British Gas Great Swim Series

Around 4million people dip into the nippy environment of UK open water swimming each year. Sadly, statistics show that you are nearly 34 times more likely to drown in inland open water swimming than you are in a municipal pool.

So, ensuring you have a safe environment in which to enjoy the sport is paramount. And with four great swims held in lakes and docks across the country each year, the British Gas Great Swim series is the perfect place to enjoy the chlorine-free great outdoors with full supervision.

The series of four televised one-mile swims during the summer offer a great environment to experience what outdoor swimming has to offer. Over 10,000 swimmers took the plunge in 2009, including an 86-year-old granddad.

It’s a fantastic challenge for all swimming abilities, from steadily swimming the breaststroke while chatting to your friend to pulling out all the stops and hammer through the water in order to secure your fastest front crawl time. The choice is yours.

The 2010 events will take place on 19 June at Alton Water Park in Suffolk, 3 July at the Royal Victoria Dock in London, 21 August at Strathclyde Country Park in Scotland and 4-5 September at Windermere in the Lake District, Cumbria.

For more information on the event visit the website here. And to give you a better idea of what it is like to throw yourself into taking on the series, you can keep up to date with Katie’s Open Water Blog.

Katie Bosdet is the 31-year-old Head of Brand Experience at British Gas and she has set herself the challenge of swimming all five Great Water Swims in 2010. Follow her on her training journey by clicking here.