6 weeks until our team braves the English Channel.
I’ve just taken delivery of 20 military-standard light sticks – 10 yellow and 10 orange. It’s a sobering reminder that some of our swimming will be at night. On the plus side, it does mean we’re unlikely to see the scary things in the water, and no-one will see my embarrassingly inefficient swim stroke. However, swimming in the Channel is going to be pretty lonely, and swimming at night is probably akin to being in an isolation tank with all the sensory deprivation effects that brings.
None of us. Absolutely none of us is looking forward to swimming in the dark.
So the next time you’re out and about at night, think of us. Think of the huge and scary challenge we’ve taken on and help us in our efforts to raise funds to kick-start a sports scholarship programme at Rosemead by …
either
Coming along to our fundraising quiz night on Friday 5 June: buy a ticket
or
Simply sponsoring us via justgiving: sponsor us
At 6.30am, I was the first into the Lido this morning. Probably because it was very windy, and it was raining.
Loads of wimpy wetsuit people joined me later. It was a luxurious 15.7 degrees. Surely no need for a wetsuit!
There's nothing quite like slipping gently into an undisturbed swimming pool. Picture that empty indoor pool before opening time or after closing time, and that silky-smooth, cut-with-a-knife, glimmering water, and don't you just want to slip in?
Actually, there is something better - hobbling down a steep pebbly beach into the cold sea. Seriously! Okay, the getting in bit is challenging, but once you're there, the swimming is amazing. What I like most, is the saltiness. The water is so buoyant. Treading water (which I don't do, honestly), is so easy. Effortless. When I'm swimming, my body practically floats on top of the water, not in it. It's like lying on a surf board and paddling with my arms. I can just picture Surf's Up's Big Z telling me "long and slow ...".
And last Saturday, when I was swimming with Orlaith in Dover Harbour, I was swimming long and slow with my super-saltiness buoyancy aid, and really enjoying it. We swam for an hour in 11.7 degrees. Check out the photo. Look at how delighted Orlaith and I are. Okay, Orlaith couldn't stop shaking when she drank her post-swim tea and offered me a biscuit (broken with the shakes), but it was great milestone. We'll be swimming hourly shifts across the Channel, and on Saturday we completed our first practice (almost like the real thing) shift. No wonder we're smiling!
7 weeks until our team braves the English Channel.
In 1954, without a pilot boat, Edward May set off from France to swim the Channel. Four weeks later his body washed up in Holland. We have our pilot boat booked!
In 1984, 36 year-old Kumar Anandan died whilst swimming the Channel. At the inquest, the coroner recommended that anyone swimming the Channel should have a fitness certificate. We all have our fitness certificates!
Like any extreme sport, Channel swimming has risks attached to it. Today I arranged extreme sport insurance for our team. We’re not allowed to swim without it.
Last Saturday’s training in the choppy tide-on-the-turn waters off Broadstairs wasn’t pleasant, and it reminded me yet again how serious this challenge is.
I was in Broadstairs at the weekend, visiting friends. So no chance to join the swimmers in Dover harbour. But, I did get a chance to jump into the sea in Viking Bay, off Broadstairs.
Tides are a strange thing. Low tide was about 10.30am, and high tide was about 4.00pm. My schedule meant wading into the sea just as the tide was turning. I checked with the lifeguard whether or not this was a wise thing to do, and I did have my safety swim float with me. Once he knew that my madness was simply a sign of someone training for a Channel swim, he suggested I waited for a little while before going in, and warned me that it would be choppy.
Boy, it was choppy! It was good practice I suppose, but I spent 30 minutes in 11.7 degrees water going up and down and up and down, and swallowing a lot of salty water. Yes, at the time, I wasn't just the only person swimming in the sea, I was the only person in the sea.
I could hardly stand when I came out. the sandy beach just kept on moving! It was good practice, and good preparation for what I might encounter in a couple of months time though.
