The Crossing

Ali had left me a text to meet her at the marina at 4:30am in the morning.  We set the alarm for 3:15am.  I got up, shaved twice to get my face as smooth as I could.  Merce then coated me with sunscreen to give it a couple hours to soak in before hitting the water.  A quick bowl of oats and we were off to the marina. The previous morning, I had tried to find Ali's boat, ROCO, but never spotted it. This time, she had it docked right in front. We quickly loaded the boat with our food and water.  Just about the time we finished, my observer (person that makes sure I follow the rules) shows up and it is Kevin Murphy, the reigning King of the Channel with the most crossings of any male swimmer. By pure chance, I had both the King of the Channel (Kevin) and the Queen of the Channel (Ali) on the boat.  I truly felt unworthy. On the boat, we had Ali (captain), Kevin (observer), two crew members for Ali, and my crew; Merce and George.

Kevin and Ali

Shortly after Kevin boarded, we were motoring off to Shakespeare Beach.  Before I knew it, Kevin indicated we were 5 minutes from the beach and to start greasing up.  I had Merce put on Zinc Oxide on the surfaces that were going to face the sun (back of legs, back of torso, etc).  She then applied a generous amount of Vaseline on my chafe points (armpits, inner thighs and shoulder/chin region.  Ali gave me the signal to enter the water and splash, I was in the water swimming to shore.  Shakespeare Beach was a rocky beach but I had no trouble climbing out to clear the water. Once I was clear, Kevin did a count down to start the swim. At zero, I re-entered the water and my Channel swim official began.

I started at 5:08am and the conditions were slightly overcast, sun just rising and virtually no wind.  It was like glass out there, one of those days Channel swimmers dream about.  I could not have asked for better conditions.  The temperature at Shakespeare Beach was 61F(15C).  I felt the cold but it did not feel uncomfortable.  I slipped into a steady rhythm of about 60 spm (strokes per minute).  For me, this was a little fast but the adrenaline was running. At the hour mark, I had my first feed.  Further from shore, the water temp had dropped to 58F(14C) but I did not notice it.  My stroke count had settled down to a  57-58 spm.  At the two hour mark, I had my second feed.  Kevin yelled to me to stay closer to the boat as I kept wandering about 100m away from the boat and had to swim 100m in to get a feed.   The tide was pulling me North-East so I was covering some serious ground, just not all toward France.  By the 3 hour mark, I had swam approximately 8.7 miles.  I had settled into my "all day" stroke at about 54 spm.  The water temperature had dropped to 57-58F (14C) but again, I did not seem to notice the cold.  At the 4 hour mark, as Merce and George feed me some diced peaches (to give an alternate taste to the Maxim and Perpetuem energy drinks), the container filled with salt water.  That was the end of the peaches since we did not bring another container of them.  I was down to just energy drinks for feed and mouthwash for cleansing my mouth. 

Swimming with ferry in background

My first challenge began at the 5 hour mark.  Shortly after the feed, I did my first projectile vomiting. I had experienced this in my La Jolla training swim so I was not surprised with it nor did it concern me.   At the 6 hour mark, Merce tried to give me some sweetened (with honey) hot tea to give me something different to help flush the body.  The sweetness of the tea was too much and I immediately vomited again.  This time, it was some serious stomach emptying, even Merce was impressed.  Again, I did not panic.  Merce decided to switch to 100% Maxim and the was the end of the vomiting for the rest of the swim. 

At the 5 hour mark, I had made a comment to George that my legs were beginning to feel crampy.  At times, my stroke rate would drop down to 52 spm.  Other then the stroke rate and associated slow down, the cramping did not seem to have any more serious effect on me more for several more hours.  At the 10.5 hour mark, my legs cramped up to the point I was momentarily swimming in a semi fetal position (the legs were pulled up in the fetal position). I stretched them out and continued but my stroke rate dropped to 47-48 spm.  The good news as we were getting closer to France the water was warming up.  It was now around 62-64F (16-17C).  At the 11 hour mark, the tide had gone slack enough that we turned out of the French shipping lane to head directly to France.  I was struggling along trying hard to avoid the fetal position cramping from occurring again.  At the 11.5 hour mark, I approached the boat to ask to get out expecting them to yell at me "NO!".  Before Merce and George could speak, Kevin matter of factly said "You will need to pick it up to beat the tide to make it to the Cape".  These simple words hit the exact spot I needed.  I knew that if was going to make it to France, I had to pick up the pace.  Missing the Cap would result in adding up to 6 miles to the swim which frequently would end the swimmer unable to continue for the extra distance.  I put my head down and picked my stroke rate back up to 52 spm.  I knew I still had hours left to swim so mentally I could not quite put a "sprint" into the stroke but I did pick up the pace.

