The English Channel Challenge

July 29 – 30, 2009

The English Channel

25 Miles July, 2002

For as long as I remember, I have loved to swim in the water.  Diving into the all-circling, blue water is both exhilarating and exciting.  There is something special about being all wet.  Water dripping off the head, around the eyes, off the arms feels wonderful.  It was said when I was young that I swam slowly to be in the water longer; no wonder I became a distance swimmer.

I started swimming when I was 5 and have never really stopped. I learned at the Country Club of New Canaan, and have been swimming ever since.  When I was 7 and 8, our summer club had a contest: who could swim around Manhattan by doing extra laps after practice?  The next year it was the English Channel.; I was the only one who ever completed the swims and won a cup each year. When I was 9, I said I wanted to swim across a lake where we always summered in Michigan called Crystal Lake.  We were there for three weeks that summer.  While I made that pronouncement, time slipped by and we were going home soon.  Near the end of vacation, a calm day came and my father, cousin Don and I decided today was the day.  In the rowboat affectionately called “Ma Scow” we set off from the raft 200 meters off shore and almost 600 meters from “The Blue Line.”  The Blue Line was the demarcation between the relatively shallow waters off the North Shore Drive and the 200-foot waters of the deep part of the lake.  As Crystal Lake was a sand lake with a sand bottom, the waters were as blue and clear as the Caribbean Sea, but fresh water.

As I swam past the Blue Line and into the deep blue waters of Crystal Lake, the dark-colored waters seemed primeval.  The water is cooler and it takes your breath as one swims from the relatively warm, shallow waters into the cooler, deeper waters.  So afraid of the deep blue water which appeared to have no bottom, I swam breaststroke all the way across because I did not want to put my head into the water.   My father, who probably figured he was in for a short row started giving me encouragement after the first mile inside the blue line.  Slowly, we crossed the lake.   At the other side, out of the blue line, I was relieved to be safe from the primeval waters.

My cousin Don was to swim back.  After about one hundred meters inside the blue line, he gave up and crawled back into the rowboat.  Now my father, who was 39 at the time and still smoking up to three packs of cigarettes a day, had to row both of us back to the north shore of the Lake.  When we got back to the other side of the blue line on our side of the Lake, my father threw Don into the water and said he could swim / walk from there.

I have since gone back to the lake and have swum across Crystal Lake and back as a training session. While I was 40 years older, the water still feels primeval and a bit scary.  I can swim freestyle in it, but the water still “takes your breath.”

It was not until I was 15 that my swimming career took off.  The fall of 1966, the year I turned 15, I looked around the Dolphin Swim Team of Stamford, CT. and realized I was the only swimmer who had stayed with my coach, Mrs. Close, and had not joined the various local High School teams.  Further, during the first 4 weeks we worked on the various strokes, beginning with Freestyle, because I was not chosen to demonstrate how to do the strokes, I decided I better listen. ; During the next 4 years, I won the state’s best male swimmer each year. ; Further, I went to the long-distance nationals, which was four miles in distance around a course of 440 yards swum next to a metal cable in fresh water.

My first 4-mile championship swim was held in Chicago, where I met Doc Councilman, my brother

David’s coach, for the first time.  Just as important, I met Charlie Hickcox who later became the Olympic Champion in the 400 Meter IM. ; At this meet, I was 15.  Charlie was one of my brother David’s roommates and swimming comrades.  The story I always tell about Doc and Charlie Hickcox centers on this meet.  Coming from Indiana, Doc brought a good team to swim at the Nationals: Bill Utley, national champion in the 400 IM, Fred Southward, top distance swimmer on the team and destined for great things except his shoulders gave out, Charlie Hickcox, the top backstroker in the country and one other swimmer.  The race was held between the Navy Pier and the Water Filtration Plant in Lake Michigan, Chicago.  The water was cold, well under 70º and probably closer to 60º.   Charlie is 6’3” and probably weighed around 170 to 180.  There wasn’t any fat on him.  The water seemed even colder to those who did not have cold-water training.

At about the two-mile mark, Charlie had had enough.  He was cold, his lips were blue and he was shivering.  He kept yelling to Doc about how cold he was.  Doc kept pleading with him to swim because he needed 3 swimmers to complete the race in order to win the championship.  Charlie said he was too cold and climbed into a boat and brought back to the pier.  Doc’s fourth swimmer, also rail-thin, got too cold and started getting hypothermia.  He was throwing up in the water and he had to be pulled out.

When Bill Utley finished the swim, he soon learned that Charlie had not completed the swim, was livid.  He yelled at Charlie saying that the only way you do not finish is if you drown.  He continued, ‘I didn’t swim this race to be second, but I swam so Doc could win a national championship.  You don’t quit on Doc!’

That winter, the Indiana Swimming Team went to Fort Lauderdale to work out at the Hall of Fame Pool.  It often gets cold in south Florida and this Christmas vacation was no exception.  While the Hall of Fame pool is not heated, the adjacent diving well is warm and comfortable, especially on a cold morning.  As practice progressed, the swimmers, listening to the siren song of the divers, snuck over to the warm diving well.  One swimmer at a time moved to the other pool and called the remaining swimmers over.  By the end of the practice, Charlie was the only swimmer left in the cold Hall of Fame Pool.   When asked why he didn’t go over to the warm pool, as Doc didn’t seem to care, Charlie said: “I quit on Doc once, I will never do that again.” Two years later he was Olympic Champion in two events including the premiere event: the 400 Individual Medley.

