2015 season is starting!!

Looking forward to Summer 2015

The 1st of November has now come and gone. That was to be a big day for me. After an amazing summer of swimming and meeting some amazing people, sights were being set on what this amazing journey had in store for me in the future. Nowadays, there are plenty of them out there. Marathon swimming has come a long way in the last 6 years and the plethora of swims available to one in 2015 is mind boggling. The criteria for my 2015 swim was a toss up between lake swim vs ocean swim? Local vs international? One big swim or multiple medium distance swims? Believe me, if my father had his way I would be swimming the 321km of Kariba dam in Zimbabwe/Zambia. I would do it in a heart beat if it were not for the 20 foot plus Crocodiles that ply those waters. Although Hippos are known to be the baddest beasts in Sub Saharan Africa, this one still has a very weary appreciation of a 20 foot handbag with teeth on one end and a tail that will smack you around like any self respecting super villain. I will however be going to Kariba on Safari in a couple of weeks.

So, as Kariba was out of the question, and having had a pretty amazing trip to conquer Switzerland's largest lake earlier this year, I was becoming quite used to not swimming in Salt water. Also, amongst my dalliances this year, I had the privilege to spend some time with Roger Finch. He started harping onto me about SCAR swim in Arizona, and how amazing it was and that if I ever get a chance I HAVE TO DO IT. After this meeting, I went away to my friend  "Mr Google" and did some research into this swim. This is what I came up with.

Just the name SCAR can make anyone feel just a bit apprehensive. Its origin however is far less hair-raising, although still enough to intimidate. Now knowing the Americans' love of the ACRONYM. SCAR is merely just that.

Day 1   S agurro lake        9 miles

Day 2   C anyon lake     9.5 miles

Day 3   A pache lake      17 miles

Day 4    R oosevelt lake    6 miles

So, somewhere between 41 and 43 miles of swimming.

Now in its third year and limited to a field of 30 swimmers per lake, this swim has already attracted some pretty heavy hitters in the world of Marathon swimming, including inductees into the  International  Marathon Swimming hall of Fame, several triple crown holders and, now, the likes of Me. I will now have my opportunity to conquer, what is fast becoming, one of the top global swims. Yesterday I put in my petition to be regarded as one of the 30 that will be selected this year. Today I got confirmation that I have been selected along with a pretty international field from London, New York, Scotland, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, Australia, Connecticut, South Carolina, Vermont, Arizona and California. I have yet to see the final list but I do know another Pom that will be going; Mark Sheridan, I look forward to training with you.

So why this swim out of so many?

All you really need to do is to take a look at the video from this years SCAR 2014

This was a good advert for it. Apart from that, I have been in touch with the Organiser, Kent Nicholas and he, as well as many past SCAR swimmers, have given me only great praise on this swim. This is not the only reason. 

I was also looking for something within my budget. As far as 40 mile swims go, this is relatively good value. Any of the big ocean swims is going to set you back about £2500 - £3000 just to hire a boat. Sadly - for my kayaker, Audra, the cost is representative of what sort of boat she will be getting - I hope you up to kayaking 18 miles??? That is before all the flights and accommodation that you need. I am again extremely fortunate to have Colins It on board again to offer a bit of assistance with some of the costs  and building a website with me. But there are always others that I will no doubt have to find. If anyone out there would be willing, or know someone who is willing to help me achieve my dreams of raising funds for charity by exerting myself then please feel free to email me on g.schlachter@btinternet.com.

 It is also the fact that the swim will not be in cold water and mostly - weather permitting - under awesomely blue Sky, with hot days.

Any event that has a brewing company as one of its key sponsors is most likely going to be a great event - isn't it?  I have also never been to Arizona so now is as good a time as any. Whilst in that part of the world I might as well make a holiday of it and make my way up to Lost wages (Las Vegas) to see what all the fuss is about.

As far as the challenge goes, it will be a first for me. Yes I can swim those distances and feel pretty comfortable doing them but, I do not do those sort of distances on a regular basis especially 4 swims of that size in 4 days. This swim adds a whole new challenge, which I only hope I can deal with. Not only is it going to be a big challenge from a mental perspective, I believe this swim is going to be pretty taxing from the physical point of view. Going all out on a big marathon swim knowing that at the end of it, it is done, you do not need anything left in the tank, is easy. Making sure you can get up the following day and do it all again adds a whole new perspective on things. I believe that this will be my biggest challenge on this trip.

I am sure that along the way, there will be  a multitude of challenges, Logistics, the heat, saving up for this trip, marketing my Charity fund raising and many many more that will arise out of the woodwork. My biggest, immediate challenge, is how to get my mind into the training that I will need to do? Our Season has now closed, so the lakes are more difficult to get to now as most of them have closed. Anyway, they will not be of great use to me anyway as they are getting cold. I will be swimming in the desert - at a time of year when most people steer clear of it, due to the heat. Water temps will be well above what I would get in any lake in Mud Island so my love affair with chlorine and heated pools is going to have to flourish over the next couple of months. Hours and hours of following the black line!!

After all this effort, it will be great to get into the salt River Valley and swim along those canyons with canyon walls soaring many feet out of the waters of the lakes. The finale of this swim will be a night time swim. For a lot of swimmers, swimming at night is one of the most daunting challenges. However, I have heard that this is one of the most serene experiences. As there is not  a hell of a lot of light pollution in Arizona, the milky way is in full visibility and floating on your back looking up at the stars has got to be up there with one of the most peaceful experiences on the planet. Hasn't it? Well I will now have the opportunity to find out for myself.

So I have a very busy 7 months ahead of me but the one thing that attracts me to this sport and keeps me coming back time and time again is not the swims,those are bloody hard work!! It is not the training, that is also a bit of a bore. IT IS THE PEOPLE THAT I MEET ALONG THIS JOURNEY. I have been extremely lucky to meet some amazingly inspirational people that I can now class as friends and, the more I keep doing this, the more truly awesome people I meet.. 

My saying for the start of this journey.

