#30marathonswims30days

So that's it - the last 10km marathon swim completed this afternoon‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬. A sense of relief and happiness that it's behind me! So many sincere thanks to mention. Had a great gang of swimmers today; Victoria, Kate, Petra and Mark, Kim and Matt, Colin and Jayne, Ade, Charlie, Jane, Dave, John and Matthew. Thanks to everyone who has donated, it's a wonderful pool and I'm very glad to help fundraise to support this unique and historic community facility. Thanks to everyone at the Lido you all do such a great job Julie, Keith, Adam, Iain, Graham, Tim and all the lifeguards. I'll be back in the morning but just for an easy 4km…..who am I kidding, I never swim 'easy'.

 

29 down only 1 to go!

So that's 290km now swum in 29 days. Many thanks to Kate "Superfish" Nimmo for joining me this morning and managing 8km alongside me. Last marathon swim tomorrow to complete my ‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬. The final 10km is dedicated to my amazing wife Vickie, my ultimate support and source of inspiration. I could't manage this without her. I'll jump in at 11am and anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome. This is the last plug for my fundraising site. All proceeds are going to the wonderful community resource that is the Sandford Lido. If you value your community swimming pools, if you love swimming outdoors, if you think this little effort of mine is worth a few quid it would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/30marathonswims30days

28th marathon swim done

This morning was the 28th consecutive marathon swim. Only two more to go now. I needed Vickie there for the 2nd half to keep me going when I started flagging. Back tomorrow morning for the penultimate swim marathon. Tomorrow's marathon swim is dedicated simply to the Sandford Parks Lido. The whole reason to do these swims was to support and raise some money for this wonderful community facility. We've had some good local media coverage and great local support. Hopefully they'll be able to put the money raised towards the ongoing refurbishments that are needed in this 80 year old Lido. With ongoing support I hope it'll still be going in another 80 years! Many thanks to everyone at the Lido, particularly Keith Norris and Julie Sargent, Adam and Iain and all the life guards who cheer me on when I'm the only one left in the pool!

No 27 completed. Only 30km to swim.

Marathon swim no 27 completed - one last afternoon swim crammed in between work stints today. Only 3 more 10km swims to squeeze in between now and Sunday. Had the lovely Jess Wooddisse to keep me company for the entire 10km today. Thanks also to Jayne Ball and Colin Stephenson who dropped in. Tomorrow is the 28th consecutive marathon swim and is dedicated to the great bunch of swimmers who I swim with in the Lido every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. These swimmers rock up to swim together most mornings, no club, no coach just swimming with other committed swimmers in Cheltenham's best swimming spot. Age group champions, keen triathletes, masters swimmers, English Channel swimmers, even an Olympic medallist. See you all at 6.30am in the morning.

26 down 4 to go!

Well the most important news is that yesterday's canine patient is doing well and recovering from his enterectomy surgery. This morning I completed number 26 of 30 consecutive marathon swims. I felt great for the first 5km this morning and swam far too quickly and paid for it in the 2nd half but as the end nears I'm getting a bit less inclined to pace myself! Thanks to Vickie for keeping me company this morning when everyone else sensibly departed. Only 4 more marathons to go. Back tomorrow at 1pm and number 27 is dedicated to The Marathon Swimmers Federation set up by Evan Morrison and Donal Buckley. The MSF forum is a wonderful resource for open water swimmers and I'm forever in Evan's debt for stepping aside to let me tackle Manhattan Island. Keep up the great work guys.

5000 laps swum and 250km.

25th consecutive 10km swim. That's 5000 laps of the 50m Sandford Parks Lido now swum. Struggled this afternoon, tired, poorly fuelled and generally hard work. Was late after spending half the morning removing a foreign body from a dog's intestine. Hopefully the little fella will make a good recovery but it certainly didn't do his intestine any favours! Tomorrow morning it's back in the water at 6.30am. I'm dedicated 26 to Kate Nimmo. Kate is a brilliant local swimmer. She's supported me on loads of these marathon swims and is a great training buddy. She's going down in Brownsea this year though, not letting her beat me again!

24th marathon swim completed.

24th marathon swim in 24 days done. Only 6 more to go. Thanks to Kate Nimmo for seeing me home this morning. Looking forward to Sunday big time. Tomorrow's swim is dedicated to the family and friends who supported me on my most memorable swim - Manhattan 2011. In particular: Lorna Freeman my wonderful mother-in-law, Tim Freeman my brother from another mother and great friend and high school buddy Knowles Tivendale. Sometimes our greatest achievements are a combination of hard work, perseverance and just being in the right place at the right time.
‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬.

1 week to go - only 7 more marathon swims left!

Day 23 of ‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬. Only one more week to go. Had great company today - the awesome foursome kept me going of Kate Nimmo, Paul Smith, Howard James and Simon Griffiths. All phenomenal swimmers and honoured to have their company. Nice photo of my current goggle tan which is only going to get worse! Thanks also to David Granger and Vickie who supported us today. Looking forward to my last week of 10km swims. Back tomorrow at 6.30am….again. Tomorrow is dedicated to two outstanding swim coaches - Simon Cooper and Kevin Walters. I don't often swim with a club these days but if these guys are coaching I'm very happy to turn up. Thanks for all the encouragement and support guys.

Goggle Tan - so cool…...

Awesome Foursome and me 

22 down 8 to go!

22nd consecutive marathon swim completed this morning. Lovely morning swim at the Lido. Thanks to Sean Kinsey who stuck out the whole 10km and looked like he thoroughly regretted it by the end! Looking forward to tomorrow's swim starting at 9am. I'm dedicating it to Koti Ngawati and Melbourne Vicentre Swim Club. Koti is an Australian Olympic swimmer who has just qualified for Rio this year, she has worked amazingly hard and triumphed through adversity to qualify for the olympics, all the best Koti. Melbourne Vicentre was my swim club when I moved to Australia, so many years of hard but happy squad training and swimming with swimmers much much better than me! ‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬

3 weeks done

Day 21 - three weeks of consecutive marathon swims completed. Lots of company this morning and thanks to Karen Hilton for those lovely pictures! Here's an ECG I took today - still in sinus rhythm so all good! Tomorrow's swim is dedicated to H2Open Magazine and Simon Griffiths. So lucky to have this magazine in the UK, I'm not biased I haven't been in it for ages! Hope to see you on Sunday Simon. ‪#‎30marathonswims30days‬. 9 more swims to go all for the wonderful Sandford Parks Lido.

Butt shot