I promised my story - here it is. It's a bit waffly, but it was a long swim!! Some of you may have already received this by email.
This time last week I told you all that I had decided to defer my swim until next year. As a result I made contact with my pilot, Alison Streeter, to explain why and she pointed out that it was a load of waffle and the conditions were going to be great. In my heart I knew that if the conditions were going to be that good and I was going to be in the channel as a support swimmer that I would kick myself if I didn’t even try.
They say this sport is 80% mental and 20% everything else. Well that might be true on average, but for me I would say it’s about 95% mental and given just how big the physical element is you can start to understand the mental battle that I’ve been through in preparing for this event. So the most important thing in a challenge like this is a positive mental state, at the time that I had to make the decision I was certainly not in a great mental state and only had a couple of days to turn it around.
One thing that was really adding a lot of pressure was the expectations of everyone knowing and also thinking about the challenge as a whole, it was simply too much for me to handle. So after chatting with Alison we agreed that I would I would swim, but rather than attempting the channel, we would be doing a long training swim. We also agreed to keep it quiet to keep the pressure off. So sorry I didn’t tell you all in advance, I hope you understand the reason why! On the boat was Alison and her crew, me and my swimming buddy Andy who was also observer.
So at approximately 4am on Sunday we headed out of the Marina towards Shakespear beach. I was so nervous and tense that my neck and between my shoulder blades felt like they had already done a 6 hour swim! Just before we arrived at the beach my neck went and I just had to hope that it would be OK when we got started.
I would also be starting this swim with all the demons of past swims including the fact that on my first attempt I got swept down the channel and as a result of a lack of forward progress the swim was aborted at 8 hours. The other major issue was feeding – I was very sick on my first attempt, felt very ill in Zurich and on every long training swim since. There were many other demons too. I reminded everyone that this was a training swim (notice the dropping of the word ‘long’!) with no promises, hope or agenda. Alison and I also agreed that she would let me know where I was in terms of key milestones.
Once we arrived at the beach I jumped in and swam the few metres to shore. Mum and daughter from the Guest House that I’ve been staying at were there to wish me good luck – how lovely!! At 0425 precisely the horn on the boat sounded and I walked back into the sea and set off on my training swim.
I deliberately started out quite hard and strong as I know that I struggle to pick up pace once set and I wanted to set a pace that could get me across rather than just plod. I did get quite a bit of cramp in my legs in the first couple of hours – perhaps that was just due to the tension easing off which it did after a couple of hours, at which point I starting really enjoying myself. I decided to feed on the hour rather than every half hour. This was for a couple of reasons – firstly to minimise the amount of feed that I was taking in to prevent sickness and secondly to enable me to really make some progress between feeds.
I had in my mind that I would like to get into the first shipping lane by about 4 hours, so when I came in for my 4 hour feed I was hoping that I would be told that I was getting close. I was absolutely gob smacked when Andy told me that we had entered the SW lane about 20 minutes ago. Fantastic!! I’d already achieved more than last time. The next few hours just flew by. I felt strong and fast, the conditions were perfect, the water was calm and flat and I even had a bit of a tail wind which was helping me surf across. Somewhere around this point I also heard that my training buddy Ros had successfully completed her swim in 20 hours or so. Simply brilliant! A couple of hours after that the boat she was on came alongside and gave me a cheer. It was fantastic to see them and the extra support was a great boost.
At some point I was also told that I had overtaken a relay team that had started before us on Pathfinder and was keeping up with another team that had also started before us on Gallivant. Being a bit competitive it was nice to have Gallivant to try and chase.
My next unspoken target was to leave the shipping lane by something like 8 hours, so you can imagine my absolute amazement when I stopped for my 7 hour feed to be told that I only had 100m to go until I left the separation zone (for those of you who don’t know the separation zone is a space of about 1 nautical mile wide that separates the two shipping lanes). Wow, wow, wow – I didn’t know how that was even possible. I remember saying something like ‘you’re kidding’ to be told to look up and sure as anything there were ships in front of me going in the direction of the NE lane.
My motivation, strength and determination were at an all time high. I started to think that I might actually be able to do this. At 8 hours I pointed out to Andy and Alison that this was as far as I had got last time, and here I was in the 2nd shipping lane. At this point it’s worth remembering that the longest swim I’d done to date was Lake Zurich where I swam for 11 hours 50 minutes. During that swim there had been a few hours where it was all stop start and feeling generally awful. I think at this point I had already swum further than ever before without breaking my stroke (apart from an hourly feed). Each hourly segment was strong and solid and constant swimming. More importantly I hadn’t felt sick and that normally happens between 3-5.5 hours. I was starting to notice some discomfort and had some painkillers, when Andy asked where it was hurting I reeled off, between the shoulder blades, back, neck, forearms, knees, ankles….. to which Alison replied ‘the usual then’ – absolutely!! Nothing serious just my body knowing that it was doing something quite significant.
I was all good until about 11 hours when my energy levels (physical and motivational) started to drop, my stroke whilst maintaining the same stroke rate throughout starting become a little less effective and I was starting to feel the signs of dehydration. All in all the wheels were starting to come off. We switched to 30 minute feeds to boost the energy levels again which worked, but everything after this became tough, very tough. Doubt started to creep back in.
It took forever to get out of this shipping lane and once that’s done there’s still a mighty long way once into French inshore waters. Around this time I deliberately stopped counting how long I’d been in the water as I figured that it wasn’t helpful and would only do my head in further. Eventually the sun went down and it was dark and getting cold again. Gallivant remained in sight and although I wasn’t closing in on them, they weren’t pulling away much either, that really helped me hang in there.
Everything was hurting at this point, particularly my forearms / wrists. My knees and ankles were almost locked in their positions. Slowly but surely I got closer and closer to Cap Gris Nez. I was terrified that we would miss it and I’d end up swimming for lots more hours as the tide swept us away. Gallivant finished their swim before me and also came alongside to cheer me on – again a great boost at just the right time. Eventually after what seemed like forever I heard those words you long to hear ‘you’ve got 300m to go and this is your last feed’. I couldn’t face any more feeds and declined it.
My landing point was just round the corner from Cap Gris Nez on some boulders. As I closed in I started seeing the water get shallower. I had to clamber over some rocks in the water and assumed that I could keep clambering until I got out, but that would have been too easy! But no it got deeper again and right by the final boulder that I would climb out on it was deeper than I am tall, so it was a bit like trying to get out of the deep end of a pool without a ladder – I never could do that either and certainly not after over 17 hours of swimming. Eventually I managed to coordinate my clambering with a wave coming in and launched myself out of the water and on top of the rock, cutting my legs to shreds in the process. I didn’t care – it was over!! I don’t know what I was expecting to feel when I finished. The only emotion I was capable of was relief – huge relief. I had finished (I have to keep saying that as it still hasn’t really sunk in).
After 17 hours and 37 minutes of swimming I had become a channel swimmer.
Now was just the short task of swimming back to the boat.
I will be eternally grateful for everyone who helped me do this. Without Alison as my pilot I wouldn’t have even started. Andy as a successful channel swimmer himself knew exactly what to say at exactly the right time. All the beach crew – Freda, Barrie, Irene, Michelle, Louise – kept me going through training by believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. My own swimming club and masters coach Josh in particular for providing the hours and type of training in the pool that was just what I needed to compliment the open water training. And each and every one of you who gave me words of encouragement and support along the way, it’s all there and was called upon in the hard and dark hours.
A special mention has to go to baby Leo for whom I swam in memory of. He was with me on that swim all the way, of that I have no doubt.
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FYI the swimmer is a 41 year old woman.......
