If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you will probably be sick of hearing about my Windermere swim. However I beg your indulgence as you have only heard half the story. I don't mind admitting that I was a little bit worn out when I got to our hotel in Windermere. The drive up was awful, 7 hours stuck in traffic. Still, we made it in one piece and still had time to check out the hotel restaurant.
Normally, the single end to end of Windermere starts at Foot Fell Park at the bottom of the lake and finishes at the top. Due to expected weather conditions I was starting at Waterhead and swimming down to Foot Fell.
Arriving at the start of a long swim gives me a slightly nervous feeling and I'm normally a little exicited but this time it was different. Our hotel was in Bowness which is about a third of the way down the lake from the top, it took me 20 minutes to drive to the start point. This time I felt apprehensive, nervous and a little intimidated. Windermere is rather a large lake and mentally it is a very different swim. I’ve done some tough swims but not once had I felt like this at the start. I put on a brave face, silently worried about my aching shoulders from the 14km swim the previous weekend and got ready. To take my mind off the swim, and while I waited for everyone to take a last comfort break (no facilities on the boat) I took a photo and posted it to twitter and my Facebook page. It gave me something to do and it was a really beautiful morning, there was no one around and I stood on the end of a jetty on my own, trying not to think of fresh water sharks and prehistoric monsters. My brain is weird, OK?
Normally, the single end to end of Windermere starts at Foot Fell Park at the bottom of the lake and finishes at the top. Due to expected weather conditions I was starting at Waterhead and swimming down to Foot Fell.
Arriving at the start of a long swim gives me a slightly nervous feeling and I'm normally a little exicited but this time it was different. Our hotel was in Bowness which is about a third of the way down the lake from the top, it took me 20 minutes to drive to the start point. This time I felt apprehensive, nervous and a little intimidated. Windermere is rather a large lake and mentally it is a very different swim. I’ve done some tough swims but not once had I felt like this at the start. I put on a brave face, silently worried about my aching shoulders from the 14km swim the previous weekend and got ready. To take my mind off the swim, and while I waited for everyone to take a last comfort break (no facilities on the boat) I took a photo and posted it to twitter and my Facebook page. It gave me something to do and it was a really beautiful morning, there was no one around and I stood on the end of a jetty on my own, trying not to think of fresh water sharks and prehistoric monsters. My brain is weird, OK?
Anyhow, we got underway and I wasn’t comfortable to begin with; it was cold, 16.9°C, and my mind wasn’t settled. I concentrated on my stroke and tried not to think of things that would eat me. I blame everyone at work for this, stop sending me pictures of sharks people!!! I had just settled into a rhythm when my watch vibrated and beeped at me letting me know I’d swum a kilometre. I’d found my rhythm and started getting on with the job in hand, following my boat down the longest lake in the UK. It was a fairly uneventful first hour, Aileen took some photos and that was about it. My first food stop was on the hour and it was the first time I had ever been fed from a boat.
As I was following channel rules, no touching the boat or wearing a wetsuit etc., my food stops had to be done carefully. Water bottles were thrown down to me attached to a piece of string so that they could be hauled back into the boat and any solid food was passed to me using a small tub attached to a light weight broom handle (thanks Ed but we need a re-design). My first feed when well and I carried on swimming, it was another boring hour in the water for me. Colin the boat pilot had breakfast, there was some mist on the water, Aileen took some more photos and Colin made a video of me swimming. The second food stop was good, I nearly choked on a piece of banana and biscuit that I hadn’t swallowed before I started swimming again but spat it out rather than breathing it in so it goes in the win column.
