Three of the Vikings crew decided to brave the murky, but warm waters of Lake Burley Griffin in the Sri Chinmoy National Capital Swim on 13 November 2011.
Greg Gourley took on the challenge as a solo swimmer and easily finished the whole 9km in approximately 2 minutes faster than the previous year, in a very decent 2 hours 34 minutes coming home 1st in his category (Solo Male 50-59 wetsuit) and 14th overall.
Caroline Makin and Philippa Rickard thought 9km between the two of them was plenty enough of a distance each, and entered as an all female team called “The Brit Sisters”. They made it through the finish line in a very respectable 2 hours 29 minutes winning the ‘all female team’ category and placed 12th overall. Caz was concentrating so hard on the first handover she almost didn’t stop and Philippa was nearly pipped to the post on a sprint dash by a male, over the stoney beach to the finish line!
"The Brit Sisters" ready to take to the water
Greg at the finish line!
The solo swimmers set off 15 minutes before the teams, and Mr Toe-Tickler Gourley was a little worried that Madames Makin and Rickard may in fact be tickling his toes towards the latter stages of the swim, but not the case, the Brit Sisters only managed to make up 5 minutes of young Gourley’s 15 minute head start. Maybe that’s another challenge for next year!
The three Vikings with their trophies
For more information, the Sri Chimnoy website has the officical race report, full results and some official photos from the day.