Mind you, I'm looking forward to getting back to the calm and stillness of the Lido.
8 weeks until our team braves the English Channel.
Swimming the Channel is a big, scary challenge. In fact, more people have climbed Everest than have swum the Channel. In a recent YouGov survey, only 53% thought scaling Everest would be harder than swimming the Channel, and 62% would rather do Everest than the Channel!
So, who are the mad people in the team?
Lynne Barry (staff)
Clive Broadbent (parent)
Fiona King (staff)
Debbie Louks-Middleton (staff)
Orlaith Richardson (parent)
Alex Woods (parent)
There’s only a 10% success rate for completing a Channel swim. The Channel Swimming Association regulations are strict, and I get worried every time I think about them. No wetsuits. Swimsuits and swimming shorts must not go below the crotch. No changes to the relay swim order once the attempt has started. Relay swimmers must take less than 5 minutes to swap. And there are lots more regulations. Break any of them and the Channel swim attempt is null and void.
I’m worried, and I think the rest of the team are too. So, if you see us around, please encourage us. Please remind us that we’re doing the Everest of swimming, and please help us in our efforts to raise funds to kick-start a sports scholarship programme at Rosemead by …
either
Coming along to our fundraising quiz night on Friday 5 June
or
Simply sponsoring us via justgiving
T-9 weeks and counting. I was checking my diary this morning and noticed that our swim window for the Channel starts 9 weeks today. 9 weeks! I can't believe I started training for this thing almost 2 years ago.
Well, here we are, pilot boat booked, swim registration forms and Channel Swimming Association application forms submitted, and medicals completed. We just need to get our 2-hour swim certificates (by swimming for 2 hours in cold open water), and sort out our insurance (it is an extreme sport after all).
I'm not getting scared (yet), but I'm still a way off my target swim speed of 1.67 miles/hour. Mind you, last Saturday's Dover Harbour experience helped me shave a couple of minutes off my half-mile swim time (mainly because you can't put your feet on the bottom or hold on to the sides in the harbour, so it's swim or die, and that's quite an incentive to go faster).
The temperature in the lido this morning was 17.2 degrees (which is unbelievably warm for us Winter swimmers) and swimming in the lido is no longer the macho thing it was. It's warmer than the Channel will be! So I'll have to dream up other ways of making it uncomfortable. Maybe I should start swimming without my swimcap? Mind you, it feels pretty cool wearing a Channel swimmer cap.
 |
| Lynne with blue lips |
Lots of blue today. I don't mean Conservative party bunting, I mean blue lips, blue fingers, and blue toes.
Today was our Channel Swim Team's first session in Dover Harbour. I know it takes a while for a volume of water like the Channel to warm up, but it was cold, very cold. 10.6 degrees to be precise. So, colder than Brockwell Lido, and a good 5 degrees colder than we're hoping for when we swim the Channel in July. And this was a strictly no wetsuits session. (There was a guy on the beach offering to grease people with goose-fat. He was one of the organisers, honestly! Maybe this is something we'll try closer to the swim date.)
Today was the first of potentially lots of harbour swims. We'll be doing as many harbour swims as possible. It's the best way to prepare. And boy, it was a bit of a wake-up call and an eye opener.
All technique went out of the window as I desperately tried to get my mouth out of the water to take a breath, and my hands and arms in the water to take a stroke. It was a bit choppy today, and the current and tide were frighteningly quick - on the return swim it felt like I was barely making progress.
Well done to everyone though - Alex, Andy, Debbie, Fiona, Lynne, Orlaith and me. We swam for 30 minutes and then tried to warm ourselves up for an hour on the windswept beach before getting in again.
It was so cold. Lynne's lips, fingers and toes were blue, Fiona couldn't stop shivering, and Debbie found it difficult just to speak.
Practice, practice, practice though. I'm sure it will get more bearable. Mind you, my next swim in the lido is going to feel fairly tame in comparison.
