In an era where new challenges seem scarce, British fitness expert Ross Edgley decided to redefine the limits of human endurance. As the first person to swim around the entire circumference of Great Britain, he embarked on an extraordinary journey that would test his physical and mental strength.
In this day and age, it is very difficult to find new challenges. It’s a long time since Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to climb to the top of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, in 1953. It’s even longer since Captain Matthew Webb swam across the English Channel in 1875 from England to France – something that had never been done before. A new challenge did take place this year when British fitness expert, Ross Edgley, became the first person to swim around the whole of Great Britain. It took him 157 days.
Ross is a man of many talents. In addition to being an athlete, he is also a professional sports scientist, has played for the British water polo team, written bestseller books, and not so long ago he ran 30 marathons in 30 days. Then he decided to take on his biggest challenge ever: to swim around Great Britain.
It’s a distance of about 3,200 kilometres. The first challenge was the planning. Ross decided that during the challenge, he should be not able to touch land at any time. When he was not swimming, he lived on a boat. He began his swim on 1st June, swimming for six hours and then resting for six hours. He followed this pattern for the whole challenge. Ross and his team also had to study the wind and tide around Britain’s coast. Both can be very strong. On some days he could swim 48 kilometres. On others, he could barely cover eight.
His diet was very important. Swimming for 12 hours every day burns thousands of calories. During the challenge he would burn about one million of them! Bananas became a big feature at mealtimes. He ate 640 of them in total!
There were many dangers to look out for. Some of the shipping lanes around Great Britain are the busiest in the world. Ships are usually quite easy to see. Jellyfish are not, and they are found all around the coast. They have a very nasty sting. Ross grew a beard to make it more difficult for them to sting his face! Constant exposure to seawater also created many problems for his skin.
It was first thought that the challenge would take 100 days. It was not long before his support team realised it would take longer. On the 74th day, Ross entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest ever staged sea swim – but he was nowhere near the finish line.
Ross arrived back at his starting point on 4th November. He was joined by many other swimmers for the final stretch of his journey. He successfully completed his challenge at 08.40am, when he made it to the shoreline and was welcomed by cheering fans, friends and family.
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VIDEO: What does a marathon swimmer have to eat each day when making records? Ross explains his daily food requirements when swimming around Great Britain.
