Westbury teenager completes marathon swim challenge

A 15-year-old from Westbury who only took up open-water swimming this spring has completed a 10km challenge. 

Matravers student Erin Applegate took on the challenge at Cleveland Lake in the Cotswold Water Park on Saturday 5th September. The 10km distance is considered the marathon distance in open-water swimming. 

 

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Erin regularly competes with Trowbridge Amateur Swimming Club but only took up open-water swimming alongside this earlier this year. Her previous longest open-water swim was 5km. 

“Before the swim I was very nervous because my longest distance I have swam before was a 5k, so I knew it was going to be challenging,” said Erin. 

“The most challenging parts were overcoming the coldness as I decided to not wear a wetsuit, only my costume. The coldness gave me a strong cramp which I had to swim through. It was very repetitive and the finish didn’t seem to be getting any closer.” 

Erin was the second-youngest competitor taking part in the 10km distance and finished 13th out of 24 swimmers, with a time of three hours and 23 minutes. 

“I felt very emotional crossing the finish line especially when I completed it under my target time,” said Erin. “My first words were ‘I’m never doing that again!’ but I like to challenge myself. My next goal is to increase my pace over my 5k and enter the open water regionals next year.” 

Erin hopes to enter the Regional Open Water Championships next year.