COMPLETED
- Report to follow
BBC Coverage here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/6932944.stm
At 3am Saturday 4th August on the shore of Lake Windermere,
brothers Mark Walsh (32) and Richard Walsh (30) will begin their epic World
Record Breaking Long Distance Swim Challenge.
The challenge consists of both brothers together swimming the length of the
9 major lakes (more than one mile) starting and finishing with Windermere in 48 hours. In total they will swim
50 miles finishing on the Ambleside shore at approximately 8pm on Sunday
5th August.
They are attempting the challenge in order to raise £2,000 to buy a tandem
for Guide Dogs for the Blind so they can take a visually impaired athlete on
their 2007 Le Tour
Challenge "in the Tyre Tracks of Champions" for the first time and other
future events.
Training has included 6 hrs in the pool and timed swims at Lakes
Coniston, Derwent, Ullswater and Windermere every week.
During the challenge a minimum of two canoeists will paddle alongside them
for safety and support with glow sticks being used by the swimmers and
canoeists for the night sections and poor light conditions.
Mark says “To our knowledge it has never been attempted before but probably
for a good reason! The distance equates to 3155 lengths of your local 25
metre pool!”
We are hoping members of the public will support us via our ‘Just Giving’
page
www.justgiving.com/LakesSwimChallenge”. The 2XU sponsored wetsuits will
also be auctioned at the end to raise further funds for Guide Dogs for the
Blind on the ‘Tritalk’ web page
www.tri247.com
Support and sponsorship has been gratefully received from 2XU wetsuits that have supplied their top of the range wetsuit. The suits are to be auctioned to raise further funds for the charity after the event and Tritalk 247 will run this on their nationally recognised website for all triathlon and multisport events. Red Bull have offered to support the event and we will be sure to take advantage of their product by both athletes and support crew combating tiredness. Kudu bikes have continued their involvement by providing us with two pairs of Aqua Sphere goggles each (one for dark and one for bright sunshine, although due to the English summer they haven’t tested that pair yet!). Also Martin from Kudu Bikes is pivotal in the support crew with his expertise in these multi stage event over a prolonged period from an athletes point-of-view make him an ideal sounding board with a clear thinking problem solving manner.
