Two members of Team Goggleblog: Chris Price (left) and Archie Price (right)

Last weekend we each completed The Swimathon. For the last two years we have done it as Team Goggleblog with parents Wendy and Chris swimming  the lion’s share and son Archie doing the rest to make 5Km between the three of us. When he was 7 Archie swam a respectable 28 lengths of the indoor pool at the Oasis in Covent Garden and when he was 8 it was 84 lengths at Finchley Lido Leisure Centre (also indoors despite the confusing Lido moniker).

But this year he was determined to do it all himself – all 200 lengths of a standard 25m pool (in this year’s case Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre where Frank Skinner swam his length for Sport Relief). Partly because he wanted to do his bit for a cancer charity because of a friend’s sister being diagnosed with Leukaemia, as well as Stilyan Petrov, the captain of Aston Villa, his favourite football team. But he also wanted to do it as a personal challenge. Though we were concerned and a little bit nervous about the distance at first, we knew he was a good swimmer so we encouraged him.

We needn’t have worried. In the end Archie swam it faster than both of his parents and actually sped up towards the end to make quite sure he smashed his Dad’s time by a full six minutes. Currently he is placed third fastest 9 year old in the country (amazingly two 9 year old girls completed the challenge is under 1hr 30 minutes).

While that left him feeling champion of the world, it did leave me feeling proud, but just a little depressed. I know there is a time in everyone life when their child beats them in a sporting event, whether that’s running a mile or swimming 5Km. It’s just that I hadn’t expected it to come so soon!

Anyway, no matter, with Archie now training at Barnet Copthall Swiming Club five times a week and with me getting a swim in whenever I get chance between work, walking the dog  and the usual household chorees (so about three times a week) the gap between us is only going to widen. I just have to resign myself to that fact. As Archie said to me the other day: “Dad, you stick to writing about sport. I’ll just do it.”

If you would like to sponsor  Archie visit www.archieprice.com. So far he has raised £600, but we really want to get him up to £1000 for his achievement.

Team Goggleblog 2011: Chris, Archie and Wendy Price

In eight days time my 9 year old son Archie will hopefully have finished the longest swim of his life. 200 lengths of the pool at Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre (that’s exactly 200 times further than Frank Skinner managed when he was filmed there for Sport Relief).

Of course the difference between Frank and Archie is that Archie has had plenty of preparation over the last year or so, being part of one of the most elite swimming clubs in the UK – Barnet Copthall Swimmming Club – former home of five times Olympian, and six times World Champion, Mark Foster.

Archie currently swims with them four times a week and is about to move to Junior Age Group (JAGs) where he will be expected to swim at least five times a week – that’s nearly 10 hours of swimming each week. Enough for anyone.

Even so 200 lengths (5Km) is a long way. Probably the equivalent of running at least half a marathon, at least in terms of time.  Nearly two hours in the water not only requires physical stamina (I’m not too worried about his because his freestyle technique  is excellent and he is strong) but mental stamina too. But there are only so many maths puzzles and Olly Murs songs you can work out/sing in your head so he is going to require a lot of encouragement!

Still it’s all for a good cause – Marie Curie Cancer Care which provides care for the terminally ill. So far he has raised over £400 and we’re hoping that figure will reach £1000 with all the great publicity that the challenge is raising.

Nor is he the only member of the family taking part in this year’s Swimathon. His Mum and Dad are too. Although we’re both regular swimmers it’s a long way for us too. In training I’ve only managed 130 lengths of freestyle before boredom and an increasingly stiff neck start to take their toll and I have to get out.

I have an aversion to overly chlorinated indoors pools which is why I swim mostly in an outdoor pool (David Lloyd in Finchley). But for the Swimathon I’m having to swim indoors because of the limited number of outdoor pools/Lidos in London which are getting involved (London Fields Lido, where I keep meaning to swim, is taking part but the times clash with Barnet Copthall where Archie will be swimming).

So we’ve compromised on Marshall Street Baths in Soho which is indoors but is stunningly beautiful and also a little longer than the standard 25m pool – around 30 metres I think. So at least I’ll have stunning architecture to admire as I plough up and down the pool alongside my wife Wendy. Wish us luck! And if you are feeling generous it would be great if you could find time to sponsor Archie at www.archieprice.com

“Well, I say “lessons”. What actually happened was I stood with five other kids in the shallow end and we messed about with battered polystyrene floats. Meanwhile, the rest of the class swam confidently up and down, smiling and having fun.”

