UPDATE!  Stephen completes the London Marathon

"I completed the London marathon today in 4 hours 8 minutes.  It would have been good to get under four hours but given the amount of training I'd lost I was fairly satisfied with the time.  I felt fine for 20 miles but the last 6 miles were very hard due to lack of training milage.  It was a great day with a fantastic atmosphere and huge support from the crowd.

Thank you so much from me and THT to the people who sponsored me, my final total should be over £1500.

Stephen"

Ed:  Fantastic effort and congratulations on finishing the marathon.

One of our members, Stephen Christie, is running the London Marathon this weekend to raise money for the Terence Higgins Trust.  Something like this takes a huge amount of dedication and effort.  Hopefully you'll take 5 minutes to donate something to the Terence Higgins Trust.

Stephen said the following: 

"I am hoping to complete the marathon in under four hours although my training was interrupted by a chest infection in February which meant I couldn't run for three weeks. I then went to Goa for two weeks which isn't an ideal place for long distance running!

I am raising money for the Terrence Higgins Trust which has been at the forefront of the fight against HIV and AIDS since 1982.

I have been a member of OTS since 1995 though I don't swim as often as I would like because my job as a tube-driver means I am often working in the evening, however having time off during the day means I have plenty of time to run."

It is alwasy amazing when our members do something like this, especially when it benefits a good cause.  Next week we will hopefully have an update from Stephen's with feedback on the marathon.  In the meantime please don't forget to support both Stephen and the THT by donating something.

Out To Swim is a swimming and water polo club for gay men, lesbians and their friends.

London swimmers train seven nights a week with hour long coached sessions at four venues including pools in the West End, Victoria and London Bridge.  Out To Swim South trains three nights a week at pools in and around Brighton.  

The club also plays water polo in London on Saturday and Wednesday evenings.  Our competitive water polo team, the London Orcas, participates in London league matches as well as other national and international competitions. 

If you're interested in the swimming side of the club then to participate you'll need to be capable of swimming for an hour using at least two of the four recognised strokes: free-style (front crawl); back stroke; breast stroke and butterfly. We do not teach swimming in our regular sessions but our coaches can help improve technique and performance.  Out To Swim is currently running two swimming courses for those of you who feel you need some help - please see the news item which contains the details of this.

We're organised into lanes according to speed. Swimmers come from far and wide and we have a system whereby you can join us to swim at special events as an out of town member, that way you can come with us to exciting swim competitions abroad.

The water polo squad contains players of all abilities and experience, although it's a tough sport so a basic level of swim fitness is required.  Anyone wanting to try out water polo is very welcome to join us at one of our training sessions. 

We encourage competition at national and international events and strive to create an environment in which gay men and women feel welcome and comfortable.

Members of IGLA clubs may have ten free training sessions with us and then pay club rates if they choose to swim with us. (Please bring your membership card or other club ID.)