The next couple of hours were a blur.  I was struggling to keep my pace up without pushing too hard and have the heavy cramps hit again. The water temp felt virtually balmy at the 63-64F (17C) range but every once in a while there were thermals that dropped the temp what felt like 5F (2-3C).  This was particularly painful since the first reaction to hitting the thermals was to tighten my muscles which would bring the cramps on.  I would grit my teeth until I got out of the thermal into the relatively warm water.  At the 13.5 hour mark, the tide had turned and we starting heading North-Eest again parallel to the French coast.  The bad news is that I had not made it close enough to have the tide take me to the Cap.  The good news is I had made it close enough that once we passed the Cap, the eddy current caused by the Cap would pull me toward shore.  The extra distance added about an hour to my swim but this was much better then adding 6 miles to my swim.  As we got withing 400m of the coast, Kevin asked Merce if she wanted to swim with me to the shore.  Merce inwardly chuckled but said no.  To our surprise, Kevin stripped down to swim trunks and grabbed a pair of goggles.  Before I knew what was happening, I had the King of the Channel escorting me the final 400m to the shore.  We landed on the shore to round fist sized rocks.  I struggled for several minutes trying to crawl up the shore with my cramping muscles.  I tried sliding on my butt, did not work.  Tried standing, did not work.  Finally found a way to crawl on all four limbs in a very ungraceful manner but got past the water line and officially crossed the English Channel in 15 hours 8 minutes.  I had covered a distance of over 33 miles even though the direct line across was closer to 21 miles .  I tried lifting my hands in a Rocky style victory stance but it was weak at best as I dropped back to all fours.

I then crawled back to the water until I could float again.  The 400m swim back to the boat felt easy and unusually normal, as if it was more natural then the attempt at standing I did.  I climbed into the boat and my crew quickly got me out the wet swimsuit and into dry clothes.  They handed me some warm tea and I was set.  A little later, I did empty my stomach one last time but basically felt great as I laid down on the floor of the boat enjoying the night breeze.  I recovered enough in the two hour trip back to Dover to stand up and look at the lights shining on Dover Castle in the night air.  It was a magnificent view and I will remember it forever.

Tired and trying recover

No story about an event at large as crossing the English Channel goes without a long list of thank you's to the many people that made it happen.  First of all, many thanks to my family, Merce and Chris, for putting up with the long hours of swimming I had to do to prepare.  A special thanks to Merce and George for being there on the boat as my crew.  As for the Captain, observer and crew, I don't think I could have dreamed of having a better team.  They were awesome throughout the entire day.  I can not forget to thank Eliz for being the best training partner anyone can want.  This includes approaching me two and half years ago with the simple question "Interested in swimming the English Channel?".  It continued through many 5am cold morning lake swims when all we wanted was to skip the swim and get a double stack of pancakes.  There is what seems an infinite list of other people that have trained with me, encouraged me and put up with me during this time period that would be too long to list but each and every one of them made a huge difference.

What is next...learning how to enjoy a nice recliner in front of a television.  The training was intense and long enough that I will have trouble signing up for something this large again and take away as much time as I had from my family and friends.  I will focus on simpler, shorter events and enjoy double stacks of pancakes.

Eliz made it

Eliz made it in slightly over 12 hours!!!!!

Update for Sunday, July 18

I apologize for the confusion.  I posted on the blog and twitter that I was going 3am this morning.  Later on Saturday, the captain changed the plans when the winds did not die down as we hoped.  I was did not have access at that time to an internet connect so I only updated the Twitter account that is displayed in the upper right corner of this blog.  As a dry run on communication, this worked out to highlight that Twitter will be the most up to date information as we go forward.  Once we are on the boat, the only communication out will be via the Twitter account.

