After the storming fundraising success of 2012’s swim to Africa, bike ride, marathon combo upping the ante in order to justify asking for more of your cash was always going to be tricky.

This year I intend to make the journey between Cologne and Brighton under my own steam. In 2011 when I started the bike ride there were those that joked about there being a body of water that would prevent me making it all the way, well this year with the aid of Brighton Swimming Club’s finest I will be swimming the channel (relay), cycling the 352 miles between the French coast and the Messe and running the 75.9 miles from my front door to Dover.

Work commitments mean that I’m unable to take the entire two weeks off before the show to wait for a fair wind and a good tide so I’ll be completing this in three legs; the run, (three marathons back to back over three consecutive days), the swim, (a 19-24 hour relay swimming stint the week before gamescom) and the cycle, (kicking off Saturday morning after the show).

In many respects the physical challenge is harder so the risk of injury is higher but the danger of death level drops off. Sharks have been removed from the equasion as a major physical hazard and replaced by effluent, tanker ships, swarms of jelly fish that will just hurt a lot rather than kill me, heart failure and hyperthermia.

The latter poses the greatest problem as I’ll be swimming in a bikini and a little goose fat and all solo swims have been cancelled at the moment due to unseasonably cold waters with the temperature around 10 degrees, (your average public  pool is around 28C).

In short this is going to be difficult; I could barely walk for a week after one marathon so three back to back could be an issue, towing the rag-tag bunch of industry fitness dodging charity fans on a bike is very but exhausting and the channel, well there’s a reason why you have to have a full medical including an ECG before they let you do it.

 

So that’s it – it’s the only thing I’ll ask you for cash for for this year, (apart from the Christmas cakes – obvs) so please give what you can.