The Waiting Game
On June 30th I am packing my bags yet again to ensure I have everything I need for my English Channel attempt. I had my list of everything to pack to ensure I forgot nothing. I also had a list of things to do before departing which I did not accomplish and thought I would have plenty of time to do once settled in Dover, like send out emails and set up WhatsApp groups to cheer me on. I packed and repacked several times. This is not uncommon for me. I get so excited about trips and swims, I pack a week in advance. Then I repack at least once or twice before leaving.
As I am getting ready for my departure to the airport to arrive two days before the 10-day window I have for the English Channel from July 3-13, I get an email from Pearl Mardle. Pearl is wonderful and does the initial communications for Masterpiece, which are my pilots for The Channel, Fred and his son Harry, who have 45 years of supporting the English Channel. Many of my fellow marathon swimmers have used them and I was very happy with my choice to go with them. On this Tuesday, she asks when I am arriving, when my crew are arriving and when will I be ready to swim. I noted I was arriving the next day and that my crew, Suzanne Greva and Kim Pross, would arrive Thursday and we will be ready to go on Friday, July 3rd, the first day of my window. I have slot one of four people who they attempt to get out over the ten-day window. The currents change daily and the days in the middle of the window tend to have the least challenging tides. My swim was scheduled during a neap tide, which is preferred over a spring tide. A neap tide generally has a more moderate tidal pull. Tides tie to the moon cycle. Spring tides are around the new and full moon. For example, when you hear about King Tides, those all occur on a spring tide. Monday June 29th was a full moon. The neap tide starts 7 days later so the ideal dates to jump were Tuesday July 7 and Wednesday July 8. Needless to say, I channeled a lot of energy and wishful thinking into not jumping the first 3 or 4 days and certainly not jumping day one, but having slot one, you need to be ready no matter what. And when they call you, you swim!
Racing the Clock
Once I landed at Heathrow, it was all about getting ready for the possibility of going on day one. I drove from the airport directly to the store to shop. Since my crew was not arriving until the next day and the morning before our likely jump later that night, I needed to stock our kitchen so they would have food to eat upon arrival and food and drinks to bring on the boat for a swim that I estimated would be 13 to 16 hours. Many people leading up to the swim asked how long I expected it to take. I always responded, “that was up to mother nature.” That said, I always go into a swim with a best case and a worst case and that is how I build my training plan. I am prepared for a 16-hour swim. My crew would need to have food and beverages to support their time on the boat. Once I got to the Airbnb, I got groceries unloaded, unpacked and got my marathon swim gear sorted out and ready. In messaging Harry, the pilot, it was looking increasingly likely we would go Friday. Saturday through Tuesday the winds were forecasted to be quite strong and from the worst direction, making those days not possible.
Fueling the Machine
On Thursday morning, I got up and made all my feeds, meaning the food or fuel I use during the swim. I use Neversecond sports drink and energy gels and all my feeds are liquid in a bottle to ensure I can get them down as fast as possible, ideally 30 seconds or less. Many people pack enough bottles to pre-make all their feeds. I only packed 4 bottles labeled 1 thru 4. Each bottle had one hour of feeds or two feeds per bottle as I eat every 30 minutes. Bottle 1 had two scoops of the Neversecond sports drink, or 200 calories, 60g carbohydrates and 400mg of sodium mixed with 10-12 ounces of water. Bottle 2 had the same sports drink plus an energy gel mixed in, bringing that to 300 calories, 90g carbohydrates and 600mg of sodium mixed with 10-12 ounces of water. Bottles 3 and 4 mirror bottles 1 and 2. And then my crew, Suzanne and Kim, refilled from a jug of pre-mixed sports drink and added the gels. This puts my average intake per hour of nutrition to fuel my swim at 250 calories, 75g carbohydrates and 500mg of sodium with 10-12 ounces of water. This nutrition plan has been tried and tested over a long period of time and works incredibly well for me. Nutritional needs vary by person but not that widely as everyone needs a certain amount of calories, carbs, electrolytes and water. The most important thing is that you have trained with it, tested it and that it is specific and measured so you and your crew know what you need and how much you got. And I want my crew to understand my exact needs. They need to understand if I am taking down all my feeds. If feeds start to get missed and the swimmer starts to go calorie, carb or sodium deficient, it is really hard to make it up later in the swim. Nutrition is one of the biggest factors that I have seen impact a swimmer’s ability to finish their marathon swim. You must fuel your body properly to accomplish these extreme goals.