In everyone's life, at some time, 

our inner fire goes out. 

It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. 

We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

 Albert Schweitzer

An Inspiring weekend Had

No major Swims but A Truly inspiring weekend

This last weekend saw me taking a trip down to Dover for a couple of reasons. The first was to take a shirt from the Zurich Swim, given to me by Vasanti, to give to the Channel General. Freda Was very Appreciative and a big thanks to Vasanti for giving it to her. She was wearing it the following day.

The second reason was to meet up with a Channel swimming Friend that I have gotten to know over the last couple of years. I think he is probably the most prolific endurance swimmer South Africa has ever seen - well, in such a short space of time. Roger Finch, has completed, 

The English Channel, (England)

 MIMS, (America)

Catalina Channel, (America)

Rottnest Swim, (Australia)

Zurich Swim, (Switzerland)

SCAR swim, (America)

quite a few Robben Island swims, (South Africa)

and, I am sure, a few that I have forgotten to mention. One of the amazing things is that he has pretty much done all of those since 2011. His most recent Swim being an attempt of the Tsugaru Channel in Japan.

The point was to go down and meet up with him, as I have not seen him in while. The reason he is over here is to support Dr Otto Thaning. A Pre-eminent Cardiac surgeon, also from South Africa and based in Cape town. I briefly met Otto last year when he was over here with Lewis Pugh to have another attempt at the English Channel, sadly the weather gods were not kind to him. Now, at the tender age of 73, having done the Channel 20 years ago, and various other marathon swims over the years, he had quite an interesting take on why he was doing it again. It was not to become the oldest person to ever do it, but, more importantly it was to highlight the fact that you do not have to be a young person to do some pretty extreme things. 

Audra and I drove down on the Satruday to meet up with these two Aquatic Africans. We arrived late as we had a few things to do in the morning. We met them after their moring swim. As they are there for a couple of weeks - or until Otto gets to go over, they had befriended another Aspiring Channel swimmer who is the youngest Swimmer this year (I Think) Charlotte Samuels, From Some Place called America, is an extremely accomplished open water swimmer, whom, at the even more tender age of 16, has Swum Both Catalina Channel and MIMS - This year.

So After meeting them all and having a coffee with them, it was off to a late Lunch with Otto and Roger, with the plan to meet at the beach in the morning for a swim. After a hearty lunch, it was off to check into our B&B and then off to meet Roger for the night. We met at Varne Ridge and then went off to the Royal Oak for Dinner. we had only eaten about 4  hours before but, with Steaks at £6 -- we just HAD to have dinner - where in the Britain do you get such great steak at that Price?? Audra, Roger and I had a very good catch up, accompanied by more Amber nectar than I have consumed this year. 

it was in this pub that we experienced something you do not experience every day. At about 9ish in the evening an couple of elderly gentlemen came into the pub - it was their local pub. they pop in regularly for an evening tipple. you would say, nothing odd there. But, upon chatting to them, their story was quite amazing.

They both live in the area, this, as mentioned, is their local Pub, But how long have they lived in the area? Well, a photo was collected off the wall of the pub, it was a standard framed photo , one which you might find in several pubs in the area, of Army Cadets assembling in the car park of the very pub we were in, prior to going off to fight in World War 2.The photo was taken in 1941. There, in the photo were these two guys and, 73 years later they were sitting in the pub chatting to us. Quite amazing to be in the presence of some veterans from the 2nd world war.

Sunday Morning

After getting to bed at about midnight with the world spinning a little faster than I am sure it should, I awoke at 6 to go for a walk and try and clear my head  from the previous nights foray. We then had breakfast and checked out of the B&B and then headed to meet this utterly mad, but pretty phenomenal bunch of swimmers for a bit of a dip. The day was lovely and both Charlotte and Otto are sitting around waiting for their swims so don't do any really big swims so normally just do 1 - 2 hours a day whilst waiting. We all got ready and then the four of us went off to the water, with our photographer - Audra in tow.

Otto, Me, Roger and Charlotte.

The amazement did not end there. I knew I was in the company of some pretty phenomenal swimmers, whom all know our way around a bit of endurance swimming. Otto however really amazed me. he has the stoke of a swimming god. SOOOOOO effortless. Otto is nearly double my age, swims nearly as fast as I do, BUT, he achieves that speed and gracefullness doing just 40 strokes per minute. I have to do 68 - 70 strokes per minute to get the sort of speed I am used too. Roger and Charlotte are more on a par with me at about 65 strokes and above.

Swimming with Roger is quite entertaining as he pretty much knows everyone in the water and chats to pretty much all of them as they pass. 

Charlotte is a wonderful person and a good swimmer, with her swimming CV, I beleive she will fit in perfectly with this truly unique bunch of Open water swimmers

After taking some video Footage - which I will post in the near future, of the weekends Wallow, it was a fabulous time had by both  Audra and I. I wish Both Otto and Charlotte the very best of British luck for their up and coming swims to France. I have faith that they will both be successful and with Roger to entertain them I also have faith that their Trip to Blighty will be a memorable one. Thank you guys for a great weekend

My thoughts for the day. I am by no means a famous author or any good with words but what I have to say is based on my weekend away and what I learnt.

Never let age interfere with Aspirations.

Inspiration can be garnished from anyone,

no matter where they are on lifes Rocky Road.

A wonderful weekend. So what is next?

 Arrival in Rapperswil

An Awesome weekend away

Glad I was not facing Hurricane Bertha in Blighty

The time had arrived for me to head off to Zurich - then to Rappperswil - to take part in the 27th Self Transcendance swim up lake Zurich. After a pretty mixed week, work was a bit of a nightmare, made better by the evenings spent with my parents, who are over here on holiday. Friday morning came and Audra - my support crew - and I managed to catch our cab and get to the Airport on time. After not being able to check in online the night before, it was a bit frantic; it seems that noone had been able to, so we were queueing for about an hour. I thought that went out with the arc! We finally checked in, we had our boarding passes, so now on to the next challenge of the day - to find some breakfast. Sufficiently fed and watered, we found out where the gate was and then proceeded to ask one of the airport information guys how far it was to the gate we were leaving from. He said about 25 minutes walk - I thought he was joking but, after a 15 minute jog across Heathrow terminal 1, we finally arrived hot, sweaty, and out of breath at the gate.