Since then he hasn’t been able to face getting back in the water and learning to swim. Even in his 40s when he decided to give it another go with one-to-one lessons, he ended up taking the cowards way out and quitting. But towards the end of last year after speaking to a friend who works for Sport Relief, he decided he finally had to face his demons. “They (Walliams and Izzard) are truly amazing, but no one’s likely to emulate them,” reckons Skinner.

“You should get someone to take on their own personal little mountain, the sort of mountain that lots of people might climb if they could be inspired to do so.” Tonight Frank Skinner faces his mountain – in the form of a swimming pool deep end – when he attempts to swim an entire length for Sport Relief. Make donations to Sport Relief with a credit or debit card by phone via 03457 910910 or online at sportrelief.com

Tonight’s (23/3/12) Sport Relief line up in full

BBC1

3:05pm The Big Sport Relief Warm-Up CBBC offers bite-size reminders of challenges past, including David Walliams’s Big Swim (3:10pm), Helen’s Polar Challenge for Sport Relief (3:45pm) and Million Pound Bike Ride (4:20pm).

5:15 Sport Relief Does Glee Club The three remaining acts vie for the viewers’ vote in the grand final of the competition.

7:00 Sport Relief 2012 Celebrities including John Bishop, James Corden, Gary Lineker and Claudia Winkleman take it in turns to host the evening, which kicks off with Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard and fiancée Christine Bleakley guest-starring in a special episode of Outnumbered. Strictly Come Dancing finalists Harry Judd and Chelsee Healey leave the dancefloor behind for an incredible underwater challenge.

7:30 Boxer Amir Khan and footballer Jermain Defoe boost their knowledge with a little help from Stephen Fry and the Horrible Histories cast, and the Strictly Come Dancing challenge continues.

8:00 Comic Frank Skinner faces his fear and attempts to swim a length of the pool at Langley Swimming Centre, while Miranda Hart ropes in some sports stars for a sketch at the Royal Albert Hall. Plus David Walliams, who undertook an epic swim down the Thames, is in the studio.

9:00 What horrors await Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Ant and Dec as Benidorm meets Britain’s Got Talent? Snow Patrol perform in the studio.

9:30 Members of the England football team don aprons and join chef James Martin in the kitchen. JLS perform the Sport Relief single, Proud.

BBC2

10pm The cast of Twenty Twelve welcome some VIPs in the shape of Zara Phillips and Sir Steve Redgrave. There’s a special instalment of QI and Jake Humphrey hosts Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Plus Helen Skelton, who made a record-breaking expedition to the Antarctic, is in the studio.

BBC1

10:35pm Fashionistas Kate Moss and Stella McCartney, along with sportsmen Colin Jackson and Linford Christie, join Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley for what promises to be a fun-packed Ab Fab sketch. Plus a chance to see A Question of Sport host Sue Barker as you’ve never seen her before!

11:00 Freddie Flintoff continues his attempt to break multiple world records live in the studio, Emeli Sande performs live, and there are special editions of Celebrity Juice and Eight out of Ten Cats.

12 midnight JLS invite a chorus of rugby internationals to join them for a singsong. Misery Bear and Mo Farah race against each other and there’s a special Mock the Week.

All timings from 7:30pm are approximate

Frank Skinner’s faces his fear for Sport Relief..

And Strictly goes underwater for Sport Relief…

Via TV Scoop

Via TV Scoop

Goggleblog catches up with Barnet Copthall Swimming Club‘s brightest young talent, Charlie Boldison. Just 19, he recently competed in the British Gas National Swimming Championships at the Aquatics Centre in Stratford, London, finishing 7th in the 100m backstroke final and 6th in the 200m backstroke final. Here he talks about his experiences of swimming at the venue for the London 2012 Olympics.

Was it different swimming in the national swimming championships in the Olympic Pool in Olympic year? Did you feel much more pressure and how did you combat the nerves?

It was definitely a new experience swimming in the Olympic pool. I had high expectations of the Aquatics Centre and it certainly lived up to them. It was an incredible feeling knowing that I was racing in the same pool that the Olympic games are going to be held in and as a result nerves did run quite high. Fortunately, though I usually swim pretty well off of nerves, so I didn’t feel like I should be fighting the nerves and embraced them.

