200 Miles to Midmar 2018

[Jigghead]

Having been humbled by the support and encouragement I received in my quest to conquer 100 miles leading up to Midmar 2017, I have decided to set myself a loftier goal this year, 200 miles! Partly because I have a little longer to prepare and partly because I saw a quote the other day that inspired me to try a little harder. It sent something like this:

 

“Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do, not a punishment for what you ate”

 

I’m not sure who said it first but it made me realize that I’m not sure I’ve tapped my body’s limits yet.

 

As you may or may not be aware, every year a small fraction of the over 20,000 swimmers attempting to cross Midmar Dam swim in all 8 events, 4 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. We swim each event only to be transported, by boat, back to the start to do it all again. The reason we do it? For charity, each 8 Miler is required to raise money for their charity of choice. This year I will be swimming for CHOC. Whilst last year I managed to raise almost R11,000, excluding my personal donation, I have set my sights on R20,000 this year. I swam 1 mile as a show of gratitude for every R100 donated last year. I will do the same this year. So R100 x 200 miles = R20,000. If you donate, I’ll swim, simple as that. It's MILES by the way, NOT kilometres...

 

Follow my progress here where every donation will be acknowledged and every mile logged. I will swim the miles, however many you want, just follow this link where you can donate and watch the miles pile up. 

 

https://kydrin.co.za/goals/View/223

 

It’s for a very worthy cause and you also get to see me suffer. Last year I spent almost 60 hours in the water in preparation for Midmar, let’s make that 100 hours…

 

The first donation is in, thank you to a repeat donor, the two that cracked the seal on my fundraising drive last year, Brent Marlton and Moira Dewar, these two are awesome. Their first miles were completed this morning and have been added to the first mile completed on Sunday.

 

That makes me 3/200, the first one was an icebreaker. Please don't make me swim too many unsponsored miles this year. Last year, it was around 20, I'd appreciate a couple less this year please 

 

You can also follow my progress on facebook:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278492455881143/

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Jigghead

[Jigghead]

Week one is behind me and unfortunately I didn't manage to get in the mileage I was hoping to. A combination of factors contributed to this, but to be honest, it's mostly due to not having been in the water for over 8 months.

 

Last year I only started in training November, with a target of 100 miles. This year however, having doubled my target, I figured an extra month was required. So with 125 days and 194 miles to Midmar 2018, the magnitude of my task is very apparent. The fact that I was working from home last year assisted me greatly when trying to find the time to swim. My expectations this year are to try and squeeze in 6 miles on the weekend (3 each day) with two 2 miles swims during the week. Given my schedule, these need to happen at 5am, hopefully on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Whilst this will leave me around 22 miles short, I'm quite sure I can squeeze additional distance in during my December whilst not at work. This should get me to 200 miles.

 

The good news for the week is that the first donation came in.My friends, Brent and Moira, thanks again for opening the donations for the second year, I still owe you 5 miles, which will follow this week.

 

So the week's cumulative tally is as follows: 5/200 miles with 1,000/20,000 in donations.

 

My 8 year old daughter and her little friend from school took it upon themselves to sell some loom bands that they made and came to me with R30, asking that I add it to the donations, These two will get a full mile and I'll top up to R100 for them. Thanks girls.

 

Please help in the donations department, I will ensure the miles are completed. R100 will get your name on the board and will see me churning up the water for around 30 minutes with gratitude. It's also going towards an awesome cause. CHOC has been doing their phenomenal work since 1979 and will, with our help, continue to do so for a long time to come.

 

You can donate here: Donate to CHOC here

 

100% of all funds donated go to the relevant charities.

 

 

[Jigghead]

Today's quest for Midmar glory started off much the same as any other. I hopped in the pool and began my swim. I got into a nice rhythm and didn't feel seem to feel either the distance or the time spent in the water. I fact, apart from a little cramp in the foot(I get this sometimes), I could have gone longer. I do however work for a living and had to head off.

 

Now I've found that when raising money for charities one tends to elicit the same flight reaction from possible donors as an insurance salesman does from prospective clients. I am quite adept at recognising this response as it just so happens that I'm also an insurance salesman, although we don't go by that title any longer. So, when heading to the office, I decided to "throw it out there" that I was raising money for charity. What followed was incredible. Within minutes of sending the explanatory info mail, it had been circulated to around 50 of my colleagues. 

 

Now I work with a wonderful bunch of people, so much so that work doesn't often feel like actual work. What was to follow though was overwhelming to the extreme. By the end of the day my fundraising page had logged an additional R2,700 in donations with a few pledges of more to follow. WOW is about all I could muster. I've gone from expecting to swim a couple of freebies this weekend to having a deficit of 30 miles to swim. I'm ready for them and will launch into them with ongoing vigor and will, as usual, post updates here.

 

Thank you to my colleagues; the Premium Team, Glenys Thomas, and Wendy McFadden. I am truly humbled by your support.

 

With that, here's today's two miles. Three more still owing to Brent Marlton and Moira Dewar, those will be completed shortly.

 

Now I know you all work hard for your money, I'd like to do the same. This is why I'll swim for it...

 

Check out THIS LINK to donate.

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Jigghead

[Slowbee]

topic pinned.

 

this is a worthwhile one, especially after Bobbie's fundraiser.