The next year I took 5th-place at the four-mile nationals held outside of Columbia, Missouri.  In 1969 I took 6th-place and our team was 3rd at the meet the Dolphins hosted in Candlewood Lake in Danbury, CT.  My last Long Distance Nationals, until a year ago, was held outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  We completely blew eating properly as the race was split into 2 heats.  At the start of the race, I hadn’t eaten in over 4 hours; I was so famished I was drinking the fresh water of the lake.  I didn’t start out well and died by the end of the race.  I have no idea where I finished, but the day before I was doing 880 meters in less than 10 minutes the day before as a loosen  after the flight out to Indiana.  I was well prepared, but blowing the eating schedule ruined the swim for the team and me.  It was a lesson well learned, if we took it to heart.

After Prep School, I went to Dartmouth College.  While I was an honorary All-America swimmer at Williston, no one figured that I was that good a swimmer.  I was rated a 5 on a scale of 1 to 9, not a ringing endorsement.  However, I loved swimming and wanted to do well.   The Freshman Coach, Wally “Big Kahuna” Lutkus was also the distance coach.  This was his second year as he was picked to replace Ron Keenhold, who became head coach when Karl B Michael, “Coach Mike,” was retiring.  I worked hard and swam year round under the direction of Wally.  For three summers I swam with Wally and lived with his wife and him in the Cleveland, OH area.  I went on to compete in both the NCAA and AAU championships in the long-distance events.  I missed the Olympic trials by about .1 of a second in the 400 IM.  That next season, I swam in all three distance events at the NCAAs as well as the 800 Freestyle Relay.  I always looked back and felt I was one to the best swimmers in the country and I came from an Ivy League institution where swimming was not a priority.  Until my senior year I was almost satisfied with my swimming.

My senior year was not a great year.  I didn’t swim much the summer before because everyone convinced me it was more important to do other things, amongst them seeing Europe.  It took all season to get back to where I was the season before.  I didn’t make the NCAAs but did make the AAU Championships.  I trained right up to them and then stopped.  I think the bad season affected my desire to swim again. ; It took 12 years to get back into working out consistently, but I finally did.

While I had a very successful swimming career by most accounts, I felt that something was missing.  Not making the Olympic Trials and then a poor senior year left a hole in my accomplishments.  While I couldn’t go back, I could always do more in the future, if the opportunity presented itself.

I continued to swim, off and on during the next dozen years.  I was a manager for Doc Councilman while I attended Indiana University’s Kelly Graduate School of Business.  I only swam a few times a week.  After a car accident where a car hit me while I was on a bike, I swam quite hard.  The doctors were amazed at how quickly I recovered from the accident. My recovery was hastened by the fact that I started swimming to loosen up my muscles.  I got in good enough shape to almost break a minute for 100 meters.  Not too bad for a distance swimmer with no sprint speed at all.

After graduate school, I swam off and on during summers and winters.  The summer of 1986, I re-met David Kirby who was a new member of the Country Club of New Canaan.  We started swimming together in the mornings at the Country Club.  We swam until the pool temperature dipped below 70º and they stopped filtering the pool.  We then moved to the New Canaan YMCA.  We were able to swim early in the mornings in the East, cool pool, until the kids on the local team started to do morning practices.  Rather than swim in the West Pool at 88º, we asked the coach if we could swim with the team.  He said he would think about it.  A week later he said I could start, this was in early November, but the next day, he quit.  The assistant coach, who was also the assistant coach at the Country Club, invited David to swim with the team as well.  David and I have been swimming with the team ever since.  We are certainly not as fast as we were and mostly we cannot make the sendoffs the way we used to, but we are still part of the team. 

My second summer of swimming year round again, was when I was 36. I decided to go to the Masters Nationals in Buffalo.   I did okay, but not great.   I scored in the top 6 in a couple of events, but nothing special.  I had a lot to do if I was going to get back to being very good again. 

David and I continued to swim with the kids.  We swam in a number of local Masters meets. David was top 10 in his age group in the country in the butterfly events.  When I turned 40, I decided I wanted to go to the World Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I swam in the 200 and 400 IM, the 400 and 800 Free and the 200 Breaststroke.  I also swam on a relay. Before I left for the meet, I set times to beat in each event and broke every one of these personal standards.  I was top 6 in a number of events: 200 and 400 IM, 400 and 800 Free.  I was particularly proud of the 400 IM and 800 Free.  The 400 IM time of 5:23 was very good.  My ultimate and most important goal was to break 10:00 in the 800 free; I went 9:59.6, coming back in under 1:10 for the last 100 meters.

On my way out and back I stayed with Wally and Sue Lutkus.  He looked at my stroke and tired to fix it a bit as I had been coaching myself for most of the Spring and Summer.  (The NCYAC Coach, Rich Ludemann, took 6 months off just as I needed him to watch my stroke and prepare practices.)

After the World Championships, I couldn’t get excited about swimming in meets again.  After a year of working out but not competing, I decided to use my sport and my long-distance swimming skills to raise money for causes.  I first choose Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, as it was my father’s disease, and efficient raiser of charitable funds.  My last two swims were for Epilepsy Foundation of CT, in honor of my daughter.  A quick synopsis of my swims follows:

Swimming for Hope Charity Swims

After each swim, I am always asked what will be my next swim.  All of my swimming led me to the ultimate open water swim: The English Channel.