What did you think about the venue? I have heard some feedback from backstrokers that it was difficult to swim in a straight line because of the curvy roof?

The venue was just incredible. The pool itself was a pleasure to swim in, and my favourite aspect of the pool was that the starting blocks had lights on them which would light up and indicate the top 3 placed swimmers in each race. The surroundings of the pool were consistently spotless, and the 50m warm up/swim down pool was a luxury to swim down in after races. Unfortunately the roof was a problem for myself and other backstrokers, it was curved and had clusters of spotlights which were randomly arranged. As a result, I ended up crashing into the lane rope in about three of my swims which was frustrating to say the least. However this is just an extra aspect people will have to prepare for when they come to race here. Some competitions abroad are held in open air pools, where there is no roof at all, so we’re just going to have to practise swimming in straight lines!

Charlie Boldison: In action in the backstroke

Do you have another chance to qualify for this year’s games?

Only one person managed to qualify for the 100m backstroke (Liam Tancock), and nobody qualified for the 200m backstroke, so I have another chance in June at the second trials to qualify. It’ll be a long shot and I will try my best, however I won’t be too disappointed if I don’t make it this year. I am still quite young for a male swimmer and will be in a much better position to qualify in 2016.

What is your typical training regime? And how do you prepare specifically for something as big as the British Gas National Champs?

Typically I swim eight times a week for two hours at a time, with two gym sessions a week. Three of those eight swim sessions are done early in the mornings, starting at 5.15am. The training program I take part in has been developed to suit me best over the last few years by my coach Rhys Gormley. When the time comes to take part in key meets like British Championships and Nationals, I usually have a couple weeks rest beforehand. During these rest periods my training is much less intensive, and more technique based. The idea of the rest period (or taper) is to let my body build up on energy and, by the time it comes to race, I feel extremely fresh and ready to race.

What’s next for you? Are you planning to train abroad like a lot of swimmers seem to do or get a swimming scholarship at a University?

I plan on continuing what I am currently doing for as long as it’s possible to do so. I chose not to go to university and to focus on my swimming career as much as I can. A lot of swimmers do tend to go to university and train with the university teams, but I work extremely well with Rhys, and I know that I will go further in my swimming than I would be able to with any other coach. In the daytime I teach swimming at Barnet Copthall (the same pool I train at) to young children. I really enjoy doing this because it feels like I’m giving something back to the sport. I am extremely thankful to everyone who’s helped to get me to where I am, and to help other young children start their own swimming careers feels like my way of returning the favour.

The wavy roof caused problems for backstrokers during the National Swimming Champs

How many calories do you need to take on board during training? What kind of foods do you need to eat and what do you have to avoid?

I don’t count calories when it comes to keeping an eye on my diet, however I tend to have quite a structured way of making sure I ensure I get enough fuel for my body to keep up with the hard work. I eat a lot of carbohydrates at lunchtime which helps to make sure I have high energy levels for the evening sessions. The second priority for me is to make sure my body gets enough protein, which helps to make sure my muscles don’t get broken down. I eat a lot of white meat, chicken and fish and avoid any processed meats. I also avoid any kind of junk food, wherever possible. But once in a while I allow myself a small treat to keep myself happy! Staying hydrated is also an important part of my diet. Without being hydrated properly my body can’t perform to its best in training, and if I’m dehydrated I risk getting ill more often which is a disaster for training.

Do you have any tips for aspiring swimmers?

My biggest tip for young aspiring athletes is always to believe in your coach. No matter how hard they are making you work, you have to understand that the coach knows best, and the work being given to you is going to help you become the best you can be. As a young swimmer I didn’t have this belief in my coach and I wasn’t improving at all until I changed my way of thinking and started to work with my coach as opposed to fighting against him.

Finally, what do you like to do when you are not swimming?

When I need to relax I tend to get under a duvet and catch up on TV with my family, listen to music, or best of all just sleep! My training takes a lot out of me and I have to utilise my opportunities for rest as much as possible – without doing so my work in the pool wouldn’t be as effective!

Charlie Boldison: Fact File
Date of Birth: 28/07/92 (age 19)
Club: Barnet Copthall Swimming Club
Personal bests: 50m back – 26.33 seconds. 100m back – 56.20 seconds. 200m back – 2.00.98
Key achievements: Won Silver at the National Youth Championships in 200m back aged 17 and 18. Placed 4th in the Men’s Open 200m Backstroke at the National Championships when 18. Represented Team GB at the European Junior Championships in 2010 in Helsinki. In November 2011 represented England at the Canada Cup and won Bronze in the 200m Backstroke and Silver in the 50m Backstroke. In January 2012 represented Team GB at the Flanders Cup in Belgium and won Bronze in the 50m and 100m Backstroke.

This year, the national swimming trials coincides with the Olympics so it’s the perfect opportunity to showcase the venue and provide a dry run – or should that be wet run – for the Olympics. Virtually everything about the venue is amazing though I have heard some backstrokers complain about the wavy roof which makes it difficult to follow a straight line when you are swimming. Then there’s the price of the coffee which at £2.40 for an instant brew which you have to add your own milk to is nothing short of scandalous. But apart from that it’s great.

I had heard that the journey from Stratford tube station to the Olympics venue took you through the Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre and was prepared to be suitably outraged at this blatant consumerism. But actually I’m ashamed to say that I enjoyed browsing the shops and restaurants, especially the Olympics 2012 gift shop and the two Speedo shops – a small retail outlet and a pop up shop near the Aquatics Centre. For a start it’s all open air which means it doesn’t feel like a shopping centre. Secondly, it’s all rather tasteful with nicely decorated trees which makes it feel a bit like Christmas – yes I know I’m shallow.

Olympics showcase

Maybe it’s because the National Swimming Championships are a showcase event for Olympics, but I was particularly impressed with the stewarding which was both friendly and helpful. Strangely, when you get out of the tube station there aren’t any actual signs telling you how to get to the Olympics venues (I hope they sort this out soon), but there were lots of officials on hand showing you exactly where you needed to walk at every stage of the journey – it’s only about five minutes walk in any case. Even the people operating the security check were much less grumpy than the guys you get at airports although the procedure was much the same.

The seats we had on Saturday night in Block 110 weren’t the best (they were close to the diving area which is best avoided unless you want to watch diving of course). But when we went back on Monday morning we were in block 102 which is close to where most of the swimmers turn – apart from the 50m races – and they were much better.

We could see most of the swimmers preparing in the area below us and had a great view of the big screen showing all the times for the competitors and video of them swimming from both above and below the water of course. The only slight grumble was the American commentator who pronounced just about every British place name wrong so that Aimee Wilmott raced for Middles-bro and Loughborough became Lo-Borough!

Of course it goes without saying that the swimming was great. My son competes for Barnet Copthall so it was good to see Oliver Keegan in the Butterfly heats (he narrowly missed the semis) and the club’s star swimmer, Charlie Boldison, who came 7th in the final in the 100m Backstroke final -  a tough race which 50m World Record holder Liam Tancock won, as expected.

Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds lines up for the 50m freestyle

But the real revelation to me were the Paralympic swimmers. I have never seen Paralympic events  before and I was impressed with their speed and sheer determination. As well as Ellie Simmonds, of course, who we saw compete in the 50m and 400m freestyle I was wowed by a guy called Anthony Stephens who swam 200m freestyle in 2 minutes 53 seconds.

That’s approximately 21 seconds for a length of a standard 25m pool!  Pretty bloody amazing considering he was born with no legs and only one fully developed arm. It is athletes like this that put all us fully limbed part time swimmers us to shame!

Double Olympic gold medallist and Speedo Ambassador, Rebecca Adlington, took some time away from her training recently to spread the word about the Swimathon Weekend 2012. Rebecca encourages everyone to get in the pool and be part of the world’s biggest swim!

Taking place between April 27 to April 29, the Swimathon offers you the opportunity to swim various distances for charity from 1 mile for Sports Relief through to 5Km for Marie Curie Cancer Care. If you are interested in doing your bit for charity you can enter the event here.

Archie Price, who turns 9 in March, in training for his 5K Swimathon in April

Team Goggleblog are swimming three Swimathons of 5Km each (200 lengths of a standard 25m pool). Our youngest team mate is just 9 year old Archie Price who will be attempting to swim the 5Km distance for the first time all by himself. We wish him luck.

If you want to sponsor Archie (pictured) you can visit www.archieprice.com

To win tickets for the British Gas National Swimming Championships taking place at the Aquatics Centre (the venue of the London 2012 Olympics) between March 3 and March 10th then enter our competition here.

