The brutality of a 24 hour swim: “I couldn’t stop shaking”
Ever the glutton for punishment, would a 24-hour swim finally be the challenge to defeat Brunty?
I remember doing Ironman Lanzarote a few years ago and seeing a placard on the side of the run which said: “We don’t do this because it’s easy – we do it because we thought it would be easy.” More than any other slogan I’ve seen, I feel this encapsulates my athletic ‘career’ – constantly underestimating the scale of the challenge I have signed up for and taking to the start in a state of blissful ignorance, until the bulldozer of reality arrives.
As regular readers will know, every year I like to add some kind of daft sporting challenge to my regular triathlon calendar, partly to give myself something to fear as it looms ever nearer and partly because setting new goals for myself makes my inevitable failures feel fresh and surprising. This year has been no different thanks to something I’ve just done called Swim The Night.
In 2024, fresh from completing the 21 mile Windermere Double endurance swim, I was looking for something that was easier, but sounded harder, and I happened upon a swim that was only three miles longer, but I had 24 hours to do it in rather than all in one go. I entered. What’s the worst that could happen..?
Swim The Night is an endurance swim in the outdoor, unheated grandeur of Hillingdon Lido near London. Starting at 7am you have a choice of swimming either 1km or 1 mile every hour for either the next 12 or 24 hours.
First timers might, for example, choose to swim 12 km in 12 hours in which case you enter the pool at 7am, swim 1km, get out, get back in at 8am, swim 1km, and so on until 6pm. Overconfident d*ckheads on the other hand would start at 7am and swim 1 mile, and keep doing that every hour until 6am the next morning.
Although I count myself as a confident long-distance swimmer there were some aspects of this event that were new to me – not least staying awake for 24 hours – which were enough to give me that frisson of dread I seem to be addicted to, but on the whole I thought it would be easier than Windermere while making me look more of a hard nut. Wrong!
The first inkling I had that I was up against it was after mile one when I got out and couldn’t stop shaking. Despite the heatwaves this summer, it was a cool and wet weekend and I just couldn’t get warm between swims. I honestly never thought I’d yearn to be back in the water, but it was infinitely better than trying to cram bananas and flapjacks between my chattering teeth during the 30 minute breaks I had between miles.
While I was swimming I was fine – but it was the breaks between swims I found hardest. There were other mental obstacles to overcome too. As we all know the worst bit of any swim is the moment you actually get into the water, and doing that 24 times in a row was a test of character, especially between 1-5am in the morning when you’ve been awake for 16 hours and everyone you know is in bed.
- Check out our list of the best changing robes to keep warm after swimming
As the event went on I was also aware that numbers were diminishing. Some swimmers had opted to do 12 hours so left at 7pm, others switched to 12 from 24 because of the conditions, and others were swimming well but had to stop after 16 or 17 after succumbing to the cold.
This is where the organisers showed their spirit though, simultaneously keeping everyone safe while encouraging those still going with midnight meals, hot breakfasts, warm room, hot drinks and more and enthusiasm than I’d have if I’d been watching other people swim for 24 hours.
In the end, thanks to their support, there were multiple finishers of the various times and distances, and three of us made it to the full 24 miles/hours, including yours truly who emerged hungry, wrinkly, and strangely energised – which lasted until the car park where I fell asleep for two hours.
Huge congratulations to everyone who took part because that was tough, and massive thanks to the organisers for a brilliant event. Once again, I have accidentally ended up doing a proper challenge so naturally I’m on the lookout for something new next year – after all it’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you get up without learning anything…
Read more from Martyn Brunt on the mental toughness of endurance swimmers.
Martyn Brunt
220's back-page columnist 
