99. Open-Water Marathon

Event: Open-Water Marathon 
Date: 18th June 2016 
Location: The Serpentine, London   
Cost: £4.80 
Rules:  The women's open-water swim marathon took place over a distance of 10k in the Serpentine in London. The event is a real test of strength and endurance. Athletes raced six laps around the lake, with the fastest taking the gold medal. 

   

The Event:

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: 1:57:38.2  - Eva Risztov, Hungary (10K)  

Ellie & Sarah: 0:48:37.1 (1K) 

Comments:  
Sarah: It's always a bonus to be able to complete our events in an actual Olympic venue, but for some reason it took us a while to link the fact that the open-swim was held in the Serpentine, and that it would be easy for us to do the same! We arrived early on Saturday morning to a grey and dull day, which meant we only had to share the lake with some serious wet-suited swimmers. It definitely wasn't as cold as I'd been expecting, but still fairly bracing when we got in! I love swimming, but feel nervous being out of my depth when I can't see the bottom, so have always avoided the Serpentine in the past. It took a while to feel confident in the water, and we did a fair bit of faffing about, but we soon both warmed up and got in to the swim, doing faster laps as we went along, and ended up steaming along with faces in the water. We swam the longest distance we'll cover in the challenge; 1km (one tenth of the Olympic distance!), and I definitely felt like I had more in the tank. Hurray for open-water swimming!  

          
Ellie: I really enjoyed this event and am happy to add it to the list of things I will try and continue when we finish in the summer. I'm so non-hardy when it comes to cold water but I really surprised myself by handling the Serpentine's chilly 15C without so much as a wince. 1k is the furthest I've swum in one go, as far as I remember, and it was tough going when you get your stride on. I felt a bit dizzy and disorientated at times but I think this all comes down to not really knowing my stroke to breath ratio. I also felt quite squeamish about the alleged snail parasites that could be lurking in the water... but bobbing along on my back or powering along front crawl were both really enjoyable and I'd love to see myself progress to longer distance, quicker times or events where I get a real medal not a chocolate one!

98. 10,000m

Event: 10,000m
Date: 12th May 2013 + 14th June 2016
Location: Colchester 10K Race + Along the banks of the river Thames  
Cost: £16 + Free
Rules:  Athletes race around the track 25 times, completing the course in the fastest time possible.

   

The Event:

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: 30:20.75 - Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia.

Ellie: Sort of 2 hours

Sarah: 1:09:52

Comments:  
Sarah: It's strange writing about an event that happened three years ago! My memory is a little rusty, but I do remember how good it felt crossing that finish line! Greg and I signed up to the Colchester 10k and put the bupa training plan in to action. Despite all the preparation, we both felt a little daunted amongst the proper club runners. We decided to start from the back, take our time and run our own race. It soon paid off, and we started overtaking other back-runners. The course was nice and flat, and circled around the Garrison part of Colchester, and area I don't know to well. All in all, it was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend the morning! Having recently completed my 5k on the track, I can only imagine how psychologically difficult it would be to run this distance completely on the track.
         
Ellie: My 10k was a far more leisurely experience. I wanted to use the distance to see the more touristy areas of London on foot and to understand how the river joins them all up. I chose a really lovely evening which was an achievement in itself with the weather we've had recently. It felt like a really calm wander apart from the last 3k where I really needed a wee - made ironic by the fact that my route looks like a tap. I also saw my first ever London rat - he was brilliant! 

97. Sailing - Laser Radial

Event: Sailing - Laser Radial
Date: 9th June 2016
Location: Alton Water Sailing Club  
Cost: £25 each for 3 hour lesson  
Rules:  The Laser Radial is a one person dinghy; a popular design of small sailing dinghy. It's a single-handed boat (sailed by one person).  The Olympic course had a target time of 60 minutes for races and 30 minutes for medal races, for which ten boats qualified. There were many course configurations that race management could choose from. 

   

The Event:

Result:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: Xu Lijia, China. 

Comments:  
Sarah: One more time on the water, and I was sure we'd go in. We weren't banking on nearly completely still conditions, which may not have been ideal for sailing, but it was ideal for us! A quick refresher on the shore from our instructor James, and we took to the water for a gentle...well....'float' you could call it. Or 'drift'. The wind was playing games with us and appearing on the water everywhere but where we were. We tried to chase it, but as soon as we got to the spot, it dropped. It would have been nice if there were a little more wind so we could have felt some speed and attempted some tacks, but this was a lovely relaxing way to end our sailing events. 
          
