Thames Marathon 2023 - Peter Kordel

Hi Everyone,

This year I have decided to take on another swimming challenge - the Thames Marathon.  It is a swim of approximately 13km (or 8 miles) starting in Henley and swimming to Marlow. This is a big challenge for me and a 13k swim will probably be a 4 hour slog down the river.  It now just over a month until the day, which is August 13th, which also happens to be my Birthday, so I will be expecting a cake at the finish :)

As with last year, I am undertaking this challenge for Earthworks St Albans, where I have the pleasure of volunteering as their Treasurer. They are a great local charity who support people with learning disabilities to manage 3.5 acres of beautiful eco-gardens by offering purposeful activity in the natural environment, building skills and community, and boosting wellbeing. I know times are tough for many at the moment, but if you are able, any sponsorship would be amazing for this very worthy cause.

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Thames Marathon …. Done

This was my day

• 05:00 / 0km: Alarm

• 07:00 / 0km: Register, in the rain, in Marlow

• 07:30 / 0km: Jump on the event bus to the start in Henley. Sudden realisation that I need to swim back this same distance!

• 08:20 / 0km: Enter the Thames, it’s a lot colder than I expected!

• 09:20 / 4km: Get to the first lock, exit the river, take full advantage of the refuelling buffet, then an unexpected 20 minute wait to re-enter the water due to the queue and the abseil down the bank

• 10:10 / 6.5k: Halfway and a little treading water in the river whilst I take on an energy gel from my dry bag

• 11:00 / 9k: Get to the second lock, major wetsuit burn going on, so apply some tape whilst eating my body weight in minstrels from the refuelling buffet.

• 11:40 / 11k: Get to the third lock, overdose on malt loaf.

• 12:30 / 13.2k: Get to the finish and greeted by my family and a hot chocolate which was much needed for my cold hands

A massive thank you to everyone who donated!!

The final few training sessions are now all done. A very rainy 5k swim at Denham on Saturday (a pic taken by Juliet of me refuelling after lap 3). Then on Sunday, back to the standard Sunday evening Masters session and a final gentle solo 3k swim in Nuffield on Wednesday evening. So that is a total of over 300km swam so far this year, that is the equivalent of 12,000 lengths, hopefully that will prove enough preparation for Sunday.

Luckily the weather is looking good for Sunday, the water temperature is currently 19 degrees, which is close to ideal, so just fingers cross there is some flow in Thames!

I'm back from a family holiday in France, where I had very little opportunity to do any training.  I braved the sea a couple of times, but it was just too cold for me with no wetsuit.  First day back at home and I've completed a 5k swim (200 lengths) today which builds the confidence.  A time of just under 1hour 30 means that my target of 4 hours for the 13k swim is the right ballpark.  I'll get the benefit of the flow of the Thames and the wetsuit (the additional buoyancy of the neoprene is a real help), but I will lose the benefit of the tumble-turns and will need more stops for refuelling.  A strava screenshot below to prove the 5K :) 

Less than a month to go and one of my last long training sessions.  This time 5 times round the 1k loop at Denham which took 1h 50, but did include quite a bit of chatting with Juliette who is also the excellent photographer responsible for the updated image on the main page.  Adding a pic of Denham (this one taken by me) so you can see the lake including the view of HS2!