We arrived at Killin at 11am on Sat 8th August 2009 to see Colleen step into the chilly water of Loch Tay (15 miles long) to start her marathon swim – anyone who has even paddled in the lochs of Scotland will know how cool the water can be, let alone in just a swimming costume! As she headed off into the distance, swimming alongside her support boat (which she is not allowed to touch during the swim or it is void. It’s there for safety and support), we headed back to the car to drive along the loch to catch a glimpse of her. Although the road is some distance from the loch we caught sight of the boat and Colleen when she was about 30 minutes into the swim. For us it was then to a nice warm café for lunch – unfortunately the weather was now changing and we could see the rain moving down the loch and it looked as though the boat crew would soon be as wet as Colleen. A few hours later we drove back along the loch to see if we could spot her again, heading down various tracks/driveways that we thought would lead us to the loch side. We did not manage to see her again but had heard from her mother, Irene, that all was going well.
Later yesterday evening, at 11pm we got a message from Irene to say that Colleen had successfully swum the 15 mile length of Loch Tay in 7 hours 54 minutes and was already two hours into her night swim along the 9.5 miles of Loch Rannoch. This she also successfully completed, finishing in 5 hours 45 minutes despite battling against the clouds of little Scottish beasties (midges!) that were attacking her and her boat crew.
Unfortunately, at 7.30 am on Sunday we got a message to say that the swim had had to be stopped in Loch Tummel due to a shoulder injury and the extreme cold. One of the difficulties with this type of swim is that although there are short rests between swimming each loch your arms can seize up due to cold and tiredness making it very difficult to continue with the next stage. While disappointing this is an amazing achievement completing the lengths of both Loch Tay and Loch Rannoch (24.5 miles) and something very few can claim to have done.
Colleen’s family and friends have also played a huge role in organising and running this event – her mum Irene organised the transport of Colleen, boat crew plus the boat along the winding roads between each of the lochs. She and friends met them at the end of each loch supplying them with warm soup and food. At the end of Loch Tay, Colleen’s sister provided a huge package of fish and chips from their nearby chip shop in Dunkeld which was greatly appreciated by Colleen and her boat crew, and also by some fishermen who hungry and curious as to what was going on gave a donation in exchange for some chips. The boat crew included Colleen’s father Bill, who rowed for hours through the changing weather and midges, guiding and supporting Colleen through the day and night along the lochs.
This is an amazing effort from all of them especially Colleen – well done!
Many thanks too to all those who have sponsored Colleen to raise funds for PC Project UK.
