half.
I have my game plan. I will be bringing along my NUUN tablets and drinking each 500m to attempt to avoid catastrophic cramping. I will also have a bottle of either Taut or Powerade with me too, just in case I need a sugar hit. No more swimming for me the rest of the week – and no arm strength work (boy my arms are sore from last night’s swim – they need to recover). I want to be fresh for Sunday!
My aim is to finish the Swimathon. I have a time in my head, but my coach told me to bury the time goal. Sunday will be all about building mental strength. The toughness to finish. And the courage to start.
I feel nervous in the pit of my stomach. I know I can swim. I am sure I can do it.
But man, those butterflies are huge. And already flying around.
This year I am doing all of my events for one preferred charity – the CMT Association’s STAR initiative. The fund to find a cure for CMT1A, the nerve condition which I have and which affects 1 in 5000 people.
You can donate to my CMT STAR fundraising, to help support me and to find a cure for CMT1A, here .
Or if you would rather support the Swimathon directly, you can donate via my pages here .
Thank you as always for all your support – your comments, tweets, emails, Facebook notes, and texts of encouragement really help me along when I have the moments of self doubt, when my arms hurt, when I feel like sinking not swimming…
Photo taken before the 2007 start of the London Triathlon
Let’s hope I’ll be smiling like this at 4pm on Sunday!