Inspirational speakers live inspirationally

Not only do Inspirational Speakers

Speak Inspirationally they also 

live it!

Today I have the very pleasurable surprise to end a pretty hectic day. Let me explain. For a while now I have been following Lewis Pugh and his adventures. A truly Inspirational who came to my attention for his pioneering swim in the Arctic circle. He has also achieved many other ground breaking and utterly awe inspiring goals in his life. One of his latest goals was to assist Dr Otto Thaning in becoming the oldest person to swim the English Channel at the Age of 72. Just another swim to add to his already impressive Open water career.

I have been commenting on many of Lewis's Facebook posts over the last couple of months. Oddly I did not really follow him at all until sometime ago, Facebook decided that it was a good idea for me to start following him, and his posts started apearing in my newsfeed. I had Known about Lewis and listened to some of his talks in the past.

Well, Last weekend they were in Dover for Dr Otto to undertake this record breaking swim. I knew of this and causally mentioned to Lewis that I would pop down for the afternoon and HOPEFULLY meet up with him, if he was not too busy. He has also just written a book that I was hoping to get my hands on. As he only mentioned that they had become available on the Internet in the UK, the day before, there was not enough time for me to purchase one before I went down to Dover.

So Saturday arrived and I went for a swim at Shepperton with a Audra, A newbie to Open water swimming and was wanting to try it out in a safe environment. I then headed down to Dover to meet up with the Channel Swimming Crew and have a bit of a catch up with them. I asked them where I could find Lewis and Otto? They mentioned to me that he was staying in the Best Western on the Harbour promenade. So in the afternoon I headed over there. I was just going to ask at reception as to the whereabouts of these guys. Luckily I did not have to as they were having a coffee with a group of People. I Waltzed up and introduced myself and Lewis very politely told me he was busy and would come and see me later. My response to him was "honestly, only if you have the time" I disappeared into the foyer and ordered a beer and read the paper whilst I waited.

About 40 minutes later I saw Lewis and Otto Leave and then come back. Later, I saw Otto leave. it was then that Lewis came over and sat down with me and told me the sad news that Otto was thinking about pulling out of this Record breaking attempt and He was gutted and had been trying to convince him, with the help of other high level Channel swimming advocates. They had been waiting in Dover for 6 days with very little change in the weather and I thing Ottos just cracked under the stress of it all. Lewis and I chatted about this briefly but he was more interested in the Goals that I had in mind. Sadly we did not spend too much time together then or later.I did ask for a book but he was very apologetic saying that he had been a a book signing in the morning and had gotten rid of them all. Not really an issue for me.I was going to get one anyway.

I left Dover late in the evening after dinner and came home without giving it much thought.

Today, I got a facebook message from Lewis asking me to contact him urgently on email. Luckily, I did happen upon this request, not spending much time on facebook and all!! Very shortly after that I got a response from him asking for my telephone number.as he wanted to talk to me. I sent him my telephone number and I immediately got a call from Lewis.

The conversation went along the lines of he was very upset in the way we had left things on Saturday and that he had been under a lot of pressure with things that were happening on Saturday. I honestly was not too bothered and expressed this to him in no uncertain terms and that he did not need to apologise to me. I had just popped down on the off chance that I might get to meet up with him. I was not bothered either way, just the fact that he had acknowledged that I was there and came to meet me was enough.

He then asked if I still wanted a signed copy of his book. My response was "You Bet!" He then asked, "Do I ever go into London?" He would leave one for me at his hotel - as he was soon heading to Singapore, later in the evening - that I could pick up when I was next in London.

Fortuitously, I was actually in London and currently waiting for a Train at Victoria Station. I mentioned this to him. His first response was, "Can you get up to Marble Arch"

I Said, "I am on my way."

He then texted me the address of his hotel and told me he would be there for the next 45 minutes until he would be heading to the airport.

I arrived at his hotel and he was down in a flash with a couple of books for me. We sat down and chatted for a while about Dr Otto's Swim and other adventures whilst he signed a book for me and gave me a synopsis of what it was about.

He was then off again to another place in the world.

This really blew my mind and getting to know him, albeit briefly, it became more and more apparent what a fantastic Guy he is. I am just a guy that thinks he is Very inspirational but to go out of his way the way he did, just to give me a signed copy of his book and not accept any money for it, to take the time to meet up with me, A truly amazing way to the end of what was a pretty hectic day.

Thank you Lewis, I look forward to our next meeting.

So where am I in my life?

Well, just plodding along at the moment to be honest. Not really doing anything right now, I have a 3km Swim coming up this weekend in Marlow if anyone wants to come and watch. I then have 2 more swims before the end of the season But Next year I am desperate to get back into my Marathon swimming again. I also have a few other long term Goals that I hope to be able to bring to fruition. My goal setting ability seems to have been restored since my chance meeting with Mr Pugh, lets just hope that I can actually go ahead and do some of them?