A couple of things I’d like to add that I mentioned in the last post.

Nutrition

When you show up to swim the Channel, you will not have any questions in your mind about what you will be doing about nutrition.  If you do, that’s bad –very bad.  Your nutrition plan will be customized to you.  It should do a few things.

1. Allow you to pack in as many calories as you can per hour
2. Provide you with the needed amount of hydration to keep you going
3. Achieve #1 and #2 without making you sick while being realistic

Triathletes will tell you that at best you can digest between 250 and 350 calories an hour while you are exercising.  Diminished blood flow to the digestive tract due to blood volume going to skeletal muscles is the primary issue here.

I’m lucky in this regard.  I generally have the stomach of a mountain goat and I can eat and drink all of this sweet crap (gels, gatorade, you name it) without any trouble.  Maybe I’m not the best guide, but for the record here is what I did:

I did quick aid stops every 20 minutes.  Accelerade was my staple.  I pretty much drank it every stop.  Then I mixed in gels ( I like Gu brand — triberry flavor) every other stop.  About every hour I would mix in something else like a 1/4 peanut butter and honey sandwich or later some hot beef broth.  Note: I started at 20 minutes into the swim stopping for 20 or 30 seconds.  Some folks don’t start fueling until an hour or more into the swim.  I think this is a big mistake.  You’re going to bonk.  Nobody can eat enough calories to meet the demand out there.  Between the actual swimming and the cold water, your body will most likely use 1000 to 1100 calories an hour, and you can’t eat that much so at some point the math says you’ll run out of gas.  Most folks get there after about 6 hours.  For me I was bonking at 6 hours but I didn’t really hit rock bottom until I was 8 hours in.  I think the delay was due to my preparations and the fact that I started fueling early in the swim.

Body Composition

Most of the successful Channel swimmers that you see are not the lithe swimming gods that you see in the Olympics and in the top echelons of pool swimming.  They tend to be a little big around the middle and can usually put away a few cold adult beverages with little or no effect at all.  Sometimes I think I was born to be a Channel swimmer.

Anyway, here is my advice to you who are thinking of swimming the Channel.  Adjust your body weight/composition to make it possible for you to swim at 58 degree water for 6 hours or more without too much pain.  58 is going to hurt, but you can adapt after a few sessions at this temp.  You may find an interesting physiological response to the temperature like I did.  I found my skin in my chest area seemed to get hot for a few minutes then it would go away and I’d get to an equilibrium.  I think this was a function of blood rushing into my primary organ areas (not that organ…smart allecks )

Do’s:

Get your weight and body fat % dialed in early.  I think you need to be at your ideal weight 4 months prior to the swim.  When in doubt add a little on, but do it early.

Don’ts:

Try to gain or lose a bunch of weight in the last month or two prior to the swim.  Doing this stresses the body and you don’t need that.

Tapering

Pool swimmers love to taper.  They bust their asses for 3 or 4 months then ease up for 2 or 3 weeks prior to their big meet.  Sorry open water swimmers, you all don’t get to do that.  Since the intensity of channel swimming isn’t that high, you really don’t need to rest that much.  In fact, if I had my perfect plan I’d do my regular training right up to a 4 hour open water “dress rehearsal” a week before I did my crossing then take a day off and then do 3000 a day in a pool the remaining days until the swim with the day before being totally off.

Rarely will this perfect scenario be realistic.  In my case, two weeks out was a travel week to the UK in which I think I swam once and ran once.  The week prior I swam about 4 times (3000-3500) each time with NO time in cold water.  It was all at 85 degree lap swimmer pools in London.  All of this appeared to be against me, but I remembered that this Channel swimming endeavor is primarily a mental challenge.  I reassured myself that I wouldn’t lose any real cardio fitness in 10 days no matter what I did.  I also got so sick of swimming in hot water, that I was really looking forward to being cold.  Just have faith in yourself and your training — worry can make you weak.

