Murray Chapman is a 56-year-old tradesman who regularly swims at our pool. He is currently training for the English Channel swim in August this year!
For those of you that have never heard of this gruelling swim, let us enlighten you. The English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic ocean that separates Southern England from Northern France and can drop as low as 12ºC but will hopefully be at a warm 18ºC when Murray takes it on.
The swim will cover a distance of 33.8km, with an average finishing time of a little over 13 hours with a 50% completion rate. Murray is aiming to complete his swim in 10 -12 Hours!
To train, Murray has been swimming 30-35km a week and is slowly building up as the weeks progress so he will eventually be covering over 50km a week in preparation for the English Channel Swim.
Firstly Murray completed the Perth to Rottnest swim which covers a distance of 20km which is also an incredible achievement on its own. Then he travelled to Japan a few months back so he could get a feel for swimming in the cooler waters as it is highly recommended to be comfortable in these lower temperatures before attempting the swim.
People who attempt this swim can expect to lose anywhere between 20kg and 34kg. It is recommended that anyone attempting this swim should definitely consider following a diet to help them gain weight in anticipation of the swim. When we asked Murry what his plan was he responded with, “I plan on gaining after the swim not before haha!”.
After the swim, Murray is planning on living it up large in France for a week or so as a celebration of all his hard work.
We wish you all the best Murray and you have our full support!