Ellie: Our last sailing event of our challenge and we were trusted to be in charge of a boat by ourselves. I was certain I was going to capsize and/or ruin a really expensive boat. Luckily, for me and for the boat, the water was really calm and there was so little wind that we could really take our time and amble across the water. Surprisingly, this was by far my favourite sailing lesson. I felt that there was very little pressure because the weather was so forgiving and we had plenty of time to chat about sailing and Alton Water. We did have to give up on our sail when the wind gave up on us but we'd had a good outing and it was a lovely session to end on.

96. 25m Pistol

Event: 25m Pistol
Date: 14th May 2016
Location: Jersey Shooting Club
Cost: £23 each.
Rules:  The first qualifying stage is the Precision Stage, where athletes shoot six series of five shots each, with a maximum of five minutes to fire each series. Fired at a precision target - 50mm diameter.
The second qualifying stage is the Rapid Fire Stage, where athletes shoot six series of five shots, with three seconds to fire each shot, and a seven second break between each series. The rapid fire target has a 100mm diameter.
Scores from each round are combined, and the eight best shooters advance to the final. In the final, athletes shoot four series of five shots with a three second limit for each shot.

   

The Event:

Results:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: 591 - Kim Jang-Mi, South Korea. 

Ellie: 258

Sarah: 374

Comments:  
Sarah: After our postponed trip in November, we were so happy to finally make it over to Jersey and meet the lovely team at Jersey Shooting Club. We started with a thorough introduction and safety talk about handling the pistol. We both feel quite nervous for the shooting events, so it was good to run over this again. After the talk and some cuddles with Mr Magnum the cat, we made our way out on to the first range to warm up on the 12.5m targets. With practice and good pointers, we progressed to the 25m range and took a while to get used to the new distance...the targets felt so much further away, definitely reflected in our aim. We gradually found our feet and practiced both the Precision and the Rapid elements of the event. I found I was more accurate at the Rapid fire, I think as I didn't have time to over-think my aim before the target turned away between shots. We then launched in to the actual event; the Precision and Rapid rounds using the same Olympic timings and rules. Between series, Derek used the wand to count our shots and Nikki recorded the scores. I was much more accurate in this discipline than I have been in any of the other shooting events, and chuffed with my end score. We had such a great day with the club, who couldn't have been more accommodating or helpful!    
         
Ellie: This has been one of the most highly anticipated events of the whole challenge. As the type of pistol used in this event is banned in mainland Britain we contacted UK shooting for some advice, thinking we'd need to go far, far away, and they put us in contact with the lovely Nikki at Jersey Shooting. The whole team were happy to help from the start of our conversations and we booked to visit in November 2015 but a giant storm cancelled our ferry crossing. Thankfully the May weather was very pleasant and we finally made it to the club. It was wonderful to spend the day with the club and I felt so welcome.
The shooting events are always hard for me as they are so out of my comfort zone and I am very aware of the responsibility of handling guns. I do enjoy the routine of loading, adjusting my stance, aiming and firing though and it is really satisfying to make a good shot.
Luck was not with me today and I couldn't get the hang of the rapid shoot especially. However, the club were full of praise and encouragement and we received lovely medals.

Massive thanks to Nikki, Derek, Peter and the whole team at Jersey Shooting Club! And also to Mr Magnum, the big, beautiful cat!  

 

Bonus Event #6 - Netball

Event: Netball
Date: 5th May 2016
Location: Brightlingsea Sports Centre
Cost: £20 court
Rules: There are seven players in a full team, and they pass the ball down the court and shoot in to their goal. Everyone is assigned either attack or defence positions that define their role within the team and restrict their movement on the court. During play, the player with the ball can't take more than one step before passing it and must pass the ball or shoot at the goal within three seconds. Goals can only be scored by the Goal Attack or Goal Shooter. Matches last 60 minutes and are divided in to 15 minute quarters.

Event:

Score:
Bibs 5 v 6 Non-Bibs

Comments:
Sarah: Our latest bonus event saw us take on one of my favourite sports! It proved difficult to recruit enough players for a full team, so we had a really fast and furious half-pitch game with smaller teams. My shooting had got pretty rusty, and I'd forgotten how tiring what a great workout it is, but the match definitely reignited my love for the sport. The game even converted the doubters we'd roped in; it was so much fun and everyone went away pumped up with plans to get a regular team organised!    