For runners it is the Boston Marathon, for Mountain Climbers it is K-2 or Mount Everest, for Rock Climbers, it is El Captain.  For Open Water Swimmers, it is the English Channel, because:

• It is cold as the water can be below 60º for long stretches of the swim

• It can be choppy and windy,

• It is a test of will as it is unforgiving if the swimmer is not physically and mentally prepared.

I started training in Long Island Sound in August 1999 with Marcia Cleveland, one of the preeminent open water swimmers in the United States.  Her book, Dover Solo is considered the bible for swimming the English Channel.  She has helped many United States swimmers train for the event.  The training in the Sound helped me swim the Sandy Hook swim as well as prepare for the Long Island Swim.  However, the real prize was the English Channel.

Growing up, there was a debate amongst coaches that favored turnover or rapidity of stroke count to those that favored more efficient swimming.   This debate was essentially put to rest with Alexander Popov of Russia.  Here was a sprinter who emphasized Distance per Stroke over turnover.  He became the fastest human.  All coaches figured that if sprinters worried about distance per stroke, then middle distance and distance swimmers should think along the same lines.

In college I dropped my stroke count from 50 per length for 50 meters freestyle to 42 per length.  As I grew older, my stroke count increased due to the natural ebbing of my strength and deterioration of technique.  I was back up to 50 strokes per 50-meter length and that would not do to swim the Channel. 

In 2001 I made a conscience effort to increase my efficiency.  I worked on taking fewer strokes per length.  I used drills such as swimming with my fists or fingertip drags to ensure the bending of the elbow and to stretch out the stroke.   I also worked on keeping an efficient heart rate as well.  I figured that if I were swimming at a heart rate of over 130, I was swimming too hard.  Only on rare occasions would I have to sprint during my Channel effort.  Finally, I started working on breathing on both sides.  While I proved to Mike Krein just before I left for England that I was faster breathing only to my right, as opposed to my left, I trained almost exclusively by changing sides in breathing freestyle every third, fifth or seventh stroke.   From a heart rate and breathing point of view, changing breathing sides every fifth or seventh arm was most appropriate. 

While the Channel was over a year away, I started swimming in April of 2001 in the cold Long Island Sound waters with others who were helping Meryem, Tangoren-Masood who was planning on swimming the Channel later that summer.  As the days and weeks clicked off, her time to swim approached.  It was exciting to watch her train for her attempt, to watch her mentally prepare for the challenge.  I continued to swim most every weekend at Tods point in Greenwich, as I needed to swim in open water as much as possible.  I even stopped playing golf so I could focus on swimming. 

In the fall of 2001, I started to swim at Compo Beach in Westport with Liz Fry, also a good long-distance swimmer.  We swam there for three reasons:

• We were both thinking of swimming the English Channel

• It was closer for both of us as Liz lived in Westport and she could get us into the water for free

• It was cheaper as Greenwich changed their cost structure so that it would cost $20 per time we went to Tods Point instead of just $6 earlier in the season

We also started to swim in Lake Zoar, which is mostly in Newtown and is part of the Housatonic River, to get away from sea lice.  The sea lice or jellyfish larvae spawn in Long Island Sound in August through November and make living with itching and scratching almost unbearable.  While there are few waves in the Lake, the water is heavier as it is fresh and not salt water.

In late October, we choose a day to do our 6-hour swim.  It was a very cold day.  We wanted to swim in the Sound to simulate the salt water of the Channel.   The water temperature had been below 60º for over a week, the air temperature was even cooler at 48º, and the wind was quite strong.   We would have swum the weekend before, but I was traveling to Texas on business.  We swam for about an hour and decided we were not going to make it.   We were both shivering by the time we got out.

The next weekend, we tried again, this time in Lake Zoar.  After an hour, Liz, who was sick from the prior week’s attempt, gave up.  We had swum up to the Shepaug Dam to try to find warmer water.  The water temperature was about 58º.  We swam back to our starting point.  Liz got out of the water and into her kayak while Mike Krein and I started down the Lake towards the Stephenson Dam, 10 miles down the river.  I had two companions for my qualifier. 

The air temperature was relatively warm as it was in the 50s most of the time.  Further, the sun was out and shown on the lake and my back until it slipped behind the hills overlooking the Lake Zoar.   After 6:01.29, I climbed out of the water, which had fallen from 58.2º to 56.4º.  I had qualified to swim the English Channel.  I already had a slot, now I had passed the test to swim it.  Training and more training was needed to complete the Channel.  My fear was that a 50-year-old body could not take the strain of hundreds of miles of training before I left for England. 

During the Winter I continued to train with the New Canaan Y Aquatic Club in the mornings, The Wilton Y Masters team at night and both teams on Saturday morning.  Days turned into weeks and weeks into months.   Training in December and January were shortened by travel to Texas to meet on forming a real estate information company.  While this effort failed, I also had the opportunity to do consulting for a couple of companies.  While it didn’t cover all of our costs, it certainly helped keep me sane.

As the effort to create a company failed, my focus shifted to the Channel Swim, much to my wife Trina’s chagrin.  Work was difficult to find and consulting continued to supplement our savings.  However, without the swimming, boredom would have killed me.  It kept me from severe depression, as I was able to focus on something positive in my life.

My work out log reflects the increased efforts of preparing for the Channel.   As the time drew closer, the effort increased.  In fact, in the spring, I stopped swimming with the kids on the New Canaan team in favor of the Wilton Y team as they trained in a 50-meter pool in the mornings and in the summer.  Swimming in a 50-meter pool was better because there are not many turns in the Channel. 