Next month marks one of the biggest events in the swimming calendar. The British Gas Swimming Championships 2012 will determine who will secure a place on the GB Team for this year’s London Olympics.

Held at the London Aquatics Centre, the venue for this year’s Olympic swimming events, it will be the first opportunity that our finest swimmers will have had to race in the stunning Olympic pool. It will also be the first chance for many spectators to visit the Olympic grounds in Stratford, East London!

Among those competing will be household names like Rebecca Adlington, Liam Tancock and Ellie Simmonds.  And what’s more Goggleblog has three tickets (two adults, one concession ticket for over 60s or under 16s) to give away for the completely SOLD OUT final day (March 10th) when you can see the Mens and Women’s Freestyle semi-finals and finals*.

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is head over to Goggleblog’s Facebook page and answer the following question either by posting on our wall or leaving a comment on the post. (You must ‘like’ our Facebook page to be considered for the winning tickets).

Where is the best place you have swum in the UK and why?

The winner will be decided on March 1st by the editor of Goggleblog.

* March 10th schedule:

SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
50m Free-W-F
1500m Free-M-F
1500m Free-M-F

For more information visit the British Gas Swimming Championships trials website.

Ian Thorpe after finishing his comeback race in Singapore. He came second in his 100IM heat.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about sporting comebacks and why there have been quite a few in swimming, most notably Australia’s Ian Thorpe and America’s Janet Evans. What makes them do it?

The cynical might say it’s the opportunity to make more money through (fairly) lucrative sponsorship deals, but I’m really not so sure. Few swimmers it seems are that money motivated because let’s face it there are very few in the sport who are seriously wealthy.

Instead, I think the answer lies partly in the desire in the swimmers to prove themselves once again at the top level – in essence to show themselves and others they’ve still got it. Of course this isn’t at all easy, at least according to former Olympic champion Mark Spitz (right) who tried – unsuccessfully – to make a comeback for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics aged 41, 20 years after scooping 7 gold medals at the Munich Olympics.

“By leaving the sport, the door was open for everyone else to jockey up to the No1 gig and so when I re-entered the sport 17 years later I was not only yesterday’s news I was trying to find my own way back.”

Why do swimmers retire so young?

These are all good points that Spitz makes, but I think in some ways we need to be asking a different question to fully understand why swimmers – in particular – want to make a comeback. And that’s why did they quit the sport in the first place?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers but I reckon one factor may be the gruelling nature of the sport that leaves top athletes exhausted, burnt out, before they are at their physical prime. Kids at swimming clubs up and down the UK who show any promise are training several times a week (up to 20 hours of swimming) by the age of 10, typically getting up to train at 5am before school.

It’s no wonder so many of them quit the sport by the time they are teenagers and many more who go on to achieve international success retire early – too early in my opinion. I’m not the only one to think this. In an interesting piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, three times Olympian Kieren Perkins argues that the sport’s administrators often fail to look after their athletes as well as they should.

“I think what we see with the comebacks is that swimming as a sport is very deficient in managing older athletes,” he said. “We push our kids very early, very hard, for a very long time and when they start to get a bit of age and a little bit of free will the first and most obvious thing you want to do is get away.

”It’s not a physical impediment, it’s an emotional one … I’ve never seen a real medical reason why they can’t keep going and if anything, conventional wisdom says that for blokes especially it’s in your early to mid-30s when you really hit your physical peak.”

In theory that’s music to the ears of Ian Thorpe who is making a comeback at the grand old age of 29 though, like Spitz, Perkins thinks he’s going to find it tough going to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.  ”I think at this point you’d have to say that he’s obviously got some challenges ahead of him,” the 38-year-old said.

Meanwhile, last week I read the sad news that one of our brightest young prospects, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, is quitting swimming to concentrate on her studies aged just 17. Team GB’s first black female swimmer, Achieng seemed to indicate that the major reason for her decision was the lack of support from British Swimming.

“It is a brutal sport and horrible to go through the plateau when things aren’t going right. There was a huge lack of support for athletes not doing well.

“So many needed attention that it just went against British Swimming’s ethos of this being a long-term sport. But I’m not bitter. I just got to the stage where I got fed up. My stroke was changed and I simply lost rhythm and strength in my legs.”