Arrival in Switzerland was typically swiss with NO hitches. The information given to us was superb and tickets to our final destination purchased, we headed off to Zurich Burkiplatz  (the ferry port). On the advice of an open water swimming friend, we decided to catch the ferry to Rapperswil to locate the landmarks that were, hopefully, going to be useful to me in two days time. The weather was great and the sun was out and after a very insightful 2 hours - yes, 2 hours!!! I figured if it takes 2 hours by boat, How bloody long is it going to take me to swim it?

Rapperswil is a gorgeous little village and we had barely got off the boat when the bags were forgotten about and the cameras were out. There was a lot of  Wow!, stunning! This is amazing! look at the mountains, OOh, look at the castle etc. etc.  About half an hour after landing and taking more photos than your average tourist takes on a week holiday, we decided it was time to go and find our hotel. Fortunately it was about 10 minutes walk from the harbour.

Afternoon in Rapperswil

After checking in at the hotel, it was now time to try and have an afternoon kip - we had both not had a great night sleep the night before. Sadly, we - rather I, was too excited to sleep so it was off to explore. The old town is stunning and we headed up to the castle to see the view. It took us about an hour to get up there - usually about a 10 min walk, as there was SO MUCH TO SEE on the way up there. It was well worth the trip up there but sadly the view across the countryside was obscured by the bloody huge mountains all around the place.

After spending a fair amount of time up at the castle soaking in the sunshine and also the amazing views of the snow capped mountains in the distance, which blocked the real view of anything past them, we then went down the other side of the mountain to the Lido to get the lay of the land. This was the place where we were going to start swimming from. Lidos in Zurich are generally an area of the lake that is cordoned off for swimming. They range from the very simple to the pretty ornate manicured areas like the one where I finished the swim in Zurich.

As you can see in the above photo, the lake is stunning and that is where we started our swim from. As the weather was so agreeable, we decided to go back to the hotel and fetch our costumes to go for a dip in the lido. So off we went, dropped off the cameras - thank god for digital, if we had to take as many photos as we did on film, we would have had to take out a loan to develop it.

Audra got in slowly and was a bit cold and then I just had to go and practice my diving off the 3m board that they have there - you never know when I might get a call from Tom Daly or the likes to be a synchronised diving partner.

The perfect landing

After about half an hour of wallowing (and staying off the diving boards - I might have got a bit more adventurous and done myself a mischief  before the swim!) We got out and headed back to the hotel only to be interupted by the most amazing storm that came across the lake. The sky was astounding and the vibrant colours were out of this world. We just sat on the waters edge watching the rain roll in on the left and the sun setting to the right of the clouds. It was an amazing way to end what had already been a wonderful start to my swim weekend. After this it was time to go and find some food. With all the excitment of the day, food had been a bit of a forgotten past time so we were both hungry enough to eat the leg off any low flying duck. A Fine Italian, on the edge of the harbour fitted the bill and were happy to assist us in parting with some money.

Saturday

After a good night sleep we were up and raring to go with thoughts of tourist stuff to do and the like but we just opted for a bit of last minute shopping for supplies for my swim and also a little wander around the town again to visit places that we had not found the day before. We were not disappointed, as around every corner there was something new to see and more shops to relieve us of our money. Rapperswil is often referred to as the "Town Of Roses" with no less than 15000 plants of 600 different varieties in three main Rose gardens and throughout the village. We came across a wedding at the castle at the top; it started with a procession that headed through the entire village with people adorned with giant cowbells and a leading whip cracker followed by the wedding party. There was a lot of stuff left undone as we ran out of time.

In the afternoon we headed off to the registration and race briefing of the swim. Here we had photos taken for our certificates and were given caps, t-shirts and general instructions and more healthy food. The organisers are very much into their Health and meditation and eating properly so there were no unhealthy snacks. After this the race briefing took place and we found out all that we needed to know about what was in store for us the following morning.

As it was a lovely day again, We headed back to the hotel and dropped off our kit and checked on Facebook. This was quite interesting as I got a message from a friend on facebook who had seen some of my posts. She had a friend who knew of me and my past dalliances with open water swims. He had just moved to Rapperswil from Yorkshire and wanted to meet me so I messaged back that I would be at the Lido. Off we went again to the lido - by now, the fixation on photographing EVERYTHING had abated enough for us to leave the cameras and phones and all technology in general at the hotel. We actually managed to survive about 2 hours without checking facebook or photgraphing a single thing!

Whilst sunning myself on one of the sun decks in the lake, thinking about the adventures of the following day, a Gentleman swam up to the deck and, recognising me by my trade mark orange budgie smugglers introduced himself as Martyn Webster - The guy I had been liaising with on FB. We spent a while chatting on the sundeck about marathon swimming in general. Really Nice Guy and I am sure someone whom I will keep in touch with and probably visit again.

The sun was starting to set so we headed back to the hotel for some dinner, after which it was down to the serious stuff of mixing my turbo juice, packing the bags of food supplies and preparing for a 4.30am start on Sunday. I must admit that this time I think I still overcatered but not by about 100 times - like I did when I swam the channel. I blame my mother for that sort of overcatering and she was not with me this swim

The day of the swim.

I did not get a hell of a lot of sleep but this time it was different. I was not nervous, I was not anxious, I was just not tired.  I placed no expectations on myself at all. My only hope was that I was able to get to the end - at some point during the day - with all my limbs still attached to my body.  I think the lack of expectations really helped me to relax. I know that I can get by on very little sleep. So after about 2 interrupted hours, I was awake well before my alarm so busied myself with final preparations and a bit of reading. At 5.30am we had a quick bite to eat and collected our ice packs for the cooler bag from the kitchen before grabbing our three - yes THREE bags and took a stroll to the lido.

