THE ONE HUNDRED CLUB - 10K SWIM

THE ONE HUNDRED CLUB

Ever eager to try new things and getting a tad bored of only swimming one mile races i pondered the thought of a much longer swim.....but which one! I wanted a proper distance, a challenge that i could train for over the summer months, so i decided on a 10k river swim to be held in the river Dart (The Dart 10k)

Entering online it dawned on me....when was the last time you swam 10k.....when i was MUCH younger! And even then i did it in a pool! Given that water temperatures are still low and variable down the to uk's ever changing weather, which manged to fool us into thinking that spring had arrived only to produce incredible amounts of snow in one day and drop the temperatures right down, it might have been a tad dangerous to attempt 10k at this time of the year. But i wanted to give it a go so off to the pool i headed, can i hire your pool for the afternoon please, the grunt i got back made up my mind there and then...find a different pool. Approaching Catterick Leisure centre I made the relevant enquiries, and got a positive response!. The idea of the swim to make it as acheiveable as possible was to do the swims in bouts of 100 metres, people can then choose the length of time that they wish to rest inbetween 100's and this combined with the time it took them to do the 100's would determine their final finish time.  Now to advertise to see if there were other like minded people....yes there were, facebook, twitter and word of mouth and we were good full up, Liz Reed even swimming on her birthday

Thanks to Kathryn Ayre she was reminded of it with a wonderful balloon, it was kept pool side to keep Liz motivated, and it worked!! Thanks to the rising fuel prices and an impending fuel shortage scare there were several people who literally could not get fuel to get to the swim, it was a shame as I would have liked them too, but fingers crossed they will be there for the next one.

The day of the swim and it was headless chicken time, the local Tesco's opposite the pool had promised some goodies for us for the swim, rushing in i soon came out with armfulls of bananna's, energy drinks and chocolate bars. Fab, Simply Swim also put some goodies our way, goggles, hats, ear plugs and anti fog solution, not sure who used them but they got used, if you like the products please do a review so others can be inpired to use the same products.

Setting up the table for registration, and just in time the first swimmers arrived...and pretty soon there was a flood of them (pun intended), all registered and marked up with numbers, the swimmers were put in to their classifications according to speed. And it did seem that in the fast lane there would be some competition! Thanks to word of mouth, knowing swimmers and facebook we had a lovely mix of swimmers, it was great to see children amongst them. A last minute addition to the group was a young lad who stated as he registered that he intended to swim the 10k non stop.....adults around him looked on in mutual respect and I can confirm as I was doing my laps in the next lane to him, he did just that....faster than alot of the adults too!!! Trust my word, he was a joy (if not a little intimiating) to swim along side!

Finally getting pool side and a quick briefing and the swimmers were in, the Northern Echo lent us a photographer so they could do a piece in the paper...and i did notice him snapping away. There were plenty of spectators, some of which got roped into last minute 'helpers', very grateful to them i am as well. Elena Meadowcroft successfully rounded up a group of her friends to act as lap counter for us so all we needed to do was give our number and the number of laps we had done. Paula, the pool manager also offered to come and assess the swimmers for pointers for improvement so every now and then i would see her walking around clipboard in hand.

Adding another 4 laps to the total!

The laps and indeed the kilometres soon started to mount up, white boards placed instratigic places allowed us to see how far we had swam as a whole. Every now and then it was food time, i have never seen banana's get eaten so quickly nor bottles of hydration emptied in seconds, and then it was time to get back in (getting out to eat, the legs near the end felt rubbery!!)

Long distance swimmers talk about the 'wall', similar to that, which long distance runners must get. I hit mine about the seven and a half kilometre point.  Hitting the wall is caused bythe depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy.  A steady supply of bananas (enough to put me off them for a fortnight!), fluids and energy beans.

Oh god not another banana!

Thankfully as swimmers do they support each other and on we plodded, mantaining the same pace throughout the swim made it seem easy, my arm muscles and i am sure those of the other felt as if they had no flex left in them. But with such a small amount of laps to do there was no way any of us even thought to stop. Mentally we were all strong, physically the arms were tight and felt as if they were going to refuse to carry on!

But on they went and amazingly do did the arms of many of the other swimmers, some who achieved their goal be it 3k or 5k were happy to call it a day at that point, sucessful in their goal and pleased with their acheivement. Others who had turned up, 'just to see how far' they could get kept on going, I am sure the words of Nemo from the film, Finding Nemo, Just Keep Swimming. If you have not seen it here is the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmyUkm2qlhA. Hope you enjoy it.

Elena Meadowcroft replenishing the water supplies!

Continue we did, those in the fast lane seemed to be positively flying along, occasionly stopping for hydration, glancing over occasionally I would see Mark Elliott and Steve Wilburn stood grinning. I was pleased, please were rising to the challenge and enjoying themselves.

It remains for me to say a huge thank you for all those that attended the swim, for those who travelled fair distances to get there ), and to those closer to home who made the day special. I hope you enjoyed youselves, acheived your target time and distance.....and maybe fancy having another go later in the year!!!!

The swimmers
Kate Whittaker, Sue Austen, Paul Smith, Alison Darley, Jill Marley, Cath Greensit, Jo Norton-Barker, Paul Smith, Rob Chaplin, Rich Hunt, Christopher Pengilley, Jonny Carr, Charlotte Pengilley, Ollie Carr, Paul Taylor, Mark Elliott, Steve Wilburn, Geoff Armstrong, Tony McNeill, Melissa Hepburn, Liz Reed, Bernadette Wilson, Tristan Lovell, Marie Lovell, Shirley Emerson, Suzanne Charnock, Kathryn Ayre, Martin Holland, Dorothy Mills and of course myself Pauline Squire.