Cassie Patten (right) quit swimming last year, citing long term injury. Will she be back?

Similarly, last year Cassie Patten – the Olympic open water 10km bronze medal – called time on her swimming career at the age of 25, citing a long-term shoulder injury. Even 22 year old Rebecca Adlington has hinted she may quit after the London 2012 Olympic games.

In other sports, especially football where money is obviously much more plentiful,  the athletes are given time to develop both mentally and physically with many making a career of it until their mid 30s.

But swimming, it seems, is a much less forgiving sport in many ways. To me it’s no wonder that so many swimmers who quit in their early twenties, even their teens, try to stage a comeback a few years later. The real shame is that very few of them will make it, even though many of them are yet to reach their physical peak.

Team Goggleblog complete The Swimathon at Finchley Lido, 2011

It’s that time of year. The days are starting to get longer and although it’s still cold out there, thoughts are turning to this year’s swimming events.

Obviously my preference is for swimming outside which is why I’ll be signing up to the British Gas Great London Swim in The Thames very soon. I enjoyed it last year though I wasn’t quite prepared for people swimming over the top of me as much as they did!

However, this year it looks like my wife and I will be doing The Swimathon – the UK’s biggest swimming charity event – indoors at the beautifully restored Marshall Street Baths in London’s Soho.

I would have liked to have done it outside but the timings at London Fields Lido don’t work out for me and they are only doing it indoors at the Oasis in Covent Garden which is a shame.

Meanwhile my son, Archie Price, who will have just turned 9 is hoping to do the whole 5Km himself at Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre where he trains four times a week with his swimming club, Barnet Copthall SC.

The beautiful Marshall Street Baths in Soho

Today is the last day you can enter for 50 per cent off – just £5 so it’s worth signing up before 11.45pm tonight. Taking place April 27-29, Swimathon Weekend is open to all ages and abilities. Whether you want to swim the ultimate Swimathon 5km for Marie Curie Cancer Care or a short distance as part of the Big Splash Team Mile for Sport Relief, the Swimathon Weekend has a challenge for you.

For more information go to the Swimathonwebsite here.

Jodie Kidd and Duncan Goodhew celebrate the launch of this year's Swimathon Weekend, taking place April 27 to 29

The UK’s biggest swimming charity event, Swimathon, celebrates its Silver Jubilee in Olympic year with a big splash planned for the weekend of 27th to 29th April 2012.

Officially launched at the fantastic Oasis outdoor pool in Covent Garden yesterday (Thursday January 5th), the event promises to be the biggest swim to date! Swimathon Weekend ambassadors Duncan Goodhew and Jodie Kidd posed by the pool to kick start the event in fantastic fashion – see picture right.

Swimathon Weekend participants swimming for Marie Curie Cancer Care can choose from the individual 2.5Km or 5Km or Team/Corporate 5Km challenge while those opting to raise money for the Big Splash Mile for Sport Relief can take part individually or as part of a team.

Jodie Kidd said: “I‘m delighted to help launch the 25th Swimathon – and in such a special sporting year for this country. With all the talk of being inspired to take up exercise in 2012, it’s events like this that give us all that sometimes necessary goal to aim for. Whilst I can’t claim to be a fish in the water exactly, diving into my local pool is something I definitely enjoy. And even more so now that I can take in my little boy with me.”

“Of course, Swimathon Weekend isn’t just about fitness and personal achievement. With the funds this year going to both Marie Curie Cancer Care and Sport Relief, all of that perspiration is even more worthwhile.”

Swimathon President and former Olympic swimmer Duncan Goodhew added:

Jodie Kidd pictured at the launch of the Swimathon 2012 fundraising weekend

“We all know that 2012 will be a very special year for sport in Britain. In our 25th Anniversary year, we’d love to add to the half a million people who have taken part in the event over the years to dive into pools up and down the country. Teaming up with the Big Splash is not only a great way to help make this happen, but should also boost the total funds raised for two important charities; Marie Curie Cancer Care and Sport Relief.”

Be one of the first 10,000 people to sign up online for a Swimathon Weekend session before 31 January 2012 and you’ll enjoy half price entry. Swimmer entry is open until 25 April 2012. We are planning to swim a couple of Swimathons with my eight year old promising to swim the whole 5Km by himself! You can enter here.

And here’s a little taster to whet/wet (!!) your appetite: