A couple of days after finishing the swim I have had time to relax and get rid of some of the stiffness which has left me walking like in a straight jacket for the past couple of days.
The swim itself - the first hour was possibly the best swim I have ever had - the water felt really warm despite being a tad choppy and it felt amazing to actually be able to have a crack at something I had trained so hard and long for. We set off at 2am and swimming in the dark was a really amazing experience.
For the first 3 hours I fed on the hour, and made a bit of a mistake in the feeding. I was sick on the boat before setting off (combination of nerves and a rocking boat!) and so should have had a weak maxim energy drink feed but was given quite a strong drink on the 1st hour. This have me stomach pains for hours 2-4 and meant I had some 'issues' in the water!?! The support crew handled the situation brilliantly though and the next few feeds were really just hot water to help wash the strong Maxim through my system and settle my stomach.
By hours 5 and 6 the sun had come up and I was feeling much better so went back onto the Maxim energy drink at feeds. I was having some solids (banana and mini rolls) every now and again, and was feeling pretty strong. The weather was overcast and actually felt myself getting quite cold for a couple of hours, and was worried this might impact the swim, but luckily by hour 7/8
ish I
warmed up again.
By now we had entered the shipping lanes, which was a truly awesome experience swimming so close to huge tankers and passenger ferries. It never felt scary though as I knew my pilot Paul Foreman, who was brilliant throughout, was setting a 'safe' course through the lanes.
The sea was surprisingly clean, and I did not see much sewage and only a few jelly fish, but by this point a jelly fish sting would have been a welcome distraction! Hours 9 and 10 my pace slowed dramatically and I was really just plodding along. I was
tyring to work out how long I had been swimming for and how I had long left - before setting out I was aiming for a 14/15 hour swim.
After hour 10/11 I can't really remember an awful lot. I remember the support crew saying we just need a 30 minute push now about 10 times and
just tried to kick my legs as quick as possible and turn over my arms as quick as possible. When my support swimmer Sandy got in however, who incidentally was also a
legend throughout, it showed me how slowly I was moving as he was rotating his arms very slowly and I just couldn't keep up with him!
The real crunch of the swim came when we were about 4 miles out. The tides turned from helping us towards France to push us back to England. In 2 hours I move about 50 metres forward and started drifting along the coast. Although they obviously didn't tell me at the time the pilot and support crew were seriously worried that we weren't going to make it.
I was aware we weren't making good progress as the boat's engine wasn't on and I was just staying at the same place on the boat and not moving forward. By this time (14 hours in) my shoulders had pretty much gone and I was really struggling. Some really motivating words from the support crew got me going though and I gave it everything for an hour (the pain was pretty intense by now so i just tried to count to 5000 strokes to take my mind off it...) to try and break through the tides and get into the bay.
That couple of hours was the hardest test I have ever encountered both mentally and physically and I did
seriously consider that I would not complete the challenge and thought how horrible it would be to have to tell everyone. We
made it through though and when we got through the tides into the bay the last hour or so was in flat water and with a beautiful sunset was an amazing swim. I finally hit France at about 7.15pm elated and knackered - an
amazing day and one I
definitely would not have completed had it not been for a superb support crew.
