Sean Conway left today for the swimming adventure of a lifetime, as he aims to swim the entire length of Britain in the span of two months to raise awareness and funds for the charity War Child.
/f/76838/400x300/7b4ca73524/ge3qbaywsvybvyo1wyii.jpg "Marathon swimmer Sean Conway trains in the Endless Pools swimming machine for his UK open water swim")
A professional adventurer who admits to having minimal prior swimming experience, the 32 year old sees this as his greatest challenge yet.
In preparation, he enlisted the help of All3Motion and swim coach Mark Kleanthous, who spent time offering swimming training to Conway in an Endless Pool.
The two worked to fine-tune Conway’s long-distance technique in order to conserve energy during his long swimming sessions, which will be equivalent to swimming the English Channel everyday.
"Using an Endless Pool for training far outshone standard lane swimming, as it replicated what it will be like in the water,” said Conway. “No turns, no edges to rest at—I could just keep going.”
He will be the first to attempt the 1,000-mile route he and his support team have mapped out mostly along the western coast of the country, from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
Having grown up in Africa, Conway aims to raise funds for War Child, a charity that protects children from the brutal effects of war and helps to rebuild their lives. His desire for adventure is matched by a passion to give back and raise awareness for an important cause.
The latest of Conway’s many journeys comes on the heels of a 16,000-mile bike excursion around the world, which included an unfortunate encounter with a pickup truck that left him with a lingering back injury.
He’s found that the addition of a regular swimming workout has actually helped him recover from the accident and feels another level of fitness compared to his biking days.
“Swimming fit feels more evenly spread around my body,” said Conway, “and the good news is that I’ve improved a lot.”