So the lastest plan (as of 3:46pm GMT) is that Eliz meets at the dock at 3:15am Monday morning to begin her journey and I meet at the dock at 5am Tuesday morning to begin my journey.  As we found out with recent events, these plans can change on a moments notice. 

The uncertainties of swimming the English Channel is one of the big differences between this event and many others such as the Ironman.  Early on, people have warned me about the ability to handle the curve balls thrown at you as a critical success factor.  Athletes that require everything perfect (perfect water temp, perfect weather, perfect logistics, etc) should not attempt swimming the English Channel.  You have no idea of the day, time, weather, conditions or worse yet, what will challenge you the most during the swim until it is happening.  Many times in the training, I felt like I was being trained for this and sure enough the uncertainties are happening.  The good news is it does not seem to be affecting me.  The panic yesterday did not seem to bother me at all.  I momentarily froze when Ali asked if I was ready to go on Sunday, 2 days earlier then I thought but I recovered and said yes.  We then scrambled during the afternoon to finalize our prep and some worry about George (my second crew member) showing up in time.  He did show up in plenty of time and we were ready to swim when we got the call to stand down.  I did not feel any frustration or disappointment, just reset my mind for Tuesday.  It did take down some of the stress knowing we were prepped and ready to go on a moments notice.

Otherwise, I have been jumping in the Dover Harbor for about 30 minutes of stretching out each day.  On Saturday and Sunday, Freda holds swims for channel swimmers so I got to meet a lot of friends I made during my training swims in Malta.  One of the guides for that swim (Andy) has the slot right after me on Ali's boat.  I talked with one person that completed an Ironman just 3 weeks ago that is doing a channel relay in a month that was trying to get her 2 hour qualifying swim in.  I was surprised when she was not able to complete it on Saturday when she got too cold.  Meanwhile, I easily had done a 1:30 minutes a couple days ago without even shivering when I got out.  It actually was a confidence builder realizing how far I have come in cold water adaptation. 

Time to swim !!

Change of plans. I am going Sunday morning at 3am!!!!

Arrived in Dover

We arrived in Dover yesterday. Between settling in and eating, did not get a swim in.  Today, we missed the chance for morning swims to pick someone up at the airport but pushed ourselves to still get in this afternoon for a short one.  The wind picked up significantly overnight making even the harbor a bit choppy.  In the states, we call the white, airy foam that forms on top of waves during high winds "white caps".  Here, they call them "white horses".  Out of the harbor, there seem to be some serious white horses, Clydesdale size.  Looked like it would be interesting to swim in them to say the least.  We just had small white horses in the harbor.  It mainly made breathing a little more challenging as the chop would force an occasional wave in your mouth.  Otherwise, it was refreshing and felt good to get back into the water after the longest break (3 days) I have had from swimming in over 7-8 months.  The water did not feel as cold as I feared.  It just felt...refreshing.  Used the word twice but it seems to be the best to capture my reaction to it.  I am looking forward to a little longer of a swim tomorrow morning

Eliz got a call from her captain and he said that Monday was looking good for her to go and that the long range forecast was good for all of next week.  If my priority position stays the same and the weather holds, it will be Wednesday that I will get my chance.  It is beginning to become real.

Heading to England

The 2.5 years of planning, early mornings and cold swims are about to come to an end.  We leave this weekend for Dover to begin the waiting for good weather.  Eliz should arrive on Sunday while I will spend a couple days in London before heading down to Dover on Wed.  As is frequently said, it is the journey that is important and it has been a memorable journey.  Now it is approaching time to finish the journey by climbing up on the shores of France.

I am not sure how easy it will be to access the internet while in Dover but I will post on this blog (possibly via the Twitter window on the upper right) updates including the announcement of the day I will get the opportunity to give the Channel a go at it.  Our official tide window is July 19-27.  I am currently in the number 3 slot on Ali's boat ROCO. Just below the Twitter feed on the right are links to AIS tracking website for both my boat and Eliz's.  It should allow you to track us once we are underway.

