So Full of Joy!

I am feeling so full of joy. This has been such an amazing journey. I can't explain why I want to swim the English Channel, but I am so happy that I decided to give it a go. I am in the happy eleventh hour with only a week to go. There is literally nothing left that I can do that would help me get across now. I just have to stay sane, healthy and injury free. I am officially tapering. I swim between one and two hours each day (ok sometimes three but only if I want to) and I swim for pleasure! I am walking on air. I hope I can remember this feeling when I am gutting it out after ten hours. I have a long list of people to think about while I swim. That will help. I have so many people to thank. The love and support throughout this entire process has been unbelievable. It's been fun sharing my adventure with everyone. I think some people have their doubts, but hell, so do I. What sane person wouldn't. But most people say that they see how happy I am in the water, and that they think I'll press on. Left arm, right arm, repeat 'till done. And with Jackie Cobell on my boat, I won't be allowed to get out before 28 hours... so I think I'll make it.
There's a going away party Friday night at the club, and then it's time to pack and fly!
I have a date to meet Robert, Hannah, and John Saturday morning in Dover Harbor for my first swim in England and then it's just waiting for the call!
Think good thoughts for "warm water, calm seas". My window opens August 7-12 and my pilot is Stuart Gleeson. There has been a lot of success this week in the channel. I hope that the channel gods keep smiling on the swimmers to come.

Less Than Two Weeks To Go

I am back in my happy place. I am so excited about my adventure. I saw JP at the club and gave him a t-shirt and a bracelet. As my "coach" I want him to be sending me good vibes while I swim. Then my friend Maggie took pictures for me so I might have something to put on my blog (thank you). Then I got to see the SERC Sea Nymphs after their triumphant return from an English Channel Relay swim. They have been a wealth of encouragement, information, and enthusiasm. They had such a great experience. I hope mine is as good. I saw John who is back from a successful Gibraltar Straits swim and pumping me up with talk of following my path and making his own bid for the channel next. Then I got to "coach" for Leslie and Swim-Art. It was three hours of shared enthusiasm for open water swimming. It was so great to see so many people new to the sport having such a great time in the bay. I loved it. I fed off of their fun. Then today I went for a swim with a bunch of folks, especially Dan who is training for Tahoe in three weeks. After two hours (three outside/outsides, a Fort Mason, and a cove) we went in and he said thanks for a lovely birthday swim. Icing on the cake! I had such a great day.

Everything is falling into place. I have been training since January, I have been waiting for ever, and now it's really going to happen. The club is hosting a Happy Hour send off party on Friday evening, and then a week from Wednesday I get to go go go!

Catalina Lessons

The panic was complete. My stomach was clutched with cramps. I hadn't succumbed to the vomiting yet, but I knew it was coming. The almost three hour boat ride from San Pedro to Catalina had almost been fun. But arriving in the pitch dark, it was now 11:30 pm, and knowing that Karen was about to try to swim all the way back to the mainland, was daunting, ok, terrifying. I was scared, what must she be feeling? We had motored out for almost three hours at a good clip, and now we would be heading back at swimmer speed, under two nautical miles an hour, a slow painful roil for those of us on the boat, and a long hard slog for Karen in the water. The reality of what she was about to do was sinking in. And I was thinking about doing this crazy stunt too? What kind of person would try such a thing? In the dark? I was freaked! We dropped anchor so that Karen could get ready to swim. Around us in the dark we could see and hear seals going after flying fish. It was all a bit too "circle of life" for me. I can only imagine how Karen felt. She was friendly, but quiet. I helped her put sunscreen everywhere, and Jen greased up the bits that chafe. And before I knew it she was standing at the railing, and after a moment or two of god only knows what sort of contemplation, she jumped in and swam to shore. I didn't learn until she finished that she had been holding on by a thread to the contents of her stomach. She was seasick and vomiting for the first three hours of the swim. I lasted until Karen's first feeding, sitting outside the cabin with a glow stick around my neck watching her swim. The rolling was beyond description. I had taken Bonine, but it was a losing battle. Just after her first feed, and everyone's encouragement, I went below to see if lying down might somehow be better. Before I could even get to the bunk I had to fly out to the stern barely making it to the railing before the projectile vomiting began. I threw up for what seemed like an hour, but was more likely five minutes. And then I went below and curled up in the fetal position and passed out. I don't know if it was the fear or the Bonine, but I was unconscious for the next three hours. I had no control over my own body. I was either throwing up or a sleep. Every three hours I seemed to be able to ask how things were going, but I was not very helpful. I think I cheered, or fed Karen three times. During the entire 14 hours? So embarrassing. But even after the sun came up I was unable to stay awake. As we neared the mainland, the people who had actually crewed for Karen, and helped her achieve her goal readied to swim in the last 500 yards. They kindly offered to let me join in the fun. Once I hit the water, I remembered what this was all about. It wasn't about me learning about channel swimming, it wasn't about being useful, and helpful, it was about swimming. And swimming in the ocean. And how much we love swimming in the ocean. The water was beautiful, the sun was out, and Karen had swum the Catalina Channel. It was a powerful moment. She was amazing! She battled sickness, dