Loch Lomond Solo Review by Jessica Rainbow

After tackling a couple of longer 6+ hour swims in 2025 I wanted to push myself and tackle a bigger challenge, knowing I hadn’t met my limit quite yet. I emailed QSwim Adventure to see how I might go about organising a solo swim and if this would be something they could help me with.

Karen emailed me back on the same day with dates and swim options, this felt exciting, and I loved that the booking process was straightforward. Pretty quickly after that Karen arranged a time for us to speak so I could ask questions, and so I could understand how things would work on the day; I left the call feeling even more excited and with some bonus suggestions on training swims I might like to tackle in preparation.

I decided to attend the swim camp QSwim Adventure were running in Bournemouth that coming May, this offered me a great opportunity to meet both Karen and Dave before my big swim, meet some inspiring swimmers and participate in some lovely, safety supervised sea swimming to mix up my training regimen. I would recommend attending the swim camp, if you can, it offered me an eye-opening look at the difference in preparation required for a 5–7-hour swim and 12+ hour swim. I left with a cool goody bag, a collective 6 hours of sea swimming under my belt, some very real food for thought and a personal goal to get to the next level swim-wise.  

Later in June participated in the Media City UK Swim event, signing up to the 15km wave. The event was so well organised and even though I was quite literally the last person out of the water, the buzz I got after tackling this was undiminished and felt like a great milestone on my training plan. Also swimming in the wave behind impressive swimmers who were tackling their own loch swims later in the year felt very cool and inspiring - imposter syndrome engaged!

The months were flying by now and it was soon time for us all to be meeting in Scotland to undertake this huge swim. A month before Karen was in touch with me to ensure I knew exactly what would be needed on the day, including details on preparing my feeds, and letting me know that the direction of the swim would be confirmed closer to the time. This type of detail is important and can be the difference between things running smoothly and not. It was reassuring to know that Karen was not going to be leaving anything to chance either. Having people be as invested in your swim as you are, is a definite green flag!

The big day finally arrived, phone numbers of my loved ones on shore had been exchanged with the boat, and we set off at 04:30am. The swim was glorious to start, but it also threw some challenges my way. Earlier than I was hoping I did become cold. Karen told me to get in a good headspace and give my pace some oomph. This did two things for me, gave me some logical advice to focus on and went to reassure me that if my crew thought I was doing okay, then I was doing okay. Another green flag.

Second challenge were sore hip flexors and leg cramp in both legs. Dave and Karen gave me some coaching on the fly, suggesting I let my legs relax and get a deeper head position in the water. Again, giving me thought diversion and something practical I could use to carry on and get to the next feed with.

Karen was sending regular updates to my friends and family back on shore, letting them know our location so they could follow us up the loch, and even facilitating my husband coming out to see us on his paddleboard.

All through the swim Karen was getting some fantastic pictures and video clips, that since the swim have become the most incredible souvenirs and proof to myself that I really did complete this epic swim.

I couldn’t have asked for a better, more expert and more invested team. It was an experience I will never forget.