Here is the yardage I swam during the months leading up to The English Channel Challenge:

Yardage table

For the most part, Wilton had the pool set up at 50 meters in the morning.  In the evening, the pool was set at 25 yards until after the bubble was taken down.  Even then, until mid-June, the pool was set at 25 meters mornings and evenings to reduce the cost of heating the pool.   On one hand I was pleased that the weather was cool as it kept the Sound and the lakes cooler longer.  On the other, if I were to swim in a pool, I wanted it to be 50 meters.

This would be my perfect training schedule for a week:

I was rarely successful in swimming this amount of meters, but there were a few weeks where this occurred.  Practices in the morning mostly consisted of pulling with large paddles and a tube around my ankles.  The goal here was to put as much pressure on my shoulders.  If I could pull with the large paddles and tube, it would simulate swimming in salt water.  I was riding higher in the water, but I had more pressure on the shoulders.   I remember one practice where I did 3 X 800s pull with the large tube and paddles.  I was very consistent at 11:20 11:21, 11:20, all on 12:00 send off.  I knew I had to be consistent in the water.   I had to set up my stroke count so it would hold and that I never went into oxygen debt.  I figured that last thing I needed was to be in oxygen debt during my swim in the Channel.

My practices in the evening were with the Wilton Y Masters team.  While I did their practices, I did them my way.  I didn’t sprint much but instead held my distance per stroke and my heart rate consistent.  If I was at the head of the lane or at the back, I didn’t care.  There were three things I liked about the Wilton Masters practices:

• Good coaching in watching my stroke to keep it long and consistent with no dropping of the elbows, crossing over of the hands and arms at the beginning of the stroke and a good stretch at the beginning of the swim.

• Doing IM work outs so the freestyle and the practices did not get stale

• The weekend practices, after the water temperature rose above 55º were in either Lake Lillinonah, Lake Zoar, which are both part of the Housatonic River, or in Long Island Sound at Compo Beach in Westport. 

In Westport the swimable distance between the two jetties was approximately 800 meters.  Most of these swims were with Liz Fry.   If she couldn’t swim, which wasn’t often, I would use one of her cars to drive into the beach area so I could swim.

In Lake Lillinonah, I swam with Liz and we had Mike Krein and, often, his wife Jan, in their kayak.  Also, Liz had a friend in a kayak join us so we each had a place to go if we got too cold or tired.   During 2002 we swam more often in Lake Zoar.  We would start from Joel Zeisler’s dock and go either south towards the Stephenson Dam or we would go north against the flume of the dam opening up to create power at the Shepaug Dam.  During the fall of 2001, when the Sea Lice were spawning, we used Lake Zoar all the time.  In the spring, when we swam in the Lakes we used Lillinonah more often as it was easier to get the kayaks out of the water.  Also, it was larger and therefore cooler. 

As an aside, Joel Zeisler trains visually impaired water skiers.  Besides his dock, he has a ski jump.  The visually impaired come from around the state and region to train with him.  Around the bend from his house is a slalom course.  On the back of his boat is a siren and strobe that can be calibrated for a set interval.  The sound helps the skier know when to make the turn from one side to another.  Last fall we helped dismantle the ski jump, as he was kind enough to let us use his dock as a launching pad.  We used the slalom course, the distance between the course and the steel bridge and the distance between the steel bridge and the old railroad trestle as sprint courses.  This spring we only swam twice in Lake Zoar.   The first was in the flume against the current of water coming from Lillinonah and into Zoar.  The owners of the dam were generating power by letting water out.  The speed the water went down the Lake about equaled the speed I could generate swimming.  I went up around 400 meters and then stayed stationary for the next 30 to 40 minutes.  During that swim a family of swans that lived in the northern part of the lake was upset with us.  They had young signets.   The mother swam with the signets while the father tried to stay between the mother and us.   He wasn’t very successful and we were making up presumed conversations between the mother and father as to how incompetent the husband was that he could keep us away from her.  However, I think the father was having fun with us as he swam near us and watched us.  I think he realized we were not threatening. 

My other swim in Lake Zoar was a Dam-to-Dam swim from the Shepaug Dam at the top of Lake Zoar to the Stephenson Dam.  We went under the steel bridge and the old railroad trestle.  Next we arrived at the I-84 Bridges.  Under all of our bridges I swam backstroke to see what the superstructure looked like.   We next had to go through the Sargasso Sea of weeds, and finally, around more curves than we could count.  We had to dodge water skiers and wave runners.  When we were in Monroe and almost done, the police in a boat asked us what we were doing.  We were fine, but the wave runners were more of a menace that we were.  When we loaded up the car with the kayak, the “dock master” was kind of upset with us because we took longer than motor boats to get out of the water.   While Mike and Jan were residents, they did not have a permit for the boat launch.  The dock master had a slight Napoleonic complex, but we were okay.  It was a successful and important four-hour swim. 

The days slipped by, faster and faster it seemed, until it was time to leave.  I was tapering a bit before the big day figuring that a week of only 20,000 meters the week before the swim was enough rest.  The day before I left with Brooke, there was the only summer masters meet in Connecticut.  I had no desire to swim in it as it had little to do with swimming the Channel.  I was one of two starters / stroke and turn judges.  It was fun.  After the meet we had a nice picnic.  At the picnic the team gave me some presents, including a “dragon hat” as well as checks totaling $2,000 in support of Epilepsy Foundation of CT. 