The plan was, get to the lido, locate your support boat, grease up and get ready, roll call then Solo swimers start at 7 am and teams start at 7.15am.

Breakfast and coffee was being served at the lido and then we had to go and locate our boats. This is where the competitive spirit of these swimmers really showed through. The boats for the 40 soloists ranged from a 30 Ft sunseeker style luxury cabin cruiser to a single man kayak --and EVERYTHING  in between, including sail boats. It was now a guessing game as to which swimmer got which boat and all the chuckles and laughter and banter that went with this comical excercise as swimmers found their boats

We were lucky enough to be allocated a very lovely couple who had a pleasure boat with a suntanning Deck on it and seats and everything. Audra would not have to kayak up the entire length of the lake - having never kayaked before. How lucky was she???  Marc and Janine were lovely people and they had a great boat. Also, ironically, they were also suckers for punishment. At the same event a year earlier, they had piloted for another swimming friend of mine, who was also born in Zimbabwe and now lives in South Africa - Roger Finch.

 

The boats and the crew all jumped in their boats and headed out into the lake whilst the swimmers all jumped into the lido and gathered behind the floating bariccades at the shallow edge. The start gun went and we were off.

It took about 30 to 40 minutes to find my boat and link up with it as all the boats were waiting for their swimmers and joined them as they went past. As mentioned earlier, I was not at all nervous this time. I just got on with the task at hand, settled into my stroke at about 65 strokes per minute. When I finally met up with my boat and got to my first feed, which was an hour in, I looked around and there were only about 5 boats. I asked where all the others were? I was then told that they were behind me and I was currently sitting in about 6th place. I was a bit shocked as I really did not expect this. The feeding went well and I was liking the fact that if I swallowed water I did not feel like throwing up.

So what does a Marathon Swimmer do to occupy themselves?  

The swim progressed, the weather was great, water temperature was about 20 degrees, a bit of light rain in the first couple of hours and then slightly overcast for the rest of the day. As I was lying in 6th place, I decided that I would alter my stroke. My stroke rate was not slowing down so I then started swimming with a completely open hand - the effect of this was that I was not putting as much strain on my shoulders. At least that was my practical mind telling me that - less surface area pulling = less stress and less propulsion- doesn't it?  I knew that between 4 and 6 hours the little signs of my body getting pissed off with me would start to show themselves so anything I could do now to limit such manifestations would be good.

I actually switched my stroke quite regularly. Single side breathing to bilateral breathing. Shorter strokes with a higher head position to longer strokes with a very low head position. Watching other swimmers near me to monitor my speed in comparison. Songs in my head - thank you ChrisTurner - your bloody hatred for the Happy song struck a chord in my head and that bloody song permeated my every thought for a while so there was  a fair amount of mental energy spent trying to get that rubbish out my head. I had a swimmer slightly ahead of me and I was concentrating on maintaining speed with him. After 2 hours I was very comfortable and happy with my progress. My feeding plan was working and Audra seemed confident to do the right thing.

After about three hours, My pilot and helper came over to me and said that they were going in for a comfort break, "was I happy to carry on on my own?" I was happy with that, so off they went and I was on my own for about 30 min. During this time, the race umpires came up to me and chided me for not staying with my boat. We should stay with the boat at all times.

My boat finally caught up with me and we carried on. My first milestone that I was sort of aiming to hit before the cutoff time was Meilen. A village along the shores that was 14.3km from the start. I mention cutoff as, this is the first of two points that you have to reach before a certain time. If you do not, the organisers will pull you out - as it is unlikely you will reach the end before 7pm. The cutoff at Meilen was 5.5 hours. I managed to get to it in just on 4 hours. At this point I was happy, I had gotten to just over half way and I was still feeling great. No niggles, all body parts in tact and working correctly, feeding going well, this was a huge boost for me as this is one point I wanted to get to within the time limit.

At Meilen, there is also a ferry that crosses the Lake. We stopped for about 2 minutes while I fed and stretched and waited for the ferry to go past. Then we were off again. Another boat had caught us up in this time so I trudged on with them. it is nice to have another swimmer to gauge your speed on from time to time. Another hour in and another feed. And, the first signs that my body was rebelling. My elbow started to ache on my right arm and my shoulders were starting to get a bit fed up with me. The rest of my body was fine. I changed my stroke again, so  I was not really using my right arm as I sliced my hand through the water rather than pulled it flat through the water. This eased the pain in my elbow.

6 hours and another feed, but this time, my team needed another loo break - what were they drinking on that boat??? This time I opted to go to shore with them and just tread water and do some stretching in the water whilst they went to the loo. I did see Janine coming back to the boat with a  bottle of bubbly- now I know why there were so many loo breaks. If the truth be told, I was not complaining,  I was now about 20km into the swim and my body was still working, I had some Ibuprofen for my elbow and shoulders and they were feeling much better.

After this 10 - 15 minute respite I was ready to do battle with the last 6 km. There was only one problem, 3 boats had passed me. Again, I was not too worried about it as I had achieved more than I had hoped for already. I did however manage to storm past at least two of them, my stroke rate had gone up to about 72 per minute.The next cut off point was at 21.8km and I reached this milestone with ease.

Now, at about this time, we reached the last headland, afterwhich we could see the finishline 5km ahead of you, straight across the bay whilst the shoreline curved away from the headland into a bay. This is when I learnt that  NOT ALL KILOMETRES are equal. Some have 1000m in them and others  seem to have at least 3000m in the; that last 5km was probably the hardest stretch of the whole lot. and it seemed to take me as much time to swim that stretch as it had taken me to do the 20km prior to it. It did not help that there was a fair amount of pleasure boats on the water so waves were coming from all directions. On these pleasure boats were some very interesting characters, some, quite pleasing on the eye. I just had to adjust my stroke again and do some head up breast stroke as I was getting really tired now!! 

