Once again the Molonglo Megasaurs marathon swimming team put their swimming and fundraising skills to the test and did us proud, swimming 54,600 metres and raising $7,246 to support people living with Multiple Sclerosis.
In what has become a regular annual fundraising event for the Club, a team of 13 hardy swimmers swam in shifts for 21 hours (we boycotted the 3:00-6:00am leg) from 2:00pm on Saturday 3 August till 2:00pm on the Sunday. Our swimmers included Tim Booth, John Collis, Tanya Colyer, Luke Franceschini, Margaret Hadfield, Evan Kidd, Marg Larkin, Chris Loose, Damian Munday, Mary-Liz Partridge, Kristina Ryan, Tamarind Smart and Karen Titmus. Marg Wade was unable to attend but helped in the fundraising. Groups of two or more swimmers swam and recorded laps in 3-hour sessions, in a party atmosphere at the AIS Aquatic Centre. For the final two hours a group of seven took turns to swim 400, 200, or 100 metres to help build up our distance. We won the second highest team fundraising award on the day, but ended up being the highest team fundraiser when all the money came in. Mary Liz won the second highest individual fundraising award, raising $1,879. Another member of our Club, Dianne Bourke, also took part in the event swimming for another team.
We finished up a bit stiff and sore, but never sorry, and slept well over the following days.
John Collis
