Sutikki exec will make first attempt at challenge on Saturday January 11.
Sutikki’s head of territory, UK & EMEA, Stephen Gould is set to take on the Ice Mile challenge this weekend in aid of The Light Fund.
Stephen (pictured above at the Wim Hof Workshop Ice Bath, with a water temperature of 3.0C) will attempt to swim his first Ice Mile on Saturday January 11 at Hatfield Lake, Doncaster.
If the lake is not cold enough – it is currently 5.6C – the attempt will be deferred to Saturday January 25 at the same location and so on until the environmental conditions allow.
The mile needs to be completed without stopping in water colder than 5.0C, wearing only a swimming costume, a pair of goggles and one silicone swimming hat.
To date, only 486 people worldwide from 38 countries have successfully managed to complete a formally recognised Ice Mile – as ratified by the International Ice Swimming Association.
“Swimming a few hundred metres in water much below 10.0C is enough of a challenge to most regular cold-water swimmers and it hurts like hell,” explained Stephen, who last year took part in an English Channel relay swim. “An ice mile is punishing in the extreme. Anything over 20 minutes in water of this temperature is cold enough to kill and an Ice Mile for most cannot be done in anything less than 30 minutes at best.
“The last 400 metre is unforgivably tough and when the swim is finished the roughest bit is still to come – the dreaded and somewhat unpredictable ‘afterdrop’. Once out of the water a swimmer has only eight to ten minutes of false euphoria, before the blood from the extremities re-circulates and starts to cool the core body temperature. Half an hour after the swim the swimmer will actually be colder than when they were in the frigid water. The recovery phase is slow, painful and also dangerous.”
Despite this, Stephen – who is an experienced long distance swimmer – says that attempting an ice mile was a “natural progression” for him.
“It will be intense. Probably the most challenging thing I will ever do but also the most rewarding. It is for sure an extreme test of physical and mental endurance.”
If you would like to support Stephen in his challenge, you can do so by clicking here to visit his JustGiving page.
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