Not much else comes to mind on the swim.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about getting ready for the swim or the actual swim itself.  I looked at the Channel Swimming Association’s web site the other day and noticed that they had updated their information on this stuff and I found it generally very good, and I recommend you read everything they have out there on their site.  I also recommend that you look on youtube.com and search for channel swim or swimming.  There are some good videos out there of people swimming the channel.  For me these videos served two purposes.  First I found them very inspirational, so days I didn’t feel like swimming, I’d watch somebody’s channel video and it would pump me up for the day.  Second, I think these videos helped me shore up any uncertainty about the whole endeavor.  The 10 hour swim I did filled in most of that, but it wasn’t the channel, it was a lake.  When you look at the videos notice how the chop changes throughout the day and notice also how sea sick the support crew gets as the day goes on.

Good luck to you all.

Once again, this is the 3rd and final part in this series. I’m sure I’ll think of some other stuff to write later on, and as I do, I’ll add it all here.

Mental Preparation:
You’ve toiled you’ve trained. All the blood, sweat and tears that goes with preparation for your Channel swim have been deposited in the body of water of your choice. Visualize that you’re standing on Shakespear Beach about to start your swim…you’ve done the work, but are you prepared to pull this off from a mental perspective? Are you sure?

I’ve probably told this story previously, but I’ll tell it again to make a point. 2 years ago when I decided to start my Channel adventure, I consulted the most knowledgeable person I know. This guy coached swimmers in Tampa for years, Coached at Florida State and had huge results in both places with the distance swimmers. Later he became the US National Team Coach for open water swimmers…working with some of the pioneers in the new Olympic distances. I found Sid Cassidy on Facebook and asked him what did I need to do to finish the Channel. He said, “Oh, it’s all mental. You’ll be fine.” That’s it… really????

Sid was not entirely correct in my case. I trained pretty hard for this, but the thing that really got me through was my ability to push through some difficulty to finish the swim. In retrospect, Sid was right, but that doesn’t mean don’t train and prepare for this or you will fail. In reality, the physical training and mental training go hand in hand.

When you get into some of the long open water swims 6+ hours in 60 degree or colder water, you’ll know what I’m talking about. You’ll also figure it out when you’re doing the crazy stuff I mentioned in the physical preparation sections — chopping wood in your speedo in the snow or bonking on an 8 hour bike ride — stuff like that teaches you how to deal with the stuff that you’ll run into in the Channel. You’ll bonk for sure, but you also might get stung badly by jellyfish or have your stomach turn on you. You might barf up your last two feeds while you bonk and while that’s happening you might drift into a big jellyfish…how will you deal? Will your default action continue to be “just keep swimming” or will you decide to get back into the boat?

You’ll also have to set your expectations on how the swim will go. This will happen over a long period of time (8-12 months prior to the swim). You will figure out from your training that you will bonk, feel like crap, get cold, get sick, you name it. The attitude that you must cling to is unique to the person. In my case, I was clinging to the stubbornness in my personality. I just remembered all the sacrifices that I had made in training, finances, and time to get there. I thought about all the people that I had told that I was doing this…couldn’t let them down. I thought about how I should finish the swim based on my history of swimming and my pride. All this stuff carried me through to the end. The thought of quitting never got into my mind except that I knew I could stop swimming when I reached France. My crew really helped me in many ways, but this was one thing that they couldn’t help me with.

There is also something I should say about the mental aspect of this challenge. If you don’t have an unyielding confidence in yourself, you probably won’t make it. For me, I have pretty much been able to handle anything in the water. From an endurance standpoint I’ve never really been shaken in my ability to just keep moving forward. It’s a confidence I have from many challenges over the years. From Ironman triathlons, Half Ironmans, marathons, adventure races, you name it. I could pretty much finish it all. I may not be first across the finish line, but I rarely had to quit.

That brings up a good point though. I have dropped out before. There are two things to learn from those instances. 1) I learned what kinds of pitfalls can keep me from finishing — like bonking so hard you can’t go, or dehydration in the extreme, or just not being prepared physically to do the challenge. These things are the things that keep me honest in my training. They are the things that keep me from listening to Sid and just going out to swim the Channel untrained. 2) When I have failed, I felt crappy about it. I don’t want to feel that way, so it’s more ammunition to keep going and suck it up no matter how bad off I am.