Waking up the day we were leaving for the Channel was incredible.  Here it was, a day I had dreamed about for years, and it was finally here.  As Brooke was coming with me, I had a companion the entire trip.  Unfortunately, I would not be able to sit next to her on the flight over the “Pond”, but that was okay, so long as she didn’t have a panic attack.  We took public transportation to Newark Airport.  We did it so we would inconvenience as few people as possible.  It was also easier as I wanted to stop by JP Morgan Chase in Manhattan to pick up travelers checks.  The trip on Metro North from Brewster North was uneventful.  We had an extra bag for Brooke’s skates and food and other things for the swim.  At Grand Central I had to go to the Chase Branch while Brooke guarded our “stuff.”  When I returned, we each got something to eat and then proceeded to the bus, one block away, which would take us to Newark/Liberty Airport.

Newark/Liberty Airport was simple.  With passports in hand, we checked in. and sat waiting for our time to take off.  Unfortunately, Brooke forgot a “disk man” so I had to buy her one at the airport.  On the plane, we sat near each other, but not close enough to converse or even see each other.  I talked to her a few times and she said she was okay, but I doubted it.  Overall, it was an easy flight. 

After landing at Gatwick Airport in England, I had to get money.  We then took a train to Victoria Station and, after a McDonald’s breakfast, a train to Dover.  We hopped a cab to the Victoria Guest House and checked in.  We were in a single, which the two of us would occupy until daughter Jen and Mike Krein came.  Jen would live with Brooke and I would live with Mike.  After settling in and taking a short nap, we went down to the Beach. 

As we didn’t know where the Channel swimmers trained, we found our way down to the harbor and went to where the lifeguard station was situated.  It was a cool and rainy day, so no one was on the beach.  I wanted Brooke there so my stuff would not be taken.  To call Dover Harbor a beach is being kind.  As it is next to water, it counts as a beach.  However, there is no sand on the beach.  Instead, it is stones and pebbles.  It is a difficult place in which to walk unless you are wearing flips flops, sandals or shoes/sneakers.  While I had been warned, I still was not prepared.  However, I was going to swim in Dover Harbor next to the English Channel!

Getting in was exciting and painful: painful for the feet, but wonderful for the mind.  I only swam 2,000 meters or so, but what a wonderful 2,000 meters.  I kept saying to myself, I am swimming in the English Channel.  I said the same to Brooke, who was mostly bored and slept on the hard beach while I swam.  We went back to the Victoria Guest House and then to dinner a bit later.  We bought a phone card and checked in at home.  Then Brooke used it to call his boy friend, Mike

The next morning, we had a full English breakfast, the only one Brooke had.  Porridge (oatmeal), eggs, ham cooked as bacon, tomatoes, tea and toast.  Brooke went back to bed and, at 9:45 AM, I was escorted down to Dover Harbor by Voni Oerman from Colorado, and her friend Laura who was her training partner; and Anne Cleveland, from San Diego/La Jola, California. 

As it turns out, it was my only chance to meet the Queen and Princess of the Channel, Freda Streeter and her daughter Ali of the 40 crossings Streeter.  I didn’t get to meet either of them as I was in the water for 2 1/2 hours doing about 10,000 meters.  From there on, Ali was either back in London or helping others swim around Isle of Jersey, the English isles just off the coast of France.

I swam from the small “beach” to the concrete wall on the Eastern / Northern part of the harbor and back, about 1,000 meters.  Behind the concrete barrier is where all of the ferries leave except for the hovercraft.  I didn’t go to the other side of the harbor where the hovercraft leave because there were a number of small sailing craft and I didn’t want to get hit or interfere with them.  After the first day, I always went to both sides as I was no longer fearful of getting hit.  We all looked after each other. 

Voni Oerman had two of her three children with her on the trip as well as her husband, Ricky, perhaps her biggest child.  There were quite different.  Rick was nervous to the point of almost being neurotic.  Voni was calm, cool and collected.  She was unflappable and was on a mission.  Her friend, Laura, was quite tall, over 6 feet, long legs, a wonderful swimmer, extremely smart, and quite beautiful.  They continued to train together, and were quite fast.  I never really had a chance to swim with them as they were into their own thing.

Anne is also tall and quite outgoing.  She was only a competitive swimmer for a few years growing up, but found distance swimming and really enjoys it.  She has some wonderful friends who were once distance swimmers, including Jim McConica, who is a world-ranked Masters swimmer and former national and world champion.  Her mother was with her on the trip.   Also, a good friend of hers came over later and was her support crew. 

After the swim, I collected Brooke and we found the Internet café.  Also, Brooke went rollerblading in the city until Jen came.  She had one incident when kids accused her of being French.  But, overall, she kept busy until Jen came.  My other task was to rent a cell phone, which was Brooke’s undoing.

One night before Jen came, she had a loud and obscenity-laden argument with her boyfriend.  It woke up or kept Bill and Audrey Hamblin up as well as the entire neighborhood.  As they didn’t have room for Brooke and Jen for two days, my mistake in setting up the reservation, and because of Brooke’s behavior, the girls had to stay in another place for two days.  We had a good laugh over it later, but Brooke learned a lesson concerning etiquette when staying at a guesthouse.

After the long swim, Brooke and I went to Dover Castle to sight see, as I wanted to see the castle well before my swim.  I also figured that I would not get to see it after the swim, as I would be too tired.  Jen never saw it, except from a distance, as it was on a cliff and her back could not take the strain of climbing stairs. 

