About Bill

Who Am I?

Hello.

My name is Bill Wittur and I never thought I’d be doing something like this, but here we are.

I moved to London with my wife and son in 2006 and continued to work from my home office as a digital marketing and media consultant.  My company is Bottree Digital Services.

As I spent the last 5 years or so getting more and more comfortable in my office, I came to realize that I needed to get myself in better shape (I’ll share before, during and after pictures very soon) and focus on things I can do to ensure I’ll live a long and happy life.  This ‘epiphany’ came to me largely because of how important my wife and son mean to me.  Missing out on spending time with them because I’m unhealthy just doesn’t seem right.

I also came to miss and appreciate the greatest resource Canada has to offer:  water.

London is great, but it’s surrounded by land.  The good news is that Lakes Erie and Huron are just a stone’s throw from this city and we can be on world-class beaches within an hour!

Why Swimming?

I used to be a good swimmer when I was a teenager.

I returned to swimming two years ago when a voluntary surgery made it difficult for me to go to the gym and do the ‘normal’ stuff (weight training, cardio, etc).  Swimming was almost a form of therapy and was very relaxing for me with the added benefit of a little exercise thrown in.

At some point last year (2010), I got it in my head that I was going to try to do a long distance swim to help raise awareness for water-related issues.

In June 2011, I’ll be in BC to visit family and I realized that swimming the length of Lake Okanagan – approximately 135km – over the course of about two weeks would be an attainable and realistic goal.

But Why … Really?

Lots of folks have suggested that this is really just some kind of crazy mid-life crisis.

I’m 43, so maybe it is.

I’m overweight, and I need an excuse to get in shape.  If that’s all that comes of this, I’ll be happy.

However, I like to think of this as a secular version of being born again.

The one thing that we all share is this planet.  I’ll leave it to the philosophers of the world to decide on how it got here, but I know this:  Planet Earth is extremely rare.

In fact, nothing similar exists in the entire universe.

It’s time we all took ownership of this idea and all did our thing to try to protect it for future generations.

Please join me as I train for and do my best to complete this swim.