[mon-goose]

well done jigghead. you can put me in for a mile.

 

do I need to register on the page to donate?

[Jigghead]

well done jigghead. you can put me in for a mile.

 

do I need to register on the page to donate?

Thank you bud, no need to register, simply follow the link and hit the ‘DONATE’ button.

 

https://kydrin.co.za/goals/View/223

 

You’re a champ, thank you.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Jigghead

[mon-goose]

cool, will do

[Slowbee]

BUMP for Jigghead

[Grantc]

Jason - like last year, you owe me 9 miles.

Enjoy the swim and good luck with the fund raising.

[Jigghead]

What a week it's been. After the flurry of donations received on Tuesday I though I'd see things settle down. Not so however as Wednesday also saw a good flow and I ended the week with R4,400 in donations being received, leaving my total on R5,400.

 

That's over 25% of my target in only two weeks. That leaves some serious swimming to be done. Work and children's sports days made it a little difficult to get in all the swimming I was hoping to, but I did manage to squeeze in a total of 8 miles. I've now checked off the miles for Brent Marlton​ and Moira Dewar​. Thanks guys. As usual Brent, you'll be capping it off by doing the last one with me.

 

In the mean time, thank you to @mon-goose, @Grantc, Stephen Venter, and Karabo Senatla for your donations. Today I managed to swim all miles owing to Wendy McFadden so now I begin getting down to firing off the Premium Team's miles. All 20 of them and beyond. As I've said, all miles will be completed.

 

Thanks for the support to all who've spoken to me and mailed me. I really appreciate it. Please feel free to spread the word and send the links to your friends. You can donate of the link here: 

 

https://kydrin.co.za/goals/View/223

 

In the meantime, keep watching. This week promises to see far more time being spent in the pool so I'm hoping to get at least 14 miles in between now and this time next week. 

 

Here are the swims I've managed to complete since the last update. Today's were split between two swims given that I was taking care of two donors, I managed 4 miles(6.5km) today and feel stronger than I expected. 

 

This bodes well for my 200 mile target!

 

[Jigghead]

Today saw the end of a busy week, both work and swimming wise. The weekend was a huge swimming weekend and I'm feeling it in my shoulders a bit. With work what it has been I only managed to get two swims in during the week. This is proving to be a problem and I'm really under pressure to get it right if I want to achieve my 200 mile goal. i've worked out that I need to swim no less than eight miles a during the week, which will give me a little bit of breathing room come Saturday and Sunday, both of which are looking like needing 4 miles each.

 

Coming into Friday morning, I had every intention of getting three miles in given that I was on leave, but a last minute rush to a meeting made that look a little unlikely. Finally, at around 17h00 I bit the bullet and went off to the gym to get in two miles. This proved to be a good idea as I banged in my first sub 60 min two miles since training started. Saturday saw a strong 4 miles, although not entirely without a few stops for a drink, and equipment adjustment. I  was dreading today as I was stiff after a late Friday push followed by a long Saturday morning, but I knew I had to get in four miles, this was non-negotiable. I was just looking for a steady 4 miles and then out. When I hit 3km, I though I could go all the way without a stop, 4km had me thinking I could go all day. At 5km it occurred to me that this swim could actually be longer than the 4 planned miles (6.5km). At this point I promised myself a drink break at 6km and then a push all the way to 8.15km (5 miles).

 

I felt strong though and didn't want to break my rhythm, so I pushed on counting 20 lap intervals so I could break the task up into smaller manageable segments. I kept expecting to need a drink every 20 laps (500m) but every time I thought just one more. Before I knew it I'd passed 8km and the last 10 laps didn't need that drink either. With that, I've just pulled off my longest non-stop swim. Now I know there are far longer non-stop swims out there, probably also on this forum, but for me, it's a bit of a record breaker. Here it is:

 

 

That saw me through to a respectable 15 miles for the week, bringing my total to 29 miles for the month.

 

 

This week also saw my fundraising total climb to R5,500. Don't forget I'm raising funds for CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation. These guys do such awesome work. I'm sure everyone is aware of the increasing prevalence of childhood cancer. What many may not be aware of is the toll this disease takes on the families of the children suffering from cancer. Many times the treatment needed is only available far away from home. In addition to providing emotional support to parents and sufferers, CHOC provides accommodation and transport, amongst other things, to the families that need to travel long distances in order to have their children treated, but cannot afford the transport, board and lodging away from home. Check out their website and read some of the stories that are there, it makes me feel really privileged to be able to play my part in assisting these families. www.choc.org.za

 

Should you wish to assist with donations, check out my fund raising page HERE - Jigghead's Fundraising Page

 

As usual, R100 gets you 1 mile, I'm R5,500 into a R20,000 target, so don't be shy. Every penny counts.

Edited October 22, 2017 by Jigghead

[mon-goose]

awesome swim week end jigghead, well done

[Cheese]

Well done, I am still struggling to get below 50 minutes for 2000 m.

[mon-goose]

how's the weeks swimming going jigghead?

[Jigghead]

how's the weeks swimming going jigghead?

Been battling with a bit of sinus this week, but did manage a 2 miler last night. I’ll do some more tonight and then tomorrow morning. The weekend will need to yield at least 8 miles though, so it’s gonna be a busy one.

 

[mon-goose]

good luck with the week end.