That’s when it all started to hit me, we had just about reached Bowness where we were staying. I had another 11 or so kilometres to go, my shoulders were already aching and I hadn’t even gotten halfway. I started thinking about why I decided to swim the Channel and how far it was. Windermere is half distance. I hadn’t even gotten halfway down Windermere and I was already getting worried about being able to finish Windermere; how on earth was I going to manage the English Channel, I thought. Mentally I started panicking, I was never going to be able to finish swimming this monster of a lake, I couldn’t even see the bloomin’ finish. All I could see was a boat next to me and a lot of water in front of me. It was about this time my watch stopped working unbeknownst to me at the time. I have a Garmin that uses GPS to tell me how far I have swum and what time it took to swim it. It vibrated to say that I’d swam my 8th kilometre in 24 minutes. I normally swim well under sub 20 minutes for a km and it was the last straw for my mind. I’d been pushing so hard, how could I be swimming that slowly? I started to get really frustrated with myself and tried to swim that little bit faster. After what felt like an age I got a 5 minute sign to let me know that I’d be stopping for another feed. When my drinks bottle was thrown in I looked at my watch, 8.5km, I should be well over 9km. What had happened, why hadn’t I swam as far as I usually do? It didn’t even cross my mind that my watch had stopped working, I was angry with myself and mentally I was done. I’ve never felt like that with any swim before, but I wanted to get out right there and then. It was at this point I found out that Aileen had dropped my food all over the floor of the boat, luckily I was still berating myself so didn’t really focus on what was going on in the boat. When asked how I was going, I said that I was OK but struggling a little bit mentally. I was told to focus on my stroke and to not think about anything else, I don’t think they realised how close to calling it a day I came.
As I was following channel rules, no touching the boat or wearing a wetsuit etc., my food stops had to be done carefully. Water bottles were thrown down to me attached to a piece of string so that they could be hauled back into the boat and any solid food was passed to me using a small tub attached to a light weight broom handle (thanks Ed but we need a re-design). My first feed when well and I carried on swimming, it was another boring hour in the water for me. Colin the boat pilot had breakfast, there was some mist on the water, Aileen took some more photos and Colin made a video of me swimming. The second food stop was good, I nearly choked on a piece of banana and biscuit that I hadn’t swallowed before I started swimming again but spat it out rather than breathing it in so it goes in the win column.
That’s when it all started to hit me, we had just about reached Bowness where we were staying. I had another 11 or so kilometres to go, my shoulders were already aching and I hadn’t even gotten halfway. I started thinking about why I decided to swim the Channel and how far it was. Windermere is half distance. I hadn’t even gotten halfway down Windermere and I was already getting worried about being able to finish Windermere; how on earth was I going to manage the English Channel, I thought. Mentally I started panicking, I was never going to be able to finish swimming this monster of a lake, I couldn’t even see the bloomin’ finish. All I could see was a boat next to me and a lot of water in front of me. It was about this time my watch stopped working unbeknownst to me at the time. I have a Garmin that uses GPS to tell me how far I have swum and what time it took to swim it. It vibrated to say that I’d swam my 8th kilometre in 24 minutes. I normally swim well under sub 20 minutes for a km and it was the last straw for my mind. I’d been pushing so hard, how could I be swimming that slowly? I started to get really frustrated with myself and tried to swim that little bit faster. After what felt like an age I got a 5 minute sign to let me know that I’d be stopping for another feed. When my drinks bottle was thrown in I looked at my watch, 8.5km, I should be well over 9km. What had happened, why hadn’t I swam as far as I usually do? It didn’t even cross my mind that my watch had stopped working, I was angry with myself and mentally I was done. I’ve never felt like that with any swim before, but I wanted to get out right there and then. It was at this point I found out that Aileen had dropped my food all over the floor of the boat, luckily I was still berating myself so didn’t really focus on what was going on in the boat. When asked how I was going, I said that I was OK but struggling a little bit mentally. I was told to focus on my stroke and to not think about anything else, I don’t think they realised how close to calling it a day I came.
I started swimming again, breaststroke while I finished my food there was no way I was choking again, and I tried to concentrate on my stroke. My watch hadn’t vibrated after about 20 minutes and I realised that it had probably stopped working, I had nothing to pace myself with now and I got angrier. I could see Aileen and Colin talking on the boat and it looked like they were having a good laugh, I wasn’t, I was spitting feathers. My shoulders were tired and mentally I’d hit the wall, then I threw up. That was not a pleasant experience, I kept swimming, no one noticed and my last mouthful of semi digested Haribo just floated to the bottom of the lake. I concentrated on my stoke and that was when the lake started to get busier. A water skier came flying past, I could hear, smell and taste the boat coming and then the wake hit me. It was a good job they were going so quickly cause if I could have caught up to them I would have had a proper rant. I tried to concentrate on my stroke and calm down but I was angry, mostly with myself for swimming poorly. I stayed mad till my 4th food stop when I shouted for Haribo rather than the biscuit that I had planned. I wanted Haribo, I’d thrown up half of the last lot and I wanted to have something that I liked. It was the only thing that kept me swimming that last half hour. If Aileen hadn’t gotten the Haribo ready I would have got out. Luckily, they had heard my shouting and I was able to grab a good handful. I asked to be fed every 30 minutes from that point on. Partly because I wanted to be able to pace myself a bit better and partly because I needed more food and company. I didn’t mention anything about giving up, or the fact that I’d been trying to come up with ways of getting out of the channel swim for the last hour.