Ellie:  After an incredibly busy day at work in London I missed the bulk of this bonus event but it was very nice to arrive and see people really invested in their team. We had a shoot out to end the session and I was reminded that I was much better suited to the defensive positions!

95. 5000m

Event: 5000m
Date: 27th April + 1st May 2016
Location: Wivenhoe Trail + Colchester Athletics Track 
Cost: Free
Rules:  Athletes run around the track 12.5 times in this long-distance event, completing the race in the fastest time possible.

   

The Event:

Huge thanks to Eliza, Imogen and Rachel for helping me across the line!

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: 15:04.25 - Meseret Defar, Kenya.  

Ellie: 1:11:44.30

Sarah: 35:17.19

Comments:  
Sarah: From the start of the Challenge, I knew I wanted to try this one on the track to experience the monotony of repetitive laps and just make it that bit harder for myself. I was, of course, cursing that decision when I went up to the track, and felt pretty daunted by the distance ahead. Although I'd been training hard, I definitely had the pre-race nerves. Our coach Chris had come up with a really great plan to have one of the Harriers run two laps with me, then swap over and repeat for the whole distance. I'd also roped my husband Greg in to run with me, and they all really helped me along. With them changing every couple of laps, it really broke the distance down into smaller chunks, and I kept visualising where I would be equivalent to in my normal running route. The laps didn't fly by, but they definitely ticked down steadily, and the whole thing was much more fun than I'd been expecting. I even managed a 'sprint' finish when I was joined by all the Harriers in the final half-lap! I'll definitely stick to countryside running in future, but am really glad I was able to experience long-distance on the track.  
         
Ellie: I am never going to be a runner and I'm not too worried about that but it really made me think about the best way to complete the distance races. I decided that a 5k walk with Sarah would be the best way to do it. I wanted to reassure myself that this kind of distance that can seem quite intimidating is not as far as I thought and so we had a really pleasant walk along the quay and beyond. It was a great chance to catch up and essentially I didn't notice the walking which really is my idea of exercise heaven. I'll be trying this sort of distance more regularly for a wander to let of steam or check out the neighbourhood.

94. Sailing - Women's RS:X - Windsurfing

Event: Sailing - Women's RS:X - Windsurfing
Date: 27th April 2016
Location: Alton Water Sailing Club 
Cost: £25 each for 3 hour lesson 
Rules:  The target time for the Olympic course was 30 minutes for points races and 20 minutes in the medal race. The organisers choose the route from various course configurations. The boats have a dagger-board and sail of a specified size, and their are designed to allow windsurfing in low and moderate wind.

   

The Event:

Result:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: Marina Alabau, Spain. 

Comments:  
Sarah: Arriving at Alton Water, we were greeted by the wind buffeting over the surface and after last week's lesson being cancelled due to lack of wind, we were faced by another cancellation due to too much wind. We persuaded our instructor Guy to give us a shot at windsurfing, although we were absolutely dreading spending three hours in the freezing water. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this event, and it came as a complete surprise that windsurfing turned out to be one of our most fun, laughter-filled sports! We were both pretty terrible, but in the best possible way. It took us the whole session to stand comfortably on the boards. I eventually managed to glide somewhat clumsily over the water doing some simple turns. To get to that stage, we repeatedly fell in the water again, and again, and again. Rather than be frustrating, it was just very funny and thankfully our wetsuits and new super-warm wetsocks did the trick and kept the cold out until the very end of the lesson. I would definitely do this one again! 
         
Ellie: If you had told me at 7.30am when I got up that I'd be in Alton Water most of the morning I would have gone back to bed and ignored any calls from Sarah especially as there had been snow in Essex the day before! As it turned out, the sun was beautiful, the water refreshing and windsurfing was one of the most enjoyable watersport so far! After less than 30 minutes I was very in to this event, giving a running commentary throughout my efforts to get upright and we'd already started changing the terminology, calling the up-haul cord the U-Haul. It takes a lot of core strength and balance to get on your feet and travelling and I'm very pleased that I managed to stand up on the board - the travelling I did was only towards the water but, as Sarah says, that was actually really funny. It was very nice to just float on the board and kick your legs and watch the other person get on with it too! This is a sport I doubt I'll ever become remotely proficient at but it's one that I'd have another go at without any need to get better.