I’ve often toyed with the idea of swimming the English Channel, and this year I’ve decided to do it. The Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the World so it can be dangerous. It’s also expensive – you need a pilot (with a boat that guides the way, and carries the support crew and official observer), which can cost around £2000.00. And you need to do weeks of open water training. Only around 75% of attempts are successful.
But I won’t be doing it the conventional way – I’ve decided to swim the Channel, or the equivalent distance in my local swimming pool. At its narrowest point the Channel is 22 miles across, which equates to 1408 lengths of a 25m pool.
I got the idea from Aspire a spinal injury charity who arrange a ‘swim the channel challenge’ every year. I’ve set up my own sponsorship page. It seems a good way to keep fit and to raise money for a good cause…