The next 30 minutes took an age, I wondered if they had forgotten the time or were just trying to string my feeds out a bit. I was so glad to see the 5 minute board. When I stopped for the food, I realised that I wasn’t feeling as tired anymore. The pain in my shoulder was bearable, I have endured worse pain in my shoulders before. I started swimming again and instantly felt better, the extra food made me feel stronger and mentally I picked up a bit. At my 5th stop I was told I had another 2.5km to go, I asked if we would make it in an hour. I had no sense of my pace anymore and I desperately wanted to finish. Not only did finishing in under an hour put my time under 6 hours but it meant that I was nearly there. No problem, they said, I suspected that they were humouring me but I carried on swimming, after all what choice did I have? I was told to keep close to the boat as there were lots of pleasure boats around and that when I saw the red buoys that was the finish line. I kept pushing, when my 5 minute feed board was shown I shook my head. If I’d been swimming at normal speed I would only be about 10 minutes away from finishing, I could make that without another food stop. I wasn’t sure if they had understood my furious head shaking so I shouted "no" a few times. I saw a nod and round of applause from Colin and knew right at that moment he had understood. I was more interested in finishing with a decent time than having some more food, I tried to pick up the pace and spent the next 20 minutes or so looking for the red buoys that marked the finish line. | |
I was so relieved when I heard a whistle, I’d done it. Mentally that was the hardest swim I have done so far. I’m emotionally drained. I did learn a few things about myself while I was stuck in my own head for those 5 hours 49 minutes and 11 seconds.
I need to train harder, my body would take another few hours of pain but at present I wouldn’t be able to complete an English Channel crossing.
Mentally I’m weaker and tougher than I thought; I was so close to giving up. If I start thinking about giving up 3 hours in to my English Channel attempt I’m stuffed. I need to train my brain as well as my body to deal with the swim. On the plus side, I didn’t give up, even when things got bad.
I haven’t given the people who have already swum the English Channel, the length of Windermere or other long distance swims enough credit. I take my hat off to you all, truly you are all an inspiration.
I’m going to have to spend more time in the pool, I’ve watched a video of myself and seen several things in photos that aren’t correct with my stoke. I’ve gotten lazy and need to buck up my ideas.
I have a big head and small swim caps, I nearly lost both my hat and goggles on several occasions.
The end of this week is the start of the window for my Channel relay. Myself and the rest of the Polar Bears should be hitting the Channel very soon. Fighting off jellyfish, super tankers, hypothermia and alike for Aspire. That's got to be worth a couple of quid for a worthy cause. Click here to donate! I'll post the live tracker closer to the swim.
Thanks for reading and happy swimming...
I need to train harder, my body would take another few hours of pain but at present I wouldn’t be able to complete an English Channel crossing.
Mentally I’m weaker and tougher than I thought; I was so close to giving up. If I start thinking about giving up 3 hours in to my English Channel attempt I’m stuffed. I need to train my brain as well as my body to deal with the swim. On the plus side, I didn’t give up, even when things got bad.
I haven’t given the people who have already swum the English Channel, the length of Windermere or other long distance swims enough credit. I take my hat off to you all, truly you are all an inspiration.
I’m going to have to spend more time in the pool, I’ve watched a video of myself and seen several things in photos that aren’t correct with my stoke. I’ve gotten lazy and need to buck up my ideas.
I have a big head and small swim caps, I nearly lost both my hat and goggles on several occasions.
The end of this week is the start of the window for my Channel relay. Myself and the rest of the Polar Bears should be hitting the Channel very soon. Fighting off jellyfish, super tankers, hypothermia and alike for Aspire. That's got to be worth a couple of quid for a worthy cause. Click here to donate! I'll post the live tracker closer to the swim.
Thanks for reading and happy swimming...