The Green Light
After making the feeds, I headed to pick up Suzanne and Kim from the train station at 10:00am. They were aware that we were looking at meeting the boat at midnight. Then I headed out to meet Harry for coffee at 10:30am. It was lovely to meet him in person and chat through the swim. There was another relay team meeting with their pilot one table over. He again noted that the swim was looking likely to go the next day on Friday and confirmed we would be meeting the boat at midnight. In my head I am thinking, ok so literally we are going the first hour of my window. Crap! He said that was the current plan and he would confirm at 6pm.
I headed back to the house. All my gear and feeds were ready so I ate a good lunch and headed to my room to sleep and rest as much as I could. There was a mid-day update stating it was looking less likely. I got up around 5:30 and at 6:22pm it was confirmed we were going and I went back to nap some more. This is the life of a Channel swimmer and the rollercoaster ride of go, no go. The one good thing about going day one is going day one. I literally had no time to get nervous or have any anxiety. I felt amazing going into this swim. I had a crazy short taper, swimming my 8 hour swim, followed the next day by a 3 hour swim less than two weeks before day one of the window. The training was done and I was ready. Historically, I have been nervous before every swim and I was just shocked how calm I was going into this swim. The Swim! The Channel! My attempt at completing not only The Channel but my Triple Crown. Nine years of marathon swimming. Countless hours training. Swimming The Channel to me was the pinnacle of marathon swimming. And if I complete this attempt, I would also get The Triple Crown of marathon swimming. This is what I was training for all these years and now it was time to put all the training to work.
Into the Water
We met the boat at midnight and got all our gear loaded on the boat. There was no time to waste. We quickly motored over to the jump site, Samphire Beach in front of the White Cliffs of Dover. Even in the dark of night, the White Cliffs glow. We arrive at a line of boats waiting their turn for their swimmer to launch from the beach. I started to prepare myself by applying my mixture of Desitin, sunscreen and lanolin covering the back and any areas where I might burn or chafe. I was ready and it was my turn to jump from the boat into the water to swim to shore. Once I reached the very rocky shore, I had to exit. I took care to take it slowly as the rocks are known to be tough on the feet and several swimmers have cut their feet. At 1:13am I was signaled and started my swim.
And I am ready to jump!
Night Swimming Under the Stars
There was a wind blowing as expected. The wind was forecasted to be 14-15 miles an hour with 20 mile an hour gusts. It was slightly less at about 12 miles an hour, dropping quickly as dawn approached. The good news was that it was blowing from northeast so the wind was to my back and I was not swimming into chop. There were 9 boats out that night. I later found out that only 3 boats had solo swimmers and the other 6 boats were relay teams. While the wind was blowing, it was very manageable. It looked worse on the boat and my crew as the boat heeled left and then right with the chop. We happened to have a heatwave in England while we were there. So the night temperatures were quite nice. I would say high 50s if not low 60s. The water was delightful at about 63 degrees throughout the swim, mirroring the water temperatures at home in San Francisco. The sky was clear and I could see the stars. It was truly spectacular. Here I was swimming in the dark, which I love, in the English Channel, on the 100th Anniversary of Gertrude Ederle swimming The Channel in 1926. What an honor! What a night! I swam feed to feed which is a great way to break up the swim into literally bite-sized chunks or sips. I get my feeds down as quickly as possible, 30 seconds or less. Regardless, I am losing easily 50 yards each feed due to the swift currents in the channel. The currents are no joke! As I make progress, I can still see the White Cliffs of Dover glowing in the distance. Above the White Cliffs, there seems to be a radio tower lit up red. That is what I could see for quite some time. And each time I was called up for a feed, I noticed that we were getting pulled by the current north quite a bit. I realized that looking at land was the worst thing I could do so I made a pact with myself to not look back and not look forward, only look at the boat.
Just leaving the Cliffs of Dover and red radio tower I could see as we were swept north in the channel.
