So, today was the first "race" of my training program, and involved a trip for the family and me to Canberra our nation's capital.  When we got in the car yesterday I was suffering a full blown cold, stuffed up, sweating, and suitably grumpy!  On the way I made the first mistake of the weekend - deciding to stop midway through the girls' sleep.  Stupid, stupid boy.  They both woke, and we suffered three hours of whinging kids before finally arriving in Canberra.  We had a lovely afternoon with the in-laws, played with a puppy, and went for a quick swim in the pool, really feeling like we were on holiday. 

Then the evening reconnaissance mission across the city and my nerves hit!  Driving across the city, and out, it quickly hits you that almost the whole city is surrounded by water........lake burley-griffin. After about half an hour of wondering where the sat nav was taking us we ended up at scrivener dam - the far end of the lake.  Duly laid out in front of us was a string of large yellow buoys.  This was good, as at least the risk of having a marital through navigation stress / failure was greatly reduced! My mission for Sunday was to swim 9km solo from one end of the lake to the other, being navigated and fed along the way by my lovely wife in a kayak. 

As it was, it was a great day.  Several Vlad-swimmers, and three from the Bold & Beautiful (Collie, Alex and Me) were there.   Only about 50 people swam it, most in teams, so just being there seemed like a privilege and despite my sniffles I was excited and ready to get going.  We all gathered at about 7am, and it quickly became apparent that two of the vlad-swimmers were just arriving at the start.  But, not by car, they had swum through the early hours from the finish to the start!  So 9km, then another 9km back!  These guys (legends - Ally and Wayne) are also training for the channel next year (August).  Brilliant for them, and a great effort.  They ended p beating me by 1 minute on the race (I took 3hrs 2 mins), but I spent most of the swim just thinking about how the channel is roughly equivalent to four laps of this swim (34km).  Well, if the channel was perfectly flat with no wind and no tide it would be.!!!!!!........oh my God, what I have I taken on......this is crazy!

Anyway, as Vlad said to me afterwards, "this is only the first step of many on this journey".  On the bright side, I swam with a cold, finished, swam reasonably well, didn't shout at my wife (or vice-versa), and got a small trophy for my efforts!  So, onwards and upwards.  Day off tomorrow (on Vlad's instruction), so enjoying a glass of rouge and some choccie tonight!

So, I've just got back from a training swim, sunburnt!  Summer must be here finally!  I've been training now for about 60 days, learning how to swim better, and gradually building my fitness.  Today I swam 9km in the ocean, and next week I will swim my first proper preparation event - 9km in Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.

It's taken me this 60 days to build the courage to write this post (despite no-one being likely to read it)!  First-off I'm not a blogger!  My wife and a few others I know are, but I'm not.  Frankly, anything public and self-revealing makes me nervous!  Anyway, here we are.  I'm taking this step of going public, and really putting myself on the line, because I'm passionate about my cause.  Hopefully if I can bring myself to regularly share the stresses and strains I'm going through (and believe me it's a daily challenge), then my friends will share my challenge with their friends, and together we'll form a community willing me to succeed.

Since deciding to do this challenge, the universe has conspired to surround me with wonderful people helping me.  I have faith that this will continue, and when I drag myself out of bed before 5am ever morning, it's the support of friends, family, and the universe which spurs me on.  I believe that if we rally together, we can achieve the $50k target for Opportunity International.  This money will help hundreds of people learn how to work their way out of abject poverty.  Their suffering is far greater than anything I can inflict on myself.

My suffering this week involved joining a new swim squad, with a crazy eastern European coach (Vlad).  I went in thinking that I'd come a long way with my stroke.  After all, I've moved up a lane at Tatt's, am now front third at the Bold & Beautiful, and have knocked more than 30 seconds of the time it takes me to sprint 100m (now 1m 30sec)!  However, I got in Vlad's squad, and I'm struggling to maintain my place a the back of his slower lane!  All the other "channel swimmers" and "rotto group" are much faster than me..................slightly depressing! 

Anyway, there is hope.  I have proved to myself it's not too late to learn, I'm open to it (in fact desperate for it), and I'm throwing myself into it.  We shall see.  I have 307 days left until my window for the channel opens, and I'm going to need every one of them.

Thanks in advance for your support.  I'm sure going to need it.  If you can, please share this challenge with friends and let's build a community willing me to succeed.  It's certainly not going to be easy, but as the great man (Captain Webb) said - "nothing great is easy".  This is the mantra for every Channel Swimmer, and I intend to live and breathe it!  Ben