The Decision

I was approached sometime in January 2008 by a friend, Eliz, looking to see if she could find anyone willing to swim the English Channel with her during the summer of 2010 (side note: we can't swim together but hopefully can swim at the same day). My first reaction was not just No but H... No. I do wonder what that says about me that she thought I would be crazy enough to do something like this. Possibly my history of saying "Cool, that sounds like fun" for long painful events. I guess it is also shows how difficult this one was that I did hold off for over two weeks saying No repeatedly instead of immediately saying yes. I consulted a few close friends to check my sanity (general consensus was I was not sane but they thought I should do it) and more importantly, I checked with my wife Merce and son Chris. If I were to undertake this adventure, it would take a considerable amount of time and sacrifice from the family. Their general feedback was "go for it". They thought it would be a fun trip to England where they could enjoy the trip with only me being the one to suffer. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family that enjoys seeing me in pain.

Eliz was excited that she had a fellow sufferer on her journey. It is a long journey with long hours in the water where it helps a lot to have a compatriot in pain/boredom helping you through it. Once the initial decision was made, Eliz quickly caught me up to speed with some of the logistics and terminology. The first decision was the date. Attempts are made in two week tide windows. For the natical types, please forgive me if I miss this up. There are two types of tides; spring tides and neap tides. Spring tides tend to be faster/higher tides in the Channel while the neap tides are slower/lower tides. More recently, the faster times are coming from the spring tides (I am not sure why). There is also the time of year. The crossing attempts are general done from late spring to early fall. The late spring will be gentler but colder while the fall will be rougher and warmer. Eliz was already leaning toward balancing the the two and decided on the July 19th, 2010 neap tide window.

The next logistical item was the reserving a boat and Captain. The demand was high enough that you need to reserve them 18 to 24 months in advance which explains why our date seems so far away from our decision date. Eliz had already reserved Neil Streeter as her captain. I consulted with a friend that had already done the English Channel, Voni, and she recommended Neil sister, Alison Streeter. Alison is current English Channel Queen with the most personal swim crossings by a woman at 43 official crossings (more unofficial). I contacted her and with a little trouble figuring out how to wire her money, I was able to reserve a slot during the July 19th, 2010 neap tide.

A quick tutorial of why we reserve a full tide. A Captain will sign up a certain number of swimmers during a given tide. The swimmers are assigned priority order based on when they signed up. When the tide window opens, the Captain will review the tides, weather, etc and make the decision if it is safe to attempt the crossing that day. If the decision is no, all the swimmers hang out and wait until the weather clears up. If the decision is yes, the Captain goes to the next swimmer in priority order and asks her/him if they want to attempt crossing that day. If they say yes, off they go. If they so no, the next one in priority order is asked. It is not uncommon during bad weather times that swimmers wait their entire tide window never getting an opportunity to attempt the crossing. In this case, you go home and sign up again for another year. That is the just the unfortunate nature of this event where mother nature has the final word. It is our current understanding that both Eliz and I are the number one priority for our Captains/tide combinations since we signed up so far in advance. This should reduce the risk of not getting an opportunity to try.

Catchup on history before I decided to sign up

The purpose of this blog is to document more then just the actual event but the journey as well. As with most big events, the actual event tends not to be the more interesting part.

First, a little history about myself. I am not a hard core swimmer that has been swimming continuously since I was 8 years old. I did swim on a YMCA team starting somewhere around 8 years old but only swam 2-3 days a week. I lost interest in swimming in my early teens and stopped. When I moved to Ohio my junior year of High School, I re-found swimming for slightly more then a year. I never achieved fantastic times to even consider college scholarships. I briefly contemplated walking on when I went to Va Tech but was quickly tempted away with women (mainly my future wive, Merce) and beer. So I spent my college career drinking and working on my degree.

By the time I graduated from college and moved to Colorado, I was beginning to lose my youthful shape (to put it kindly). I started back exercising at the age of about 24. As I started back, swimming was part of my exercise program but running and biking were my main focus. I think it was the high altitude and sunshine that effected my judgment but my events seemed to be getting longer and longer. By the time I was approached to make the decision to attempt the English Channel, I had completed 13 running marathons, 8 10K swims, 2 Ironman triathlons and was training for my 3rd Ironman.

The historical background becomes important primarily in how it eventually shapes my preparation and training. In basic terms, endurance events no longer scared me. I had experienced 12-13 hours hour events with the Ironman and knew a lot about what worked and what did not work for my body. What I had not done is any cold water swimming past about 2 to 3 hours. This combined with the fact I was coming off a great year of doing my first Boston Marathon and Ironman Austria meant I did not have a "typical" English Channel swimmer body. I hit a low of 135 lbs at 5'8", a good 10 lbs lighter then I graduated high school. In general, this is a good thing for a 46 year old but not if they plan on surviving 10-12 hours of swimming in 60F water in the English Channel.