A few days later, Jen and Mike made it to Dover.  I checked in with my pilot, Michael Oram, who broke away from the original Channel Swimming Association (CSA) and started a rival group the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CP& SF.)  We all had to wait for the weather to clear and the slot to open. 

Voni and Anne were to swim during the “Spring” Tides.  This only means that the pull from the moon is stronger.  With the knowledge the Orams have, it is possible to swim during the Spring tides, it just means one leaves a bit further south of Dover Harbor as the stronger tide will take the swimmer more north and east than a non-Spring tide.  While I was beginning to rest a bit by only swimming 3,000 a day, Voni was just waiting.  She was to be in Lance Oram’s boat, Michael’s son, while Mike was to take an Aussie.  They had two false starts.  With each false start, Voni’s husband Ricky became more of a mess.  The weather forecast called for diminishing winds each day.  July 25^th was too windy and they barely made it out of the harbor.  The next day was a bit better, but not good enough.  While the CSA boats went out and failed, the CP& SF boats took the swimmers out, but they practiced some feeds knowing that the day was still not right. 

I decided then and there that: “One does not choose the day to swim The Channel, the day chooses you.  On the 27th, the day was perfect: warm, flat and slightly hazy.  Voni went out at around 1:00 PM and was looking to do an 11 to 12 hour swim.  By the time the 27^th came, Voni had determination in her eyes while her husband, Ricky, was wiped out.  He was relatively calm on the boat as there was no adrenalin left in him from the two previous false starts.  Mike Krein and I saw Voni off and then, after checking in with the girls in their hotel room, went to town for some last minute shopping. 

Voni’s time was excellent as she broke 11 hours by just a few seconds.  She swam well.  Laura only went in the water a few times.  She controlled the boat, prepared the food, and, for the most part, kept Ricky under control.

Voni came back the next morning, tired but with a huge grin on her face.  The sense of accomplishment was in her eyes, tired as they were.  She mostly dozed the next day and then prepared to leave for France for a vacation. However, the first morning back, she went down to the Dover Harbor beach to bask in the glow of success: She was a Successful Channel Swimmer.

The 28th was Anne’s day.  She had the same look of determination at the start as all distance swimmers have.  We are not sprinters, as we know it will take 12 to 13 hours.  Distance swimmers have to be prepared for a long swim; she was ready and prepared.  She left from the same beach as Voni as this was the last day of the Spring tides.  Her time was an excellent 12 1/2 hour swim.  She felt no pain.  When she came home the next morning, she too had the glow of success.  She took a bath and napped.  She too was too tired and elated to sleep.  After breakfast, she went down to Dover Harbor for her “victory” return to the beach.

I had already checked in with Mike Oram and knew that the 29th was my day.  While I was not the first swimmer in the slot, I could go because the first swimmers in the slot, two-brother breaststrokers from the Czech Republic wanted the middle of the “neap” tides because it is easiest.  They were attempting to be the first swimmers to swim the Channel breaststroke.  They were also trying to be the first brothers to Swim the Channel on the same day.

The 29th was also another perfect day.  I was to be at the boat at around 12:30 PM.  We would leave at around 1:30 PM for the short trip to the nearby beach of Folkstone.  I was leaving from the same beach as the other Spring tide swimmers as, while technically a neap tide, it was still very strong.

During my preparation everyone said I would have an easy time making it.  “Oh, you’ll make it, no problem.”  Even Trina thought I was over prepared.  I had prepared as well as I could have and I felt ready.  While I had strained the trapeziums about a week earlier, I figured they were healed.  I knew I wouldn’t need a lot of grease, so all I put on was the A&D for chafing.  As we headed out the harbor, I was left alone.  My thoughts were centered on the day, on prayers, on so many of my sayings such as:

“All things are ready if our minds be so,” from Shakespeare’s Henry V.

“Our doubts are traitors and make us loose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt,” from Measure for Measure by Shakespeare.

I also thought of John Donne and part of his work:

“No man is an island, entire of itself.  Everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.  As well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friends or thine own were.  Any man’s death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind, and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

With all of my preparation, I wanted to have two pairs of goggles ready, one for daylight and the other for night swimming.  Since I was starting at 2:00 PM, I knew night swimming was going to happen.  I wanted my dark blue goggles for the daylight and the clear goggles for dusk and night time swimming.  I jumped off the Aegean Blue boat and swam for the shore, some 25 meters away.  Some of the beach goers knew what I was doing and wished me luck.  I think I invited them to join the swim.  They just laughed and waved.  This beach, like the one in Dover Harbor, was pebbly as well.  It hurt the feet to walk and I really couldn’t wait for the siren to sound and the swim to begin. 

As I started swimming from the beach towards France, the brand new pair of blue goggles filled up with water.  After clearing them twice, I gave up on them and asked for the ones I had been training with while at Dover.  These goggles were relatively new and I could have used them, but wanted clean, fresh ones; so much for my preparation.  I also had a new “Tods Point Cap.”  Unfortunately, it was loose, and I gave it to the Channel Gods and got an older one.  So, especially the first few minutes and hours were rough.  So, after a less than smooth start, we headed from the beach and away from the English shore beach.  I felt a bit disrupted. 

It didn’t take long to get to the point where I could not see land.  ; This is where this swim and all of my others were different – land, or the lack of it.  My only connection to the world was the boat.  It is so different that it is something I had to experience to fully understand.  I have traveled on ferries away from land, but being in the water and only having a boat as a lifeline is very different. 