Anyway, at about 23km, I had a bit of a tiff with my support crew! She enlightened me to the fact that I had been in the water 7 hrs 10 min but I was convinced that it was more like 8 hours 10 min. I know her powers of time keeping are pretty rubbish. This is when I learnt that Women are Always Right. (What am I saying???) The boat left me for a while and went ahead and I was wandering what they were doing. I carried on regardless and then, out of nowhere, this mermaid  appeared out of the swell beside me. I looked at her and thought, Mermaids do not where orange goggles, and those Orange goggles look suspiciously like my spare pair. Upon further inspection I realised that Audra had decided it was time to take a dip and join me for a while. We swam together for about 15 minutes then she went off back to the boat to get me some more feed. 

During these last 5 km I went straight across the bay. I then noticed another swimmer much closer to the shore and it was now my goal to at least beat him. there was also a swimmer about 200m ahead of me and there was a mental battle raging in my head, Should I push myself to try to beat them? against the thoughts that I have done more than I had hoped for already so just take it easy? Which do I do?
I chose the latter as I really needed to do a lot of heads up breast stroke at this point trying to "dodge" all the pleasure craft.

I was nearly there

That was the finish. Those sundecks were quite a distraction but we managed to get past them onto the finishing steps. The First thing that happens when you get up those stairs is they put a garland and a medal round your neck and thrust a microphone in your direction and ask lots of questions. A bit hard when you have just finished an 8 hour 20 min swim, overcome with emotion and trying to stand upright without falling over, there is lots of clapping and the atmosphere is pretty electric. Sadly my support team were not there to see me get out as they had to go and park the boat around the corner.

Then it was just a matter of resting, enjoying the atmosphere and getting a massage and some beer and just chilling in the sun whilst the others finished. All in all it was not a bad way to spend a Sunday. I know I would NEVER have gotten here without all the friends and Family that I have, that pretty much do everything for me, all I have to do is a bit of swimming. I only had one support crew with me but I had many more sending me good positive vibes, without which, I would never be able to achieve anything that I do.

I sat on the grass in quiet contemplation asking the question, "How is it that someone like me, from a small country in Africa, without much focus and drive can be privileged enough to get a podium position- ahead of an Austrian with the name MAX BEER, in one of open waters bigger swims. And find myself in such a beautiful place surrounded by such amazing people?????

The answer is------- MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
 All of whom play a key, pivotal role in making me the person I am

So where to Now?

Well, it is nearing the end of the season and I might do a few smaller swims and pol swims but I already have my sites on my Big swim for 2015 and I see that the entries have jsut opened.
SCAR swim in Arizona. Four lakes in four days through the lakes in Salt River Canyon.

This poses various challenges which I need to start working on. Firstly i will be looking for sponsorship so if anyone knows of anyone, or company who might be interested then please email me. the next challenge is the training. It is right at the start of the Open water season in Europe. There are very few lakes around to swim in during the Winter so I will be spending a LOT of time in the pool over the next 8 months, I do not like them at the best of times but if needs must? There will be very little races between now and May next year.

I will keep people up to date on tis blog and facebook

It has been a long time coming but it is COMING!

Sorry for the Delay in this posting

Hi there all. Firstly let me apologise in not keeping this blog up to date but I have had a fair amount of catch up to do.

About Two and a half weeks ago, things were on track and I was looking in fine form. I had planned a weekend of good longer swims with the anticipation of doing 3 10km swims over three days. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. All was good. On the friday prior to this I had a really sore wrist and was a bit concerned about it, but figured, I can always strap it up and swim with it strapped up. 

We were all set, Get to the lakes early and hammer out a 2 - 3 hour swim. Big dinner then early to bed. Awoke at about 5.30 to have some breakfast and hopefully let it digest itself before I swim. Get in the car an off I go, lovely day, sun shining and time to get some proper training in. Whilst in the car I started to sweat a bit even though I had the air conditioning on. I felt okay, I would not say I was at my best but I felt up to a bit of a swim, Also I had plans in place and my pig headedness was quite overwhelming. I had a task to do and I was going to do it come hell or high water!! Nothing was going to interfere with my plans ---or so I thought!!

Well we booked in and dived into the murky depths of the lake and off we went. 1st lap is usually a warm up lap so took it easy. Time was a bit on the slow side, but, that was warm up. Now onto the next lap and up the pace slightly. Got through it alright then 3rd....4th....5th. Got onto my 6th lap and I felt really drained, about half way through this lap, the proverbial brick wall came up from the depths with one intention, Stop me in my tracks!!  My stroke was flagging and I was starting to struggle a bit. At the end of the 6th lap, I was not feeling that good so my overwhelming desire to take it up to 10km was waning and I decided to call it a day. I got out and sat in the sun for a while, whilst trying to recover. Apart from feeling a bit drained and disappointed that I had not pushed through it, I sat in the sun soaking up the rays and chastising myself for not being man enough to suck it up and jsut keep going.

Then I decided I would head home for a bit of a rest. As soon as I stepped out the sun, into the shade, I got goose bumps all over my body and started shivering, shivering that would not stop the whole of the trip back home. Again, I was sweating, a bit more profusely than before, but freezing at the same time

Well that was the start of 3 days in bed with a cyclical process of bath, sleep, bath, sleep with the occasional effort at eating. Well you can guess, Sundays Swim did not happen, neither did Mondays swim. After the fever subsided and I was getting back to normal, Wednesday night was a real Nightmare, I could not sleep at all, my body wracked by itchiness. Not itchiness from Bug bites in the lakes and Rivers, beleive me I know what they are like and have had my fair share over the years. This was like my entire skin was crawling - and on fire. After systematically going through all the drugs in the house to see if there was anything I could take - the attempt was futile by the way. A late night/ early morning bath and lots of reading and I finally fell into slumberland for about 90min before my alarm went off and I was due to get ready for work.

I went off to the pharmacy and got an antihistamine to take and the following day was a bit more bearable and the night was much better.

