Challenge complete

I’m so excited to announce that I finished my 2025 fitness challenge and swam two miles across Regents Park's stunning Serpentine Lake.

As a Londoner this was a beautifully surreal experience. I’ve not spent much time in Regents Park without young kids in tow. Swimming in this fabulous lake has definitely given me a different perspective and I felt completely present as I swam round.

I've always approached challenges like this simply: I try to be as present as I can, I don't race, I proceed at my own pace.

With any challenge there is always an element of self-discipline with regards to training but the most important thing to me is to enjoy the event whilst also being extremely aware of my how my body feels, and not letting my mind and nerves get the better of me.

These races, though a lot of fun, are designed to test you and have an element of risk involved. It's important to pay attention to your physical and mental well-being during events so that you can exit gracefully if necessary, your event can be rescheduled but you health cannot.

For this swim I knew I could do the distance, I’d trained well and gotten myself up to a mile and a half, around 50 lengths of a 50 meter pool. With endurance challenges you usually don’t train to the full length of any race, adrenaline usually helps to push yourself round that last bit on the day, the crowd are usually brilliant help with with this as well. Most of my races so far have been running events so its easy to hear the crowd and even get some high fives when you’re feeling a bit worn out however the Serpentine is slightly different, the crowd are further away and very hard to hear so you are reliant purely on your own mind to talk you through each stroke and this self talk can either make or break your swim.

Training

I had a lot of "ah ha" moments as I was training for this swim. I had an 8 week plan and I would swim two or three times a week, adding ten more lengths each time. I included a strength training session led by The Fitness Monkey, Lyndsey Parkins, based at Strongher in Bethnal Green, which made it much easier for me to concentrate on isolating and strengthening muscles that weren't exactly working properly. With my work as a massage therapist my upper body is super strong and my legs and glutes get a little neglected so this was a real eye opener and a relief to finally be feeling much more flexible and strong.

Around week 3, I started to see the benefits of swimming's meditative qualities; my ADHD brain started to calm down and I felt more at ease than I had in a long time. In a 50-meter pool, I would alternate between the front crawl and breast stroke; in a 25-meter pool, I would perform four lengths of each, mentally counting as I always forget my smart watch. On my front crawl lengths, I was merely thinking about the stroke and the breath, but on my breast stroke lengths, I found myself processing thoughts, downloading information, and neatly refiling stuff in my crazy brain. I posted one of these thoughts on instagram, you can read it at the end of this blog post.

What challenged me most…
The biggest challenge for me was training myself to submerge my head under water whilst not being able to see anything other than murky darkness and the occasional piece of flora or forna floating towards me. Being of the Jaws generation I really did have to have a few very strong words with myself to convince me nothing was going to rise up and bite my butt but after a few sessions I calmed down and got on with it without incident!

Another challenge was the water temperature. We’ve had a wonderfully hot summer this year and though I’d completed quite few outside swims, mostly in Eden Dock, Canary Wharf, I was feeling rather smug about how long I was able to swim in the cold water, then the air temperature really dropped and I realised I may have been a bit deluded and as I was going to be in the water for at least 90minutes that it was probably better to get myself a wetsuit. I had several thoughts around this, “I could tough it out”, and “wearing a wetsuit would mean I was cheating” so I spoke to a pragmatic friend who clipped me round the earhole and reminded me that the main aim of these challenges is to finish them without injury or death so I had another sharp word with myself and got over it.

The problem was that I didn’t have a wetsuit of my own yet, and with 2 weeks to go, and full calendar of clients, I didn’t have time to shop around. So another friend came to the rescue and kindly loaned me hers and it fit but only just, it was a little tight around the arms.

I did a trial swim the week before the event in West Reservoir which is when I discovered that that the wetsuit was actually really restricting my ability to swim well, so I had to adapt my expectations and decided to swim the whole event in breast stroke, this would slow me down a little but as I wasn’t aiming for a specific time it was a bit easier to accept.

Challenge Day September 25th 2025 : swim time : 3pm

On the day I was quite nervous, I had expected this, as this was a truely personal challenge. All of my previous running events have been for charity which gave me something outside of myself to focus on but this one I wanted to do for me, to prove to myself I could do it, to help me to reset some internal boundaries and move through some limiting beliefs. I was also hoping that this would help me move towards a better fitness routine so that as the winter months approached, a time when I have historically found more difficult mentally, I could feel better in my body and mind.

