Swimathom + Sport Relief Mile

Hello!

Welcome to another post about a sports event! I haven’t done one in a while because I haven’t participated in any events since December. However, this past weekend I swam and ran in the Sport Relief Games!

Sport Relief is an organization which is trying to make our a world a better place through sport. Every 2 years, Sport Relief holds various running, swimming and cycling events all over UK and half of the money raised go to people in need in Africa, while the other half is spent in helping people in the UK itself. You can get more info about the actual events as well as the specific issues that Sport Relief helps to fight in here.

I started my Friday with a healthy 1km swim with my university’s girls’ swimming team! All 5 of us did a kilometer each and we finished the 5km in a bit over an hour! This event – Swimathon – was not about speed or racing but about spending time with friends/acquaintances/strangers and raising money for a great cause.

I started my Friday with a healthy 1km swim with my university’s girls’ swimming team! All 5 of us did a kilometer each and we finished the 5km in a bit over an hour! This event was not about speed or racing but about spending time with friends/acquaintances/strangers and raising money for a great cause.

All of the participants represented a particular team. My university’s girls’ swimming team was put into the Green team. If you look up the hashtag #TeamGreenSwim, you can see people from all over the UK, swimming while wearing the green cap (pictured below). Since the cap is a tiny bit too small for me to wear in an everyday practice, I will probably frame it and put it on my wall.

In addition, all of the swimmers got a commemorative medal to add to their collections. Nevertheless, all of these material possessions are nothing compared to the awesome feeling one gets when one does something good for others! And that’s what Swimathon was all about!

I am sorry that I don’t have any photos from the actual event. The Aquatics Centre that I did this swimming challenge in has very strict rules about privacy and a strong no-photos policy.

On Sunday, I’ve also attended the running marathon for the same cause. People could choose to either run or walk 1, 3 or 6 miles. Since I haven’t been jogging much and was sick at the beginning of the week, I chose the middle distance. It was also quite weird for me to count the distance in miles since I usually use kilometers.

The Sport Relief Mile Running Marathon was held on the Aberdeen’s Sport’s Village’s brand new outdoor running track. I have never run in an actual stadium before. Kaunas Half-Marathon would start and finish in the stadium but we would only run a few hundred meters in there.

Running in the stadium, on an actual running track, also meant that we were running in circles, which is also not a thing that I usually do – I am lucky to be able to jog in a nearby park or even by the sea whenever I want.

However, running laps (I did 12) also has its perks: you always know how many laps  you have left and there is always people in the stands, cheering you up the whole way through.

  

The Sport Relief Mile in Aberdeen had only 100 to 150 participants, the majority of them were families. I was surprised that this event didn’t have a bigger turnout.

I enjoyed running my 3 miles, I was going at a steady pace and finished my fastest run this year! The weather was also perfect for running – warm but not too sunny, cloudy but not rainy. I only wish that the wind would have been weaker, however, this is Aberdeen – it is always windy in here, so I’m kinda used to it.

All of the participants of the run received a commemorative medal and a runner’s number. The organisers also supplied the participants with bottles of water and bananas to snack on after the run.

Overall, I had a really great time, participating both in the swimming and running challenges for Sport Relief. It was nice to do one challenge in a team, and another one alone. If you have never done anything like this before but would like to start participating in public sports events, I highly suggest that you try your hand at charity runs/swims/else. The main goal of these physical challenges is to have a great time while raising money and awareness for a good cause, rather than competing, so it’s a perfect place to start!

If you would like to donate to Sport Relief, you can still sponsor me here. Thank You!