It was to be an entire week without swimming and not eating a hell of a lot so my energy levels were very low and even swimmming 3km seemed like a major effort.

So where are we at now??

Well after a pretty big push, we are now back up to 7 - 8km training swims and feeling fine with doing them.Shoulders are a bit tender at the end but recover very quickly. I am very lucky that I have the lake just down the road from my office so can get in very soon after work. My speed - as always is pretty average/slow but I generally am swimming quicker at the end of my 8km swim than I ws at the beginning, much to the dismay of many of the people I swim with. when I pass them on their first lap and I am on my 9th or 10th lap, they get a bit frustrated. But I can now say that I have my rhythm and once I am in it can keep that up for at least 8km. There is only one problem, In 22 days I will not be swimming 8km, but 3 times that distance, provided I can swim in a straight line.I just hope that I can keep that metronomic rhythm going?

We are now 22 days away from my Swim up lake Zurich. To say that I am ready would be a blatant lie. I still have a long way to go but not much time to get there so we are just trying as best we can to get up to a point where I can at least do this swim a bit of justice. My Grandiose thoughts of getting to the end, winning my Age Group, World Records, All gone. I Will jsut be happy to get there and finish. and whilst I am about it enjoy it.

This week My focus is on a bit more distance and also trying a new Energy drink out so that is ordered and I am now in posession of a tub of white powder and two lovely BRIGHT orange bottles. All a bit late in the day to be changing my feeding. I have tried 3 over the years and never really had much of an issue with them, so am hoping that this one is no different. It is a new one that is being used by the channel swimmers with very good results. If it was not for the last minute, nothing would ever get done in my life.

I was hoping to do the Kingston to Hampton court swim on Sunday but it is only 2.25 miles. I real feel that I need to be doing much bigger distance so instead of parting with £38 for a 2,25 mile swim I would rather part with £5 to swim for 5 hours if I feel the desire. So this weekend I will hopefully be putting in a couple of 12 - 15 km swims and we will assess the damage at the end of it.

This weekend is probably my last real training weekend before my parents arrive for a holiday so, I will still swim, but, not the bigger distances as I will be travelling with them for a few days, and generally doing something that I hardly ever get to do, spoil my parents and have them look after me. Don't worry, it will only be for a couple of weeks of their life so I am sure they will not mind.

I would love for them to come over to Switzerland with me but it will be difficult for my Dad in his condition. It would be so nice for them to be on my boat for my swim - they managed to do the Channel on my hired boat so I think they could do it but my mother would be worrying herself sick for 8 - 10 hours and I really want them to have a holiday. Not Fret about their mad Son. They do enough of that already.

Well, roll on the weekend, Weather looks pretty rubbish but it will be warm, I just hope there is not too much thunder and lightning around. If there is, I hope Lightning is attracted to Neoprene rather than human skin. if that is the case i will be fine, just swim next to a triathlete or condom clad swimmer.

Till next week when i will update this blog, Have a great weekend and keep following your dreams.

5 hour Swim done.

Slightly unplanned swim.....

Well, last week I got a message from a few wannbe channel swimmers to say that they would be heading down to Dover and would I like to join them. Vicky  was going to do a 7 hour swim and Lisa was planning on a 6 hour swim and Kate ws hoping for a 5 hour plus swim. As I am in need of doing a 5 hour swim as a qualifyer for my Zurich wim, I begrudgingly agreed to head down on the Saturday for a 5 hour swim with them, whilst also having the opportunity to catch up with a lot of the Dover crowd, which is always a good thing to do as they are a lovely bunch of people.

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about doing it, for the following reasons: -

- I have not done a 5 hour swim in about 4 years.

- the longest Swim I have done in that time is about 2,5 hours

- I have not trained in the ocean for a while as I am doing

most my training in the lakes - which are warmer.

- I still hate the taste osf salt water.

- The drive back from Dover, after a 5 hour swim

was not somethingI was looking forward too.

Friday Night blues

I was really having my doubts about the following day. For the above reasons but I made a commitment and I needed to do this at least to get my 5 hour swim out the way. With these doubts came the menacing thoughts that keep me up all night, along with the most amazing storm, bundled together with lovely lightening and Thunder. Well, after finally getting to sleep at about midnight, then waking at 2am, 4am and then finally getting the hell in and geting out of bed at 5.30am to get some food in me for the swim ahead.

I jumped into the car at about 6.45am and headed down to Dover, about an hour and a halfs drive from where I am. Arriving at Dover at just after 8 and then parking the car and finding a loo and then off to register for the day ahead. It was great to see the dover bunch and they all greeted me like a long lost friend with Big hugs and kisses. Then it was time to get dressed - well undressed and don our costumes and get greased up by the shingle stomper. Quick catch up with Vicky and Lisa.

After final briefings from the Channel General (aka Freda) we were set on out way. Vicky and I agreed to swim together as we swim at about the same speed - at least for a while!!! Saying that, she does have her Channel swim in about three weeks time. her blog is Vicky's blog. In my humble opinion, she is more than ready to take it on, seeing how strong she was after a 7 hour swim. Lisa is doing a 2 way Channel relay later this year, with her sites set on a solo channel crossing next year. You can read all about her adventures at lisaswim. Although slightly slower, still a very accomplished swimmer and with a fair time to go before her solo swim, she will be very much up for it. I just  do hope that she has the tanacity to carry on this training through the winter. 

AND-------We are off. 1st thing that springs to mind is - "this is a bit colder than I am used too"  But hey ho, we have a job to do. First signs that it was going to be a long day was the fact that, when I dived in and could not see a lot. I went to adjust my goggles and soon realised that I did not have them on. Then looking around I panicked as I could not find them -----even though they were on my head, I thought I had dropped them in the harbour. Is this is sign of the future???

After figuring out my goggle dilemma, we were on our way.