Saying Goodbye to the Night
I saw the sky start to lighten up. The horizon became this beautiful shade of peaches and pinks. The sun was coming up. I knew the sunrise was around 5am, so I guessed it was about 4:30am, about 3 hours into the swim. I always get a little sad saying goodbye to the night. Many swimmers are energized by the sun. I definitely am as well but I equally love the peace and the meditative state I find at night. I feel a closeness to the stars and a closeness to my lost loved ones at night that I never find swimming during daylight.
Spicy Kisses & Questioning My Life Choices
As the sky lightened, the winds calmed down to 6 miles an hour and continued to calm throughout the rest of the swim. It was truly glorious. But… with darkness disappearing and the winds calming, the jellyfish I had heard about decided to make their way to the surface. The water was incredibly clear, which is a blessing and a curse. Quite a bit below me I could see jellyfish of various sizes and colors bobbing along. None of them looked too scary but they definitely looked like the stinging kind. And sooner than I wanted they were up at the surface and I swam through my first swarm of the swim. I probably hit 4 jellyfish, and they gave me spicy kisses. The sting was not too bad but there were a few expletives shouted out which got the attention of my crew. The sting lingered for about 15 minutes and was completely gone within 20 minutes. Time escapes me when I swim as my feeds blend into each other and my crew knows I don’t want to know how long I have been in the water. At this point I ventured I was in the water about 5 or 6 hours so I was still feeling relatively fresh and unfazed by the jellyfish.
The next swarm of jellyfish came and I was hit by another 4 or so jellyfish. At this point, I am seriously questioning my life choices. We all go through some dark place on these marathon swims and you need to have a mental toolkit to pull you through. At this particular moment I grabbed on to a swim I did in Anacapa with Amy Gubser where we got stung by invisible jellyfish (“noseeums”) for 3 hours. It was brutal and it made me realize this last swarm was not remotely as bad.
The Mental Toolkit
As the swim progressed, I used other mantras like “one and done” and “she came, she conquered,” which made me think of Gertrude Ederle. I also had a friend at the South End Rowing Club who came up to me before I left. Evan showed me a picture of the English Channel Plaque that proudly sits on the walls of my swim club, the South End Rowing Club, with all those who have swum the channel. He showed me a picture of the next empty plate on the plaque and said your name will be on this plaque. That was such an amazing visual to have in my head during those times when you start to have some self-doubt. And trust me when I say, we all go through that on our long marathon swims, both training swims and the big event. Probably around 10 hours, I started to feel the fatigue of swimming but then I grabbed on to my 8 hour swim which was followed the next day by a 3 hour swim. I trained to swim on tired arms. I reminded myself of that and it gave me a confidence boost.
Smiling and feeding even after 10 hours of swimming.
Quick Feed, Quick Feed
Next thing I know, they are saying “quick feed, quick feed” and I know that we are close. That pact I made with myself to not look at land, well it worked, and I was shocked to see how close we were. The next feed 30 minutes later “quick feed, quick feed” and I knew that was my last feed before hitting France. That was a month ago today and I get more emotional now than I did then. Clearing the water was the most incredible experience, feeling and I am grateful to my crew, my pilots, all those who supported me on training swims and my marathon swim community near and far! We are so blessed to do what we do.
Standing on the shores of France with so many emotions.
Unofficial time 13hr 15 minutes pending ratification
Signing the Wall
The next day we went to the White Horse, Dover’s oldest pub, and as tradition, those who complete the English Channel sign the wall. Walking through the doors is overwhelming, inspiring and truly incredible! Looking for the names of all my friends, and those I follow on social media, up on the walls was amazing. And what an honor to place my name on that wall. “One and Done!”
Shortly after completing the swim, I got a message from Julian Critchlow, who manages a cool website, Channel Swims Info, with all the stats he collects on Channel swimmers. He got some information from me and now I am up on the website. Due to the currents and the tail end of the spring tide, I swam 57km/35 miles, while those who swam on July 8th in the neap swam 47km/29 miles. If you were able to swim the Channel straight across it is 21 miles but the average distance swam is 29 miles. Other fun facts are that based on my time, I was top 32% of among swimmers 50-59 years old and top 25% among 50-59 year old women. What’s next… I thought I would take a break but got back and already signed up for the Godfather swim up in Tahoe. Can’t stop, won’t stop! Just to leave you with another one of my mantras!
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