It was really about New Year’s Day 2015 when I started to think seriously about swimming the Channel. I’m not sure why the idea planted itself in my head– or maybe I should say, I’m not sure why the idea decided to stick after years of it being a fleeting thought– but for some reason it did.
At that point I started to doing all the usual internet research. The whole thing seemed vaguely doable, but the details were hard to corral. It’s not at all like a road race where there’s a specific date and time for the event, one organizing body and one website where you can get all the information. It was all one big melange of boat pilots, governing associations, tide charts and variations on how to pronounce, “Cap Gris Nez”.
Regardless of all that though, I needed to find out one thing– do I have the swimming chops to pull this off? I swam competitively growing up, so I’m pretty comfortable in the water and thankfully had great coaches along the way who drilled into me a fairly efficient stroke. For distance events, I’ve clawed my way through 19 marathons, four Ironman triathlons, the 200+ mile Reach the Beach Relay as part of a 4-man team and one year I even got snookered into doing a 3-mile pond swim when I wasn’t exactly in 3-mile pond swim shape.
By the way– this is the point where I inject the self-effacing disclaimer about referencing my amateur athletic resume. I really can’t stand when other people do it, and I only mention it here as context to my thought process. In fact, it’s always hilarious to me when I’m at a party and start talking to another runner or triathlete and the subtle one-upmanship begins…
“Oh, you did that 10k? Yeah, I did that one year getting ready for Boston.”
“Mmm, I ran Boston and bunch of times too, but then I really got bitten by the triathlon bug.”
“I know, isn’t it great? I’m training for Lake Placid this year. Hope it isn’t the wash out that Coeur d’Alene was last year.”
“Were you there? I can’t believe I missed you! We had such a good time and I just missed a Kona spot in the roll down.”
Excruciating.
So anyway, the point is, I have a swimming background and I’ve done a fair number of distance events, but I’ve never done a swim of this magnitude. As such, I wanted to test two things: 1. Could I get back into swimming shape? 2. Exactly what does 60-degree water feel like?
Over the summer of 2015, I went from zero– and I mean ZERO– time in the water to a 5,000 yd. workout in about two weeks. Two weeks after that, I swam for two straight hours in the pool and felt remarkably fresh afterward. Again, this is not meant as a humblebrag, just a chronicle. The point here is that this experiment left me feeling confident that I could ramp quickly into the many months it would take to prepare.
I also started checking the water temperature at the beach. Fortunately, living in a coastal town we have access to a number of town beaches, and taking the kids there is part of our summer routine on the weekend. Incredibly, 60-degrees is not that cold…for a while, anyway. It’s definitely that cold-at-first, don’t-want-to-dip-below-the-Mendoza-line cold, but you warm right up, especially if you’re moving around. So I was able to check that box too, but of course it remains unclear what being in that temp feels like for 12-16 hours.
The first real test will be in June, when I do my six-hour qualifying swim (required to be done in open water, with temps less than 60-degrees). By then the water should be as warm as legally allowed, and I’ll hopefully have a solid five months of training under my belt.