I squeezed into my suit surrounded by family, explored the event set up then took myself off to the participants area where I psyched myself up with visions of crossing the finish line (thank you Alison Graham). As I walked with my fellow competitors towards the start line there were well wishers all along the side cheering us on, I was so excited to see my family there taking pictures and encouraging me forward. Those last moments on shore were so surreal, finally at the start line I plunged into the water and began to swim. As the sounds of the onlookers faded away it became quite calm and serene, all you could really hear was the splash and sploosh of the surrounding water. Sometimes I was flanked by other participants but at for the most part I felt quite alone in the water.

I really loved the swim, I didn’t feel too cold and it was fun to be with so any people who were also enjoying themselves. I was able to take in the the oddness of being in the middle of a lake in the centre of London, within my home town, whilst also taking connecting with the privilege of being able to do just that, it’s quite humbling. About three quarters of the way round mild aches started to set in around my hips and knees but nothing that made me feel I couldn’t continue and as I hit the final 200 meters I started to let myself feel excited, stepping onto the pontoon I was a little bit wobbly but thankfully there were some lovely volunteers around to help, and as I found my feet again I made my way to the check out desk, full of adrenaline, I scanned out at 1:48.47!

London Marathon & Serp Swim complete : 100Mile Ride London to go!

I then grabbed a cup of hot blackcurrant and practically ran to get my medal… such a great feeling. I HAD DONE IT! I’m sooo proud of myself having completed this event and even more excited that I have only 1 more challenge to go before I claim my LONDON CLASSICS medal!

Hidden benefits

The more I trained the more I felt the benefits of moving my body. My joints felt less sticky and sore, much more open and flexible and I’d started to sleep so much better. Swimming in the cold water was refreshing and my mind was much more awake.

Research also supports the way I was starting to feel. In a scoping review by the Journal of psychology open water swimming was shown to improve wellbeing and positive mood states, reduces negative mood states such as tension, anger, fatigue, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. (K. Overbury a, B.W. Conroy a, E. Marks)

I can attest to this fact wholeheartedly and would encourage you all to get into the water, even if that just means a toe in a cold shower once a day.

We’re very lucky that our local council, Tower Hamlets, also see the incredible benefits that can be found in swimming and have launched an amazing initiative free swimming for women programme encouraging women to get moving at any pool in Tower Hamlets, now whilst this is mainly aimed at young girls and women it is available to men aged 55+.

So get yourself down to a local pool and maybe I’ll see you there?

Where I swam

I alternated pools and open water swimming venues, I love all these venues and really hope I can continue my fitness journey utilising these amazing resources.

The London Aquatics

London Fields Lido

Mile End Leisure centre, (Free swimming sessions for women).

For my open water temperature adaptation swims I mostly used

Canary Wharf Eden Docks

West Reservoir in Stoke Newington.

Additional:

Instagram post : brain download from during my training…

Whilst swimming today, counting my lengths, as my brain relaxes … only a few thoughts come through (as opposed to the millions that are going on at every other moment)

I remembered little me learning to swim in poplar baths back in the 80’s … @towerhamletsnow Devon’s road Primary school (now Clara Grant) would take us by coach every week. It was formative for me because I was super little and had no other opportunities to learn this vital skill, I loved the water, it was exciting to do something so different. I don’t remember the early lessons specifically but what I do remember was when you were competent enough they would get you to swim 10 meters, then 25, then you would carry on working your way up to 100, then you could do your bronze, silver or gold medals … (my brother has the bronze, I so wanted that medal)

I got stuck at around the 15 meter mark for quite some time because that was the start of the deep end and one day at the end of the lesson, we were playing ring around the rosy in the pool, all holding hands when the instructor shouted “everyone out”, the whole class scrambled for the stairs, my hand was dropped, and as I was in the deep end I just sank, poor little me had to be rescued … I was terrified of that point of the pool for what seemed like forever after that, I used to freeze at that point of the pool until one day, I just didn’t … I swam on … and didn’t stop until I hit 100meters, twice round.

I never did quite get that bronze though … I missed out because I stopped 10 secs too early at the wading element ( I then spent the whole summer wading in St George’s pool on the highway, proving to myself that I could wade, they used to have the radio playing whilst you swam so I just waded for song after song after song)

As I swam today I felt a real moment of seeing myself, I will forever be in awe of that resilient little girl who smashed through that fear and went on to love swimming and now signs up for mad challenges to stretch herself! Yay me xxx

Swim Serpentine... I did it