Michael ‘Murph’ Renford, the son of legendary Australian marathon swimmer Des Renford, has successfully completed the same 34-kilometre swim that his father did 50 years ago in Hobart’s River Derwent.
Renford began his swim from New Norfolk at 3:30am on Saturday and reached the Tasman Bridge just before 11am, raising over $50,000 for the Rainbow Club charity along the way.
63-year-old Renford said the swim was a “long” one but he knew he would finish it despite experiencing some discomfort.
“I started off probably the first two to three hours feeling [comfortable] and because they’d ask me at every 30 minutes, ‘How you feeling?’, I [would say] I’m comfortable.”
“Then I realised after about three hours, I’m not really comfortable at all anymore. I just want it to be over.”
His daughter Lily joined him for the last part of the swim, while his son Aidan paddled alongside on a board.
“I honestly didn’t want to do it when I woke up this morning, but my mum was like, you know, you won’t regret it,” Lily said.
Renford is set to jump back in the water for the Kingston Beach Swim competition on Sunday.