I think there are some other topics I would like to share with folks who are preparing for the channel. Stuff like nutrition, body weight/fat, travel tips. I’ll pull those thoughts together and write them down for you in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’m finding myself in a retrospective mood frequently. I often feel overwhelmed by the work my support crew did in this adventure. They were so awesome!! I can’t thank them enough. Subconsciously I’m still dealing with this success. I have had many dreams lately that are interesting. I dream about the swim and then I have an alternate ending. Stuff like I finish and I’m surrounded by mermaids or I’m received like a hero and they make me President of France. Crazy stuff like that… It’s so funny sometimes what I become.

4.  Keep in mind that you need to swim — lots!  When in doubt, swim.  There is nothing better for swimming than swimming, so just go after it.

5.  Defer to #4, but something is better than nothing at all.  If you are traveling for business and a pool is not a good option, go for a run or ride the stationary bike in the gym in your hotel.  Bring your stretch cords along and use them.  There are plenty of options, but you have to get to the point in which you feel really weird if you have not trained in some way at least every day.

6.  This one is a little off-beat and hard to explain, but mix in some crazy stuff.  Go out and chop wood when it’s snowing (and wear only your swim suit and some shoes).  Find the windiest day on the lake and go see how it feels to swim into big whitecaps for a few hours.  Have somebody drive you out in the country somewhere blindfolded and find your way home.  Do an adventure race… plenty of options that will test your mettle.  The idea is to put yourself in less than ideal conditions and see how you do with coping.  I guaran-damn-tee you that you’ll have to cope with some unknown thing the day you try to swim the channel, so you might as well practice.

7.  Somewhat related to #6 is bonking.  You’re not supposed to bonk in most athletic events — maximum output is not synonymous with bonking.  You’re going to bonk when you swim the Channel unless you are some kind of super-freak.  Get used to bonking.  You need to know what your body feels like when you bonk.  You need to know what kind of desperate thoughts go through your head when you bonk.  When you bonk it needs to be familiar, like when the uncle you don’t really like shows up at the front door.  You have to smile and deal with it.  Just call him Uncle Bonk.  I’d recommend to you that you swim 2 to 4 hours with minimal food (not drink) or go ride your bike 6 or 8 hours with minimal calories.  Get out there and bring it and no matter how you choose to do it, all you have to do is expend more calories than you take in for a few hours and you’ll see Uncle Bonk.  Get cozy with him because you’ll see him in the Channel.

8.  Work your plan the best you can.  Nobody executes their plan 100%.  You do the best you can, but life happens.  Don’t beat yourself up about deviations from the plan.  It’s okay, you are still a good person.  The line you walk is beating yourself up versus doing all you can.  In the end, the Channel will decide if you did enough.

 

to be continued

 

Free Advice to all prospective Channel Swimmers:

Before you read on, please note the following advisories:

• The older I get, the better I was.  I was on a few United States National Swimming Teams back in my youth.  You should know this because I grew up swimming at a pretty high level.
• I’m a big guy — 6’4″ and swam the Channel at about 245 pounds — no idea how many stones that is, so don’t even ask.
• I’m 43 years old.
• I’m naturally hard-headed and don’t generally like to be told what to do…except from my wife, of course.  Love you Bridget!

The whole application process:

1. Go to www.channelswimmingassociation.com and read the site from stem to stern.
2. Once you have read the site and think you are familiar with what you’re getting yourself into, contact the secretary and order yourself a packet.  It costs a few pounds, just pay up.  You have to have this.
3. Once the information packet arrives READ IT completely.  Especially the bits about how to apply to swim.  You’ll have a few major pieces of your application: A) Physical with a real doctor, B) 6 hour swim at 60 degrees (F), C) Boat Charter arranged with certified captain, D) Crew selected, E) Pick a date
4. Do all the stuff in # 3 seriously — get the physical with a stress test and blood work.  You’ll want to identify any issues early.  The open water swims are critical for you to really understand what you’re up against.  Don’t skip through that part, in fact you’ll want to do more than one 6+ hour swim at temperature to be ready.  Get on the boat captain’s calendar early (at least a year, but probably 18 months or more) and stay in contact with them frequently.  Be sure you get a contract in writing to protect yourself and to ensure that all the boats rules and procedures are clear and understood.   Pick your date — I don’t know why I put this last because it’s probably the first thing you want to do based on your training schedule.

