
Event review: Swim the Night
Naomi Constable took part in this all-night lido swimming challenge
Swim the Night is a 12- or 24-hour swimming challenge where you swim 1km or 1 mile on the hour, every hour, until your time is up. The event is organised jointly by Participation Sport (which also created Marathon Swims) and swim holiday company SwimQuest. Naomi Constable shares her experience of the event at Hillingdon Lido in June 2024. The next event (12 hours only) takes place in October at Hampton Open Air Pool.
Naomi’s review:
Ever since I heard of Swim the Night, I wanted to take up the challenge. However, I knew I’d need to swim as part of a team, as I’m just not ready for that length of solo swim… yet!
My lovely friend Vicky said she’d do it with me and I will be forever grateful to her; I simply wouldn’t have entered without her.
Picture the scene… several months before, on the day the tickets were scheduled to be released, Vicky and I decided we’d take my laptop and head to the lakeside cafe where we usually swim at Queenford Lakes, Oxfordshire. Coffee and cakes at the ready, we poised ourselves ready to purchase our places. Fuelled by enthusiasm, we must have been one of the first ones through the door, with our confirmation emails landing only minutes after the places were released.
During the lead-up to the event, we had many a chat, usually during our Sunday swims, about what training we might do, and the all-important question: what snacks to pack?!
Before we knew it, the time had come; it was time to Swim the Night!
And what a night we had! It was fantastically well run and organised, we were lucky with glorious weather, a beautiful evening turned into a calm, still night, with the moon shining above us, it made it feel quite magical and we couldn’t have wished for more!
Leading up to the event, we were both massively out of our comfort zones and felt quite daunted but we needn’t have been. Everyone there was so friendly and encouraging. It didn’t matter if you were in a team or on your own, a fast swimmer or a slower one. There was a great mix of abilities represented too and it was good to see the organisers supported swimmers with additional needs.

We had prepared ourselves for the notion that at some point, the night would feel like it was dragging on, but neither of us could believe how quickly it was passing. I put this down to the fun that was scattered throughout the night, from the ‘Big me up Bucket’, full of positive words we each got to write, to the draw of the raffle prizes a few minutes before each start. Not to mention the countdowns for each swim! And the midnight barbecue and breakfast of champions went down an absolute storm!
Before I knew it, I was on my last length of the pool. I couldn’t believe we’d done it, I felt really proud, a little bit tearful and immediately wanted to sign up for the October challenge. If it weren’t for it falling near my daughter’s birthday, I’d be back like a shot to try the solo swim. But I’ll have to wait for next year to give it a go!
I would highly recommend this event to anyone, I absolutely loved it, we both did.
You can find Naomi on Instagram at @wildandfreezing

