Ok, so this took a bit of working out..

Now that I've decided to do this, I needed to get a bit systematic if I was going to get the distance of 42195 metres done in a day. For convenience (!) I have set the target at 12 hours, so working out the pace got a bit technical. Now follow this if you can.. Giving the completion time of 12 hours, I have based all of the times on a deadline of 11 hous to give me an hour leeway.

Taking 11 hours, the calculations look like this..!

11 hours in seconds is 39600. The number of 33 metre lengths is 42195 divided by 33 is 1279 lengths.. keep with me now..! to get the pace for 1 length, you ned to divide the total time in seconds by the number of lengths - giving a length pace time of 31 seconds.. Tadahhh..!!!

To keep me on track I'm using a pace counter which will be set to tone every 31seconds which should help me keep on target.. hopefully.! To be honest, with this being my first venture into long distance swimming, I have no idea if this will be achievable for me as yet. We will have to see what the training unfolds. A 2 hour swim is on the plan for tomorrow which will give me a sense of the pace..

It seems kind of strange making this plan for the marathon swim. As the new year has arrived, during our New Years Day family meal, our thoughts went back over 2008. Without planning it, we took stock of our successes and how lucky we were to have all we have. Health is all important as is the closeness of your family. As things are getting difficult for lots of people I am struck by how lucky we are to have these important basics.

This need in me to push my personal boundaries has been inspired by the loss of my Mother, who battled ovarian cancer for the last 4 1/2 years of her life. I have never seen anyone take this misfortune and turn it into an opportunity to inspire people. Even in the most difficult days of the illness, she would always try to squeeze every drop of positivity out of her day. This hit me like a train - I realised how I was taking my life for granted and missing the daily opportunities that were there infront of me...

This ignited something inside me - Mum's courage was exceptional and she confronted her illness with courage, knowing that it would eventually take her life, but never giving in to it. I needed to be more like her and look for the opportunities and experiences that life has to offer.. I guess that by setting myself challenges and using them to raise money for the Eve Appeal, I can give something to help others not die from this terrible disease. I also like to think that she would be looking in on me as I'm hurting and wishing I'd never started the event. Maybe saying "keep going love..!"

Funny where your thoughts go at this time of year......