Preparation:

1. Schedule your training carefully.  Ask yourself: What kind of shape am I in now?  How long will it take me to get into shape?  How long will I need to ramp up my swimming yardage?  Do I have a place to lift weights?  Do I have a place to swim every day? Do I have a place to do open water swims?  Do I have people to help me?  All of this stuff must be sorted out honestly then a plan can be developed.
2. Unless you’re already swimming 5 times a week with a serious team, you’re going to need to get into shape just to be able to train for this event.  For me, I had not been a regular or serious swimmer for 15 years (although I had a big swimming background).  Coming from a triathlon focus, I knew I had to get into the weight room to get my shoulders back.  I worked at it pretty hard (3 times a week, for 3 months) before I even got into the pool.  I believe that getting my muscle mass up was critical to being able to handle the number of shoulder rotations that I was going to have to do just to be ready.  I was pretty religious about getting into the weight room and mainly doing exercises for the deltoids, triceps, pecs, latissimus dorsi and core.  When I couldn’t get to the weight room, I tried to use stretch cords to strengthen my upper body muscles.
3. Plan out your training in phases.  I liked to plan a 3 or 4 month period that would end with a big event like an epic open water swim.  Each phase would include some sub phases — stroke analysis, base aerobic work, mixed aerobic with some anaerobic threshold stuff and a steady amount of strength training (except in the last phase leading up the actual swim).  After each phase, I would analyze how I thought I was doing.  I’d bounce my results against my friends and coaches and spouse to get their feedback.  I would strongly suggest that you start your planning at the macro level — get a one page year calendar and mark your 3-4 month sub seasons, then print out daily calendars for the first season and schedule every days activities.  I can’t tell you what these calendars should look like for you — it’s going to vary depending on where you are starting from.  I worked up to about 8 workout sessions a week.  I’d love to have done 12, but I just couldn’t do it with my responsibilities to my employer and family.  I would take at least one and often 2 days a week completely off to recharge, but I’d avoid taking them together.  I think if you go 3 days without working on your fitness, you tend to lose momentum and the habit.

To be continued.

It’s been almost a month since the swim and I’ve been very busy getting back into the swing of normal life.  We were gone for 3 weeks after all and that’s a long time to be away from the house and the job.  Coming back to Texas was mostly great.  We were very happy to be back and able to see our family and friends.  We did not miss the heat.  When our plane touched down at about 10 PM, the temperature was still 103 degrees (down from a high of 109 that day).

From a swimming perspective, I really have not had any strong desire to get back in the pool.  I’m busy with other things currently, and athletically I’m not convinced that swimming will be the next thing.  Honestly, I’m not sure there really will be a next big thing.  I’m not saying there won’t be, but for now I think I will continue to train to stay fit and do some small things like bike rallies, adventure races, and possibly a foot race or two for fun.  Nothing serious.

Some have questioned my motivation for all of this endeavor which took time away from my family and job.  Perhaps it was a mid-life crisis or trying to fill some hole in my ego.  Maybe I was running away from something.

In retrospect the swim was not about some crisis or filling some hole in my life.  The swim was really about showing my family (and myself) that it is possible to set a crazy goal, work hard, and go for it.  In other words, how can I tell my girls that they are bound by nothing.   How can I say that they can “choose their path and follow it with their heart” unless that is what I have shown them that they can do it.  I’ve never been big on lip service, so this was mainly about setting an example for my girls.  I hope that they got the message because I am just too tired to do anything like this again any time soon.  Seriously, as a byproduct I think I was able to inspire a few folks as well as helping some others that are in a difficult situation.

