Sharks and jellyfish

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Nick is one day into his week long triathlon in aid of South London Cares. In this blog and video, he explains the difference between sharks and jellyfish.

Three swims done. Seven to go.

Swim one: 160 lengths
Swim two: 142 lengths
Swim three: 152 lengths

Why the strange distances? I want to make the last swim on Friday as short as possible, so every time I go over 140 it takes another length off. I now have 962 lengths to go – good to get under 1,000.

This morning was tough after the first 35 mins and I really wanted to do some breaststroke almost to break up crawl. I haven’t discounted that as a tactic.

So why jellyfish and sharks...

One of the great distractions of swimming in a small pool and sharing a lane with so many swimmers is that people get in each others way. Jellyfish are the people that are too slow and just get in the way. The sharks are the people that are the super speedy swimmers, hell bent on breaking a WR every length. I am not sure which I hate more! Don’t they realise I am swimming the channel? At 72 lengths I was mentally struggling until a shark came and smacked me on the head as he was overtaking someone – a short expletive followed from me but the extra adrenaline really pushed me on. It just shows where motivation can come from.

You can see Nick's fundraising page and support him here.

Well done Nick and thank you!

Nick Bird 24/7 Triathlon Day One from South London Cares on Vimeo.

Day Two: What would you think about when swimming the channel?