Long River Swim

Heath and I have been doing most of our swimming training either in the river in one hour sessions or over at Westhorpe Lake in Marlow. The longest we had swam to date was around 5 laps of the 1.5km loop in the lake making that a total of 7.5km in around two hours. Lake Windermere is 10.5miles therefore we needed to practice a long swim and chose to swim a stretch of the river Thames from Cookham to Marlow which is around 4 miles.

We were kindly assisted by my sister, Vicky, who paddled a canoe in front of us clearing the way and alerting rowers to our presence. Vicky was also responsible for ensuring that we kept to a regular feeding pattern as we were looking to stop every 30 mins for a quick drink and every 60 mins for food.

Feeding will be an important part of the Windermere Swim as it will be essential to keep energy levels up. It is not overly easy to eat in the water so you have to fairly sensible in your food choices as a chicken sandwich could soon end up being rather soggy! We opted for bananas, raisins, chocolate and energy gels. All of which was easy to eat and was looked forward when we knew that the next feeding slot was approaching.

We entered the water at The Ferry in Cookham at 8:10am and the first two hours went smoothly. So smoothly in fact that we were travelling much quicker than I had predicted as the stream was not really slowing us down too much as it was particularity weak. I took us about two hours to get to the point where we normally train from in Marlow and were faced with the decision as whether we stayed in the same stretch of water in order to try and reach the four hour mark or push on up past Marlow which would mean navigating a lock.

We opted for the latter and proceeded up to Marlow lock watching out for boats which by now had made the river a lot busier. Fortunately it was quite easy to climb out and carry the canoe for Vicky round the lock (well we are gentlemen!!) and plop back in the other side and carry on. I cannot begin to describe the bemused looks that we got walking past the locks with our wetsuits on. A number of people thought that we must be swimming the length of the Thames but were all interested in what we were up to.

We then went past the Compleat Angler and past Higginson Park where there were even more people pointing and asking questions to Vicky in the support boat. It was quite funny to see everyone's reaction especially when joggers running alongside the river bank just stopped dead when seeing us in the water. This passed the time for me but I was a little surprised at the fuss.

We went from Marlow up to Hurley lock and after a final feed turned round (this time downstream) went back through Marlow and navigated the lock for the second time. More questions from boat owners going through the lock and after diving in the other side we ended with the traditional sprint finish to the jetty. Vicky didn't realise what we were up to as she was (rightly) more concerned about us not being run over by the steamer heading directly for us. Vicky manoeuvred the canoe to head me off and direct me into the bank but seeing that Heath was getting away from me, I dived under the canoe and carried on the race. I just thought my sister was dishing out some traditional sisterly and looking to give Heath the advantage! The steamer eventually saw us and steered to the other side so all's well that ends well. It is a good job that we are not competitive eh?

We swam 7.5 miles mostly against the stream in 4 1/2 hours. We were really pleased with the trial long swim and this is easily the longest I have swan in one hit. The stream probably added on another couple of miles so not too far of the Windermere target.

Special thanks to Vicky for manning the support canoe and doing a fantastic job and Mum for support from the river bank.