 

 

Paul Robinson English Channel Swim 7/26/2011

Fred (the Pilot) told us to be at the marina at 5:30 so I got up at 4:15 to get some breakfast and got moving towards Folkestone.  Keith had driven down there the night before so he knew how to get there.  Keith had procured a wetsuit so he could do some swimming with me.  Let’s see I had 4 mini blueberry muffins and 2 bananas with orange juice and coffee.  As we drove down to the boat I could feel myself getting a little nervous.  That “how did I get myself into this” feeling was starting to creep in and I had not even taken a stroke yet!  Usually I ask myself that question when I’ve been swimming for several hours.  Mentally I can combat such thoughts by reminding myself of all the cold nights I trained by myself in the dark of the Eads pool or the funky night swim I did in the lake or the hot masters swim practices….. None of that seemed to come to mind this morning.  All I had was my task at hand, some very good friends, and me.  This wasn’t the way I had thought this moment would go.  I thought I’d be riding on the boat to Shakespeare beach with a well-prepared body and mind – confident in the preparations I had made and in my skills which had very rarely ever let me down.  These were things that I knew, but they were not in the front of my mind.  What was in the front of my mind was “how did I get myself into this”?

On the boat ride to the beach I mainly talked to the observer who asked me a few basic questions and then told me some basic rules – no touching the boat or anyone on board.  The pilot’s word was final and absolute – all things I already knew.  He also said that I should go ahead and attach my light sticks to my suit then we could activate them as needed later.  Well, I didn’t have a way to attach my light sticks to my suit so we decided to string one on some clear goggles then I could switch goggles if it got dark on me.  I knew this was unlikely since we were starting before six am and the sun didn’t set until almost 10 pm.

Pretty soon we arrived at the beach.  Bridget put most of a small container of vaseline on my arm pits, on my neck, shoulders and between my thighs – anywhere I would have skin on skin friction got some vaseline.  Then Fred Mardle asked me if I was ready.  I said “yes” and I unceremoniously jumped in and swam onto the beach.  The shore was very rocky with many small rocks the size of large marbles.  I only had to get out of the water then I would walk in and the clock would start.  I said an Our Father and stepped into the English Channel for the swim of my life.

The conditions at the start were really great – minimal wind – sky clear and the sun was coming up.  There were some pretty good clouds on the horizon and I thought about lightning.  Nothing to do about that now.  I suppose that would be Fred’s call.  There was a slight swell on the water – I had definitely seen worse at Lake Texoma.

Now in the first hour my left lat muscle in my back started giving me some trouble.  Nothing really terrible, but it was the kind of pain that could build and get to be a real problem after a few hours of swimming.  I tried to remain calm and didn’t let my mind go negative.  I thought about what I could do with what I had.  I figured I could either ramp up the ibuprofen or attack the problem at its source, if I could figure out what that source problem was…On a whim I tried pulling with my left hand and forearm a little closer in to my body.  My reasoning was that this would put less pressure on my Latissimus Dorsi (pulling muscle) and shoulder then I might be able to head this off.  Sure enough after 50 strokes or so I started to notice a big difference.  100 strokes in I was fine and I believe this was the first big hurdle I had to handle for the day.  This lat problem was the thing that almost ended my day early in the 10 hour swim Easter weekend, so working through the problem in this way was a big boost to my confidence.

From a nutrition standpoint we had decided to stick with an aggressive feeding schedule which began 20 minutes into the swim.  I would be taking a fairly concentrated dose of accelerade each stop with one or two gu gels (100 calories plus 20 mg of caffeine) every other stop.  Then we would try to work in some ¼ sandwiches (peanut butter and honey) as possible.  Later we would try some broth heated.  I would say that the feeding schedule was working well for the first six hours.  Everything I was given was tolerated well although after about four or five hours I was feeling somewhat bloated and my desire to eat diminished somewhat.  I thought this was a bad sign at the time and now I’m sure it was.  The energy I was expending was out pacing the rate at which I could replenish.  So if you graphed the situation it might look like this:

 

Doc1

 

 

I was swimming along pretty well until about 6 hours.  By then, however, I estimate my caloric deficit to be almost 5,000 calories..   I think at this point I was now dipping into fat to supplement my sugar intake.  The body can’t do this as efficiently so the amount of work the body can do decreases.  Marathoners call it hitting the wall.  I also got into this “hole” on the 10 hour swim and had gotten through it. Not only was I feeling tired, sleepy, drained and generally yucky, I was starting to lose my concentration and my positive attitude.  Thankfully this is not a new sensation on the 4 ironman races and various other triathlons and adventure races I have done I’ve been in this situation many times before.  Usually it is impossible to come back without really slowing down // stopping to catch up.  I did have some things in my favor:

• I was hydrated
• I could increase my caloric intake some
• I could use caffeine to help bring myself around

One thing I could not do was slow down.  If I eased up too much I’d start getting cold, and most people who fail to make it across fail due to hypothermia.  We started trying to increase the calories and I know Mark was slipping me some 200 mg caffeine pills to help me get over the hump.