For whatever reason, the first three hours were the toughest.  I was maintaining a faster arm turnover than I had practiced.  No matter what I did to slow down the stroke count, I couldn’t.  I had trained for a stroke count of 59 per minute.  I was going 64 to 65.  That is almost 10% faster.  I was okay from an oxygen debt point of view; it was just a bit disconcerting.  Further, the pilot, Michael Oram wanted me to have faster feedings.  His point was that an extra minute each feed meant an extra 2 minutes per hour.  Over a 10-hour period one could miss the tide.  If one missed the tide, it could take an extra hour or two to get in and that would be a shame.  My problem is that I am 50 and not 30.  I needed the rest and I was going to take it

One hour into the swim, just after my first feed, the wind picked up a bit and the chop was considerable.  We decided to have me swim on the left side of the boat.  My left trapezium was already sore and I was having trouble swimming straight  Mike Oram had already warned me that if I thought out here in the Channel, I would not make it.  While he told me he didn’t know much about me, he had talked extensively to Marcia Cleveland.  We figured I was under a 12-hour swimmer, he just didn’t know by how much.  He was frustrated that I took so long in feedings.  He felt I was trying to control the swim.  All I can be accused of is that I want to know where I am and how much further.  While the Channel was new, I was well aware of what my body could do.  Perhaps I was thinking too much, but that is how I swim.

I was counting strokes and figuring how many 105 strokes it would take to do around 30 minutes.  I was generally right on schedule.  That was good for me.  However, switching to the right side of the boat was a bust.  With my trapeziums problem, I was drifting left and in fact ran into the boat a few times.  Also, I smelled the diesel from the engines and really didn’t want to swim in the Aegean Blue’s exhaust.  I switched back to the left side and waited for criticism from Mike Oram.  Instead, he choose to take a 3-hour nap.  I settled into a great rhythm.  By the time Mike woke up after his nap, I was swimming well and over whatever depression I had during the first one-third of the swim.

Looking back I do not know why I was having problems early.  It wasn’t just the problem with the goggles or my need to control the swim.  Mike Krein theorized that I place a lot of pressure on myself to do the swim on such a perfect day.  I just think it was the difference between this swim and all others, no land in sight.  Also, this was my dream and I didn’t want to mess it up.  However, once I got into a rhythm, I felt great and swam well.

The stroke count was high and all of my efforts did not or could not slow it down.  Eventually Mike Krein and I let it go.  He stopped trying to coach from the boat, and I finally turned off the mind.  One other anomaly is that during all of my training, if I faded off a straight line, I faded right.  Today, I was fading left.  While this made the swim longer, it wasn’t too much of a problem until nightfall and the boat needed to see me to keep me safe.

At each feeding, I tried to say something to make sure we all knew I was functioning well.  At one feeding I asked about the catch of mackerel.  They caught a lot, and kept some for dinner.  They even asked if they should save some for me for eating on the way back.  I said no way! 

On another stop I heard from Trina, Marcia Cleveland and Liz Fry.  Near 7:00 PM I asked if anyone had read Henry V by Shakespeare.  I said that before the battle of Agincourt the French kept saying “Would it were day!” meaning that the battle would start soon.  I said, “Would it were night.” That meant we were that much closer to finishing. 

About every other feed I would do a few flip turns.  While this might have slowed me down, it helped keep the back stretched.  I think it helped my breathing and was worth the extra time.  Of course, my feeds were so slow; a few tumbles didn’t affect the time and may have helped me stay strong throughout the swim.

At around 9:00 PM we put in the first light stick and changed to the clear goggles.  While I was swimming well, there were three problems:

• My left trapezium was sore and affecting my stroke, </font>

• My right shoulder was bothering me and hurt during my recovery,

• I was chafed under the neck.

As I mentioned earlier, during all of my practices if I drifted, I drifted right.  It might also be because we practice circles by swimming down the right side of the lane.  During this swim I was drifting left and it was a problem for my spotters on the boat.  First of all, I was too far from the boat, secondly I was swimming farther than I had to as I was drifting left, and third, it was disconcerting to all involved because at night my light sticks were hard to see.  While I could see the boat clearly, they could not see me.  At around 10:00 PM we added a second light stick.  An hour later, we added a third one so I was more easily seen.  With the addition of the third one, Mike Oram, who put them all on so no one could accuse us of getting help from my “crew,” said that I might have to be disqualified for flotation help from the number of light sticks.  By 11:00 PM or so, I was quite tired.  I was starting to do 150 strokes of freestyle and then varying the number of breaststrokes.  I started this pattern by doing 9 strokes of breaststroke between the freestyle, but steadily decreased the number of breaststrokes down to 3.

By 12:00 Midnight, I was spent.  I was still holding 64 strokes per minute, but I was adding and not subtracting breaststrokes.  I could finally see the lighthouse of Cape Griz Nez, but I could not see land.   I was still drifting left, but when the spot light shone on the ring buoy on the side of the boat, I swam straighter.  During the last feeding, I was breathing hard.  I was told I had about mile to go when in fact I was closer.  I was still going 150 strokes of freestyle and then breaststroke.  I wasn’t making much headway during the breaststroke, but I was still going well when I swam freestyle.  I asked if I was swimming straighter, and I was.  They kept exhorting me to keep near the boat.  I said I would try.  I think Mike Krein felt that I was losing heart on the swim when in fact I was saying I would try to stay near the boat not try to finish.  The neat thing was that I could not really see the lighthouse anymore because I was under it.  The lighthouse stands back from the cape a bit and therefore the light was swinging over me.  Also the bluff of land on which the lighthouse stands now obscured the building.  That was a great feeling to know I was that close.