Wish us favor of the Channel weather gods!

Cold Water Panic

We had just finished the 10 hour swim and were enjoying our recovery week with easy swims in the lake when a Colorado team we knew flew out to Dover to swim an English Channel relay (http://www.milehighchunneltoppers.com/blog/) and completed it successfully in 10 hours and 48 minutes.  The concerning part of their swim was the water temp was a chilly 53F (12C) at the coasts but an even colder 50F (10C) in the middle.  This was just a little over 3 weeks away from our tide opening and the water was still that cold!  Eliz and I realized that it had been 6 weeks since we had swam in temperatures that cold and it was only for under 2 hours versus the 12-14 hours it will take us to cross the channel.  The current temperature of our favorite training lake was already above 72F (22C).  Eliz's Endless Pool at about 8000 ft (2438m) was climbing into the 63F (16C).  The 10 hour swim gave us confidence we had trained well enough for the distance, now we started panicking about our cold water training.  We started shifting our plans to get in as much cold water as our schedules would allow.

First thing we did was reduce the number of days we planned to swim in the warm lake which was climbing toward 77F (25C).  The coldest water we had time to drive to during the work week was Eliz's Endless pool so we planned to hit it 3 days a week.  As the temperature of her pool was raising to 63F (16C), we even tried bringing bags of ice up to cool the pool down.   It would drop it a couple of degrees but it would warm back up quickly afterwards.  It was a losing battle.  On the weekend, we drove up to the lake that the Colorado relay team was training in that they reported to be 55F(12C).  Unfortunately, it had warmed up in the two weeks since they trained in it and it was now 67F(19C).  This lake was theoretically the coldest local lake we had. We realized to find colder water, we would have to be willing to travel much further the next weekend, the last weekend we had before traveling to England.

After reviewing our options on places to go, we decided to go to the top of Cameron Pass to a set of lakes up there.  It was a bit risky since we did not know the temperature of the lakes that high up (9000 ft or 2743m).  These lakes are directly feed from the local snow melt and frequently are just above freezing.  Our plan was to try to get a 3 hour swim but we were aware that if the water temperature was in the low 40F (4C), it would be difficult to swim that long.  We prepared for cold with Eliz's husband coming along with a camp stove to warm up water and plenty of warm clothes. We planned to get off the lake by 7am so as not to attract the attention of the local forest rangers and to avoid any fishing boat traffic.  With our goal of a 3 hour swim and the nearly 2 hour drive to get there, we meet at 2am to drive up.  As I was leaving the downtown area to meet Eliz, I was having to avoid the drunks leaving the bars and the DUI checkpoints.  It was a little surreal.  When we got to the Chambers lake, we measured the water in the 54-55F (12C) range, perfect for training.  We jumped in the cold water and for the first time in weeks we experienced all the tingly side effects of entering the cold water.  When it came to feeding time, we climbed out of the water to get our water bottles of warm feed.  In hindsight, we realized that we had gotten lazy with the speed of our feeds and hung out in the cold high altitude air for a bit too long and got chilled. Shortly after the hour mark, Eliz started pulling away from me as she picked up the pace to re-warm and I started my cold water slowdown.  It had been so long since I experienced this, it psyched me out and I got out at the 1:40 mark.  Eliz held in there until the 2:30 mark.  It was a bit disappointing and scary considering we were just 2 weeks from our tide opening.  Once we got back to town we made plans to do it again on Sunday.

After our swim, a cold front moved in with clouds and rain.  As we got to Chambers lake on Sunday, we found that the water had dropped about 2 degrees to 53F (12C).  We got in with more mental resolve to handle the cold better.  The swim went much better without the mental battles of the day before.  We got out after 1:20 due to a combination of achieving our primary goal and a group of fisherman were loading boats into the lake.  We did get the usual weird stares as we got out of the water next to the group of fishermen wearing winter jackets to ward off the cold high altitude air.  Our primary goal was to get over the mental battles and to realize that we should be able to regain most of our cold water training endurance with a couple of swims in the cold Dover water.  To achieve more cold water endurance would not be something we could do in the last week before we left but in gaining more seasons of cold water swimming.  Our training was now complete and it was time for the taper!