Keith got in the water with me for a little while at this point.  It really was good to see him get some use out of his wetsuit, but it really was not doing me very much good.  I had my pace hat I had established over the prior year and the six hours of that swim for that day.  I was pressing as hard as I reasonably could to maximize my performance while still keeping it together.  So what I’m saying is that having Keith there was nice from a standpoint of seeing a friendly face, but I could not use him to correct any pacing problem as there was not a problem in that area.  He ended up swimming with me for about 20 minutes then once back aboard he had to wait at least 1 hour before getting back in.  My concern was that I might inadvertently run into him and get disqualified so I told him to stay on the boat.

Then at about 8 ½ hours in my stomach started feeling quite a bit worse.  At the next stop (can’t remember if it was 8:20 or 8:40, but I asked for some ibuprofen to help combat some pain I was having in my left shoulder.  I got the accelerade down then the pill-infused gu.  After about 10 seconds I got sick and lost everything I had eaten for at least the last 40 minutes.  Amazingly I felt better though.  Mark had a “Holy Crap” moment because he saw me throwing up under water as I took a wave in the face.  He was sure I’d inhale at least a quart of seawater into my lungs, but, alas, I didn’t.  Somehow I just threw up and turned and started swimming again.  I’ve always had that level of comfort in the water – it’s always been kind of a power I’ve had in the water to just know what to do instinctively which is funny since my Mom can’t swim.   I kept swimming and in the next 2 stops I took only water and maybe a sandwich quarter.  All the stomach bloating I had suffered with was gone.

Now France was getting much bigger.  I had previously estimated that if I could swim a 2 mph for about 11 hours I’d be done.  So at about 9 ½ hours I decided to play my last card – I started kicking.  It was all I could do at that point.  My back was holding up, my right shoulder was fine, but my left shoulder hurt.  Thankfully, although I don’t know why with my vomiting, my energy was good.  We all knew that my energy would not hold up so we started trying to get some calories in via gu and washed down with water.  This combination seemed to be working so we pretty much stayed with that until the end.

My kick was holding and France was big, but it appeared not to be getting any closer.  Fred Mardle stuck his head out and said what I thought was “a little more that one mile”.  This was great!  I’d be done in 30 minutes which would put me in at just under 11 hours.  I picked up the pace even more, but that was a mistake as I felt a huge wave of fatigue wash over me.  I went back to a more stable base pace that I had been using with the amplified kick.  This way a pace that I thought I could hold for a while.  France was still very large ahead, but I didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

In my research about Channel swimming I had read a number of stories of folks who had gotten within a mile or two of the French Coast who couldn’t get past the tide and had to quit after hours of swimming in place just a mile off shore.  That had sounded bad – kind of like my idea of hell-swimming and swimming but never getting anywhere.

Through the day I had been impressed with the clarity of the water.  I had been able to see 10’ or 12’ down without too much trouble.  The small plankton and matter in the water on the surface was visible if you focused on it.  With my vision (nearsighted) I could see it now as I approached France.  I could see that I was still swimming forward through it but still France wasn’t getting any bigger.

Finally Fred emerged from the pilothouse and called to me “A little more than a mile”.  All I could think of was anger as that was what he had said 20 minutes ago.  Had I been swimming in place like all those I had read about?  Was I going to fail?  No, say it isn’t so.  I’ve got a better swimming pedigree than any of those other people who swam in place and then were pulled from the water with a mile to go.  Trying not to dwell on the negative I asked my crew for clarification.  Was I making forward progress?  They assured me that I was and that helped.  I kept swimming.  Later, I found out that we all misunderstood Fred the first time.  He meant to tell us that we had a little more than 2 miles, then the second time a little more than one mile.