With 20 meters to go, the boat let me go and pointed the spot light towards the beach.  I was told I was landing on the Dragon’s teeth and that the rocks were sharp.  I finally got to the first set of rocks and crawled over them.  I got some scratches on my chest and stomach, but they were good scratches.  I drifted over some water and got to the second set of rocks.  I put my feet down and stood up.  At that point the horn sounded.  It was the greatest sound I had heard in a long time.  Standing there on the rocks, I looked around.  I looked back towards the boat and raised my left arm in a salute.  The right one I kept firmly connected to the other rocks so I didn’t fall over due to tiredness and wave action.

I kept looking around, taking in the sight of the rocks, the light of the lighthouse swinging over my head and the satisfaction and inner peace of completing the English Channel Challenge. I crawled back over the rocks and back to the boat.  I was asked right before I swam for the Dragon’s Teeth if I wanted to do a double and I said no way.  On the way back I did some butterfly to stretch out the shoulders and a few more flip turns to help the back.  Without either the fly or the flip turns, I do not think I would have been able to get out of the Channel.

I was helped out of the boat by Mike’s first mate, Derek, and Mike Krein pulled a shirt over me to get warm.  Derek, who had taken over for Mike Oram when he went for his nap at around 5:00 PM until near dark, saw me change from a swimmer in the throes of depression to one that was swimming with confidence.  I got a huge hug from Mike Krein who was almost speechless, a rare thing for Mike.  I next got a hug from Jen and then from Brooke.  Also, I received warm handshakes from Mike Oram and his crew.

We called Trina and told her how great and exhausted I felt.  I thanked her for letting me have this adventure.  I now remember that we would try to call back, but we didn’t.  I was just too out of it to remember to do a lot of things.  We also heard from Liz Fry and I believe from Marcia Cleveland.

I was never cold, even during the worst part of my depression early in the swim, and I didn’t need all the clothing when I got out of the Channel.  However, I put on the sweat pants and eventually the Dartmouth Parka and hat.  I ate at least two of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we made and had some hot tea with honey.  However, after I got off the boat, I swore off hot tea with honey, for at least a week.

During the trip back I talked with Mike Oram. ; He confided in me that he had heard a bit more about me from Marcia Cleveland than he had first let on.  He was told that I hate to lose to the ladies and that I liked to be in control.  I told him he was right about both.  But that my desire for control was less for control than to know where I was and how I was doing.  I was always at his mercy the entire swim, and I knew that.

It took over 3 hours to get back to Dover.  During that time almost everyone took a nap except me.  I was too tired to sleep.  Also, with all the liquids I had consumed, there were frequent stops to the head.  I never felt sick, however.  We came into Dover Harbour at around 4:30 AM, some 16 hours after we left.  The scene was little different except that it was night.  The seagulls were just waking up and screeching.  The water lapped around the docks.  It was just becoming light.  However, we had no transportation.  Looking back it is almost like Cesar in a triumphal parade.  I felt great elation, success and pride, and yet, like the slave whispering in Cesar’s ear, there is humility.  We all had to walk back to the Victoria Guest House.  There were no streamers, flags or marching bands, except in my head.

We climbed the stairs and went to sleep.  I arose in time to empty my bladder, have a breakfast and then went down to the beach to bask in the glow of being a Successful Channel Swimmer.  I went down with Anne Cleveland and we both went swimming.  This was her second day back from success and it was my first.  I didn’t swim much, about 1,000 meters, I was sore in the left trapezium and the right shoulder, but it helped loosen up the body.

After a lunch and a trip to the Internet café to write to Trina, Mike and I went back to the Victoria Guest House.  We both went up stairs for a nap.  I slept for 4 or 5 hours, mostly in one position, on my back.  Mike slept a bit and then went to the Castle.  I slept like the dead, as I didn’t hear him leave or come back.

We had dinner at the White Horse and I was able to write my name and time on the wall

What did this swim and this trip mean to me?

• It was completing a life-long dream.

• It was training fully for an event and completing it in style

• It was overcoming early problems, staying within myself, and having faith.

• It was having confidence in my capabilities that I could the dream, visualize the dream and then complete the dream

• It was knowing that I was raising money for awareness of Epilepsy for my daughter

• It was finally finding the inner peace I had been searching for in my swimming since sophomore year in college

Looking back now, the fires that drove me are not extinguished or banked.  I still want to swim, but if I don’t want to swim today, I do not have to.  I have always swum because I love to swim.  That has not changed.

I have always reflected on what it is like to be content.  My life is far from perfect.   I have difficulties with our daughters that will not be overcome in days, weeks or months but may take years. ; Marriage is a partnership that constantly needs tending, and this is a good thing.  But the lack of confidence in myself is over.  I had a rough two to three years where my confidence in my abilities was questioned, even by me.  I no longer feel that way:

• I am good at real estate knowledge management.

• I am a good, world-class distance swimmer

• I am a concerned citizen of the world

If I am to be remembered, it is, I hope, to be remembered as someone who is at peace with himself, even when beset by troubles, as I am confident that my God is watching over my family, my friends, and me all the time.

The English Channel Challenge was also the challenge of finding my inner peace.  In that way, I have become successful as well.