Only 250 metres before new target needed

This was my 8th swim in December and brought my total up to 4,750 - only now swim short of the overall mandatory distance required for the Gold Challenge. Of course I still need to 250m twice in the months of January, February and March but the big target of 5,000m will have been achieved. Will I just swim twice a month during these colder months?? Well those who know me will know the answer to that question!

Now the Gold Challenge is only one of 5 different categories of challenge, plus there is the “Penguin” for those who feel the need for neoprene! One of the rules of the Polar Bear Challenge is that you can “drop down” a category, but you can’t move up. So as the Gold is the third of the five I am intrigued about whether I might have been able to have taken on the “Arctic” level. In this category the two mandatory swims of 250m each month stay the same but the additional requirement is to swim 3,000m every month. I think this will be very challenging in February and March particularly if the weather is bad and the sea is unswimmable from a safety perspective.

Anyway, it’s rather an academic point as levelling up is not possible. So I think I will probably aim for a total of 10,000m across the five months. That should keep me in the water during those colder months and not allow me to let up!

Anyway, today’s swim was another really pleasant experience, even if the sun did slide behind a rather dark cloud for the whole time I was in the water. The wind was brisk and made getting out a little colder, but no after drop and a pretty fast cycle home warmed me up nicely.