Anyway in that last mile that would last about 30 minutes I tried to keep my spirits up and to keep some calories going in.  To my crew’s credit they accomplished these things for me.  Cheering and shouting support all the way and always knowing just the right thing for me to eat.

Pretty soon I saw a buoy and I soon realized that Fred’s boat “Masterpiece” couldn’t go past that buoy.  I had also noticed that they had put the inflatable boat in the water.  Either they thought I was going to quit or I was getting close to the beach.  It was the latter.  Fred and the crew advised me to go for the beach on my own so I started in after it.  My line was not great (I know this) and everybody started screaming for me to change my direction.  They were so worked up it was kind of funny.

At this point I knew I was going to make it for sure.  I swam hard for the beach that was no more than 200 meters more.  I watched for some rocks as I had heard the slope on the French side was much more gentle than on the English side.

Pretty soon I saw some movement – fish then in a few more strokes some rock formations and then I was able to touch the bottom.  I dived down briefly and touched a rock.  Wow, that felt great!  I kept swimming as I knew that I could almost always swim faster than I could walk.  In triathlons I’m always swimming right past people who don’t know this.  They try to wade in as soon as they can put a foot down.

Now it was just me coming up on the beach.  The inflatable boat had been launched and I had heard its small outboard motor running briefly.

I came up on the beach and walked out of the water.  This was the moment I had been waiting for.  For a year and a half at least, and probably more like 20 years.  I stopped my watch at 11:29.54.  Later the observer would say 11:31 which I guess is what goes in the record book.  He admittedly said that he couldn’t see me well enough at the end to confirm exactly when I had gotten out of the water.  I knew and it was 11:29.54.  Not a bad time for an old fat man like me

So I was in France finally.  Priority #l:  Find a French Rock, Priority#2:  Enjoy the moment, Priority #3:  Get back to the boat before I freeze.

Priority 1 would be no problem.  I wanted a good looking rock that would look nice on the mantle and one that could be engraved.  Got it.

Priority 2 – Not a problem.  I tried to re-trace the last couple of years in my mind.  The ups/downs and the rarely mentioned “in betweens”. Years in my mind.  I thought about all the people who had helped me get to this beach.  The adrenaline was flowing and that was the only thing that was keeping me going.

Priority 3 began to be a concern since the adrenaline was weaning off and I was starting to get really tired.  Unfortunately my little boat was way behind.  Apparently Harry (Fred’s Son) had lost his motor.  The little 4 horse outboard was not working so he was rowing.  I figured whatever was going to happen was not going to do so quickly so I started swimming back out to Harry.

Since I had stopped swimming my arms were starting to not function.  A weak breast stroke was all I could manage.  After a few minutes I got to Harry’s little boat where I was able to crawl in.  The ride was a cold one and I was starting to really shiver.  Harry gave me one of those plastic thermal blankets they give you after a marathon – it was better than nothing and finally we got back to the boat.  I fortunately had a good set of sweats and gloves and socks so that I could kind of get warm.  I still shivered for an hour of the 2 ½ hour ride back to Folkstone.

My tongue was all wrinkly like your fingertips look when you’ve been in the water for a long time.  My throat was very sore.  It took 2 ½ hours to get back and in that time I just tried to get comfortable which was hard.  I knew I had some Tylenol with codeine back in the house.  That combined with 50 mg of benadryl would help me get to sleep that night but now I wanted to hang with my crew and chat about what we had just accomplished.  We went into a fish and chips place right next to the marina.  I was starting to warm up some now and as I did I really felt the extreme nature of my tiredness.

Our conversation at dinner focused on the high points of the swim:

*The 6 hour slump – how Mark asked me questions “how does your body feel?” to which I replied with a thumbs down, and “how does your head feel” to which I had lied and gave a thumbs up.  Mark saw the lie!!

*Barfing at 8 ½ hours

*The un-ending last mile

*The crew confessed that they couldn’t get a good picture of me on the beach.  Bummer, they were so far out and the boat was usually facing the wrong direction.