Now A lot of people ask me what I think about when I swim for such long distances. Usually, I concentrate on making my stroke as good as possible, right length, right balance, bilateral breathing etc. etc.......  Today seemed different. I was trying to keep my swimming as good as I could possibly get it, BUT........ there was one thing which was now invading my consciousness and overriding most thoughts about my swimming. So below is what I had to mentally contend with for 5 hours

OH MY GOD It is cold, I do not remember it being this cold!!!!

Okay lets deal with this!!

Swim slightly faster to get the body heat up

Kick my legs, as opposed to just letting them drag and keep me balanced.

Not Working!!

Plan  B

slow my breathing down and try tackle it from a mental aspect.

New mantra now

IT IS NOT THAT COLD

IT IS NOT THAT COLD

IT IS NOT THAT COLD

IT IS NOT THAT COLD

IT IS NOT THAT COLD

mentally say that about a thousand times

Next thought that permeates my head

DUDE, GET REAL! IT IS FFFFRIGGIN FREEZING!!!!!

HOW MUCH LONGER WE GOT IN THIS BLOODY ICE BUCKET

4 HOURS 45 MINUTES

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!!!

HOW DEMENTED AM I TO BE DOING THIS?

OH MY LIVING THIS IS COLD!!!

So for 5 hours, that is what went through my head whilst the outward appearances were being realised by the development of goose bumps the size of mount Everest on my entire body.

2 hours finally came  and we got to get some energy drink and some jelly babies. It was the best tasting energy drink I have ever tasted and was great to get something warm inside me. Psychologically, the time that it takes for that first 2 hour feed to come round seems like eons. After that, the feeds go to every hour and they seem to come round pretty quickly in comparison.

To stop me losing my thoughts in how Bloody cold it was, Vicky came up with a mental game. At the end of each length of the harbour we asked each other questions about 5 sports you would like to be good at, 5 best places to visit, 5 next challenges, then for the next length you  had to think about what your answers would be. This did go a small way to alleviate the constant OH MY GOOD IT IS COLD chatter in my head.

2 Hours Energy drink and Jellie babies, then out for another hour, 3 hours energy drink and bananas, then out for another hour. 4 hours, Energy drink and Milky way chocolate. then Out for my final hour. man it felt good. At this point I told Vicky that I was going to slow my pace down a bit and that she must carry on on her own. during the last 40 minutes of this hour I met up with Lisa again. As my pace had slowed, I swam along with her until the 5 hour mark. That last hour was also pretty tedious with my mind playing games with me about when I should exit. I had to swim past the middle of the beach (Where the organisers base themselves) and the desire to just head for the shore was pretty overwhelming, but I needed to do 5 hours. When I cam in for the last time and emerged from the murkiness of Dover harbour. There was mixed emotions that went through my mind. I was, undoubtedly, glad that I had done it. But I was also dam pleased that it was over. Now the task of dealing with my Everest like goosebumps, the blueness of my body and the unbearable shivering that ensued.

After about 45 minutes, having got some food in me and some coffee and warm clothes - Man I am so glad I keep a spare pair of clothes and warm jackets in my car as all I had come down in was standard Zimhippo attire consisting of T-shirt and shorts and flip flops. I started to feel a bit more human, my lips were no longer purple, my body had lost most of its Blue hue and I could now feel, and account for most of my body parts.

I then relaxed on the beach, catching up with the beach crew and waiting for the the rest to finish their 6 and 7 hour swimmers to come in. Well done to all of you who were out there and best of luck to all of you for your respective swims, I still think you all mad but have huge respect for all of you.

How is it all going Now?

As mentioned before, I am very pleased that I have got that 5 hour swim out of the way. It is something that I have not really been looking forward to and have been procrastinating on it until the absolute last moment I need to do it. The fact that it was done in the ocean has a few benefits associated with it. It also has a few drawbacks as well, let me explain.

Swimming in salt water adds buoyancy to your body that you do not get when you are swimming in the lakes. From that aspect you do not have to worry so much about keeping your body up and streamlined as the water keeps your body floating well. In the lakes you do not have that benefit so we generally have to spend more time adjusting our stroke to keep our hips and legs up and this over compensation can cause back problems as our heads go down more to lift our bodies up.

I am led to believe that the lakes, including Zurich, will be a lot warmer than the Channel. It is something that I have encountered so far. Dover was much colder than Shepperton where I swim. I only hope that is true. having lost a lot of my insulation over the last year, I struggle a bit with continuous cold. I never used to when I was a bit heavier.

With a 5 hour under my belt and still about 8 weeks till my swim, I think I am in decent shape and can now concentrate on my endurance and also look more into my feeding and nutrition whilst I swim. I will most likely stick with what I know  - MaxiCarb pluss chocolate, bananas and jelly babies.

Thank you all to a wonderful day in Dover and thank you all for following my blog .

A saying that was on a lot of the swim caps yesterday which is quite pertinent

Nothing Great is EASY.

Captain Matthew Webb 

Jubilee Swim 2014

Time for another 10km.

What a difference a couple of weeks makes in Britain. Twelve days after my Dorney lake swim, which took place on a very Typical British bank holiday, wet, Rainy and Grey.

I was once told if you let the weather dictate what you do in Blighty, YOU WILL NEVER DO ANYTHING. I never realised how true that was. Well yesterday arrived and the weather was AWESOME. Not a cloud in the sky - when I woke at 4am. I went and sat outside for about half an hour with a cup of coffee thinking about How I was going to approach a 10km swim along the Jubilee River that lay ahead of me, visualising the journey, the other people, what obstacles I might encounter......... On days like this I do love being a morning person. Admittedly, this habit of waking at 4am is not a good one but it seems that I have settled into my 5 hours sleep a day cycle.

6 am came and it was time for some good old maize meal porridge and fruit to set me up for the day. I was not planning on feeding again on this swim. Possibly not a great idea but I do not often feed on 10km swims. A thought that was invading my mind was "Will this be the year I get ill?" River swimming in this country is pretty hit and miss, as to what sort of bacteria and bugs are floating round in them at the time. Last year at this same swim, if I recall correctly, about half the people got ill in one form or another. I have swum in many rivers, lakes and Oceans over the last 5 years and - touch wood (my head will do) I have yet to get sick in any form. However, I am acutely aware that there will always be a first time.

It was time to leave and head for the registration. I love travelling around London on a Sunday morning at 8 am, the traffic is a breeze. This year, parking was onsite so no 15 minute walk to the registration.Got there, Registered, picked up my timing ship and GOLD swimming cap?? My posse, much reduced from last year was there, thank you Audra for taking time to join me. We sat around for the buses to arrive to take us to the start, chatting to familiar and unfamiliar faces .As this is a Point to Point race, the start is 10km up river from the Race HQ and finish area, hence the buses to take us and our supporters there.

We arrived and disembarked and got ready for the start. My mind was all over the place haveing to go back to the bus twice, to fetch my goggles. 1st time to get them out of my bag, 2nd time to actually get them. It was soon very obvious that I was going to be seriously outnumbered but the Wetsuit Wearing Wallowers. I was looked on with complete envy as it was such a gorgeous day for a skins swim and there were all this bunch donning up 5mm wetsuits and standing around in the baking sun until we were allowed into the water

one small addition to the course over last year was a fallen tree, in the middle of the river, about 300m after the start that we had to keep on our Right. Very close after that there was an island that we had to keep to the left. The racing Chicane was in place then! Soon we were off and the typical start of a race ensued with a lot of thrashing water and people jostling for space.

As you can see, I am right near the close bank with the rest of the field above me. This time, unlike most my swims, I tried a different strategy at the start. Where I usually wait for everyone to go and then start my race, I tried to get in a fast start with the rest of the group. The above mentioned tree now became a bit of a hazard for me. I had a kayaker pushing me out from the bank - to go around the tree - whilst the rest of the group were pushing me towards the bank to get as close as they could to go round the tree. As I slowed to squeeze around the kayaker, and lifted my head to site, SMACK!!! I got someones heel straight in the face, dislodging my goggles and resulting in me seeing stars for a few seconds. I honestly thought I had a blood nose, I swam on with one hand whilst trying to adjust my goggles and check if the flailing hoof had done any damage with the other hand. Luckily it had not. Goggles now reseated and sealed, I carried on up the river.

The race then progressed with the field spreading out. the first section of this swim is 1.9km, after which you get out to go around the weir then back in. I stuck close to the banks and occasionally ended up dragging my fingers on the shoreline so I moved out into the middle a bit where it was deeper and there were more swimmers to contend with.

 First section of 1.9km was done in 26 minutes then we had a 3.5km section which was over in 53 minutes 15 seconds before we had to exit again with a slightly longer walk to get back in. At his point I saw how some people get around having to run and swim. They were wearing full wetsuits and a pair of trainers. Whatever gets you through I suppose. The next leg was 2.6Km and this came round in 41 min 25seconds.

These two middle sections were more of a "swim on your own" legs, as the field had spread out quite a bit by this stage and also, in the latter parts of the 2nd leg and beginning of the 3rd leg, we were now starting to catch up to the slower people of the waves that left 30 minutes and an hour before us. Generally the water was open ahead of you and I just had to get into the zone and  "just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!"

Towards the end of the 2nd leg, and start of the 3rd leg I was now catching the slower swimmers from previous waves up and also the people that had gone out to swiftly at our start. I Like to have people ahead of me to chase and keep my enthusiasm up so it was good to start getting people to chase again. I was then out for the last weir and the start of the 4th and final leg - a 1.5km stretch to the end. This took me just over 23 minutes. I was overtaking lots of people now which was fun - for me.

Soon enough it was all over. The finish was a bit slippery and muddy but there were plenty of people on hand to help you out and I was welcomed out by Audra and a fair amount of people who had obviously heard about a Hippo in orange trunks, that came to greet me and congratulate me on a passable time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 40 seconds.

Talking to a few people they  were commenting on how composed I looked towards the end of the Race. Audra had been counting my strokes again and I was averaging 70 - 72 strokes a minute. this is a much faster cadence than I did at the Dorney 10Km a few weeks ago. I also learnt that I was a hit amongst the spectators as I was an easy beacon to find their wayward wetsuit wearing wallowers by. It was often heard, when looking for their swimmers, "the dude with the orange trunks, ahead or behind him."

I like to be of use to someone so glad I am someone easy to spot.

Synopsis

All in all a great swim and a must on any marathon swimmers list. Pretty easy swim with a few breaks along the way, very easy for the spectators to follow you along 95 % of the course. Great for relay swimmers too. some people doing a 2 person relay whilst others go for the more conventional 4 man team with each swimmer doing a single leg. As the legs are different lengths it is very accessible for those who want a slightly shorter swim or some who want a longer swim. Swimming under some of the bigger bridges can be a bit daunting as you are in bright sunshine then all of a sudden you are enveloped in darkness. Scenery along the way - for those swimmers who are taking it at a leisurely pace - is very nice. Some times the walk around the weirs can be a bit tender on your feet so some swimmers get their spectators to take their flip flops for them to walk around them. Other people wear booties or full on running shoes. For the purists amoung us, anything but trunks is far too much effort.

The silverware is pretty cool this year.

The above is purely my perspective and others may have differing ones but I think this swim is a very good swim to do.

So what is next?

For the Foreseeable future, I have no races to take part in. I will look for another 10km this month or next month. Even If I do not manage to get anymore, I will still be continuing my training for Zurich and plan to do a 5 hour swim before the end of June so one Saturday or Sunday I will be down at the lakes by 6am then swim until 11 am, possibly longer. I think I will be sticking too lake or river swims as that is what I will be swimming in whilst in Zurich As it is with this sport, I am meeting so many more wonderful people. most of which swim because they love to swim rather than want to  win. it is such a great group to be around..

To end I am going to use a quote I have used to many fellow swimmers over the last couple of weeks, I know not who said it, but, in my mind it makes sense

It is not about the final destination or the result.

It is all about the amazing journey you have taken

to get to this point!!