*Fred’s fantastic ability to run the boat to protect the swimmer and his inability to use the spoken word to communicate thoughts and ideas

 

Yesterday I swam across the English Channel.  With the help of a brilliant support crew I was able to accomplish this.  Without them I would not have made it across.  Here is my crew of helpers:

On the boat:

Bridget Robinson

Maureen McGeehan, MD

Mark Sutton

Keith Wulffraat

Fred Mardle

Harry Mardle

Others that were critical:

Harry and Billie Robinson

Kate and Tori Robinson

Neil Matzen and Family

Lisa and Robert Eads

Greg and Terri Luptowski

Kathy O’Connor

Cathy Fairfax

Steve Morris

John Allgood

Susan Wulffraat

Jim Henry

Chris Clark

The extended COR Family of current and past swimmers

I’m confident that I’m forgetting some important people.  This really was a team effort and I am eternally grateful to my teammates.   All of the hard work paid off, all of the doubts turned out to be unfounded, and our friends came through for us again.  God bless you all.

Well, we now know the date.  July 26th, 2011 my valiant crew and I will be challenging ourselves in the English Channel.  I’ll be swimming from Dover to (hopefully) Cap Gris Nez which is the shortest distance from England to France.

Our boat captain contacted us today while we were touring the National Gallery today.  He said that conditions would be ideal for the crossing on Tuesday.  We double checked him and he’s right.  We’re looking at light winds from a great direction (from the NE) so all beneficial since I’ll be swimming south from England to France.  Anyway, we quickly ended our tourist activities and got some lunch then home to rest.

Later in the day Keith Wulffraat and family came by our flat and we chilled out for a while enjoying their company.  They are truly great friends and we’re so lucky to have them.  Keith and I went swimming at the local pool which was kind of a hoot.  We shared a lane with 2 or 3 very average English swimmers who helped make the English Channel Swim sound really awesome.

Tonight our families had dinner together and then an early night.  We’re travelling to Canterbury tomorrow where we have booked a place where both families can stay.  It should be awesome.

Two of our critical crew members are making special arrangements to be in Canterbury tomorrow.  Maureen is leaving her vacationing family to be there a couple of days early.  Mark is flying in to be with us on Monday.  I appreciate their sacrifice more than I can say.  In fact we have received so many well wishes from everyone I think that all those good vibes will get me across the channel by themselves.

Ok, well I’ll try to blog again before the swim, but if I don’t I’ll do my very best to get across the channel.  Thanks to you all for your support.  If you have not done it yet, please consider making a donation to the cancer charity of your choice.  I’m doing this swim, but there are so many folks sitting in cancer hospitals all over the world fighting for their lives.  Some will make it others won’t –  their battle is more noble than mine could ever be, and let’s not forget them.  I believe there will be a cure for cancer, and God-willing it will be soon.  Give what you can to support efforts for a cure.

My children have invaded the UK, and I apologize to the entire nations of England and  Scotland.  I’m going to apologize to France, Ireland and Wales too, just in case.

We got here last Thursday and we all had some severe jet lag problems, but we’re doing much better.  In fact, we have found Scotland, toured all around Edinburgh and Stirling and even made time to see the new Harry Potter movie one night.

Scotland is a really great place and we have been uplifted by the kindness of regular Scots on the streets.  From the time we arrived here folks have been very helpful and kind.

The highlight of my trip so far has been a trip to Doune Castle today.  This is the primary castle used in the filming of Monty Python’s Holy Grail.  We took tons of pictures, borrowed some coconut halves and had a really fun time.  The audio tour was recorded by Terry Jones — the co-director of the movie.

Training has been spotty at best.  I’ve worked out seriously twice since I’ve been here – one run and stretch cords and 4,000 yards of swimming.  Much of the time I’ve been here I’ve been trying to adjust to the time and we did lose one day due to the local pool being closed and we had to find another one.  I’ll ramp it up in London tomorrow — I’m looking forward to swimming in the historic Serpentine in Hyde Park!  Finally I’ll get some cool water.  It’s advertised as not going above 70.  I’ve been missing my cool water.

The weather is looking promising, but I’m not holding onto any hope that things will be anything like lake texoma.

Well, I’ll check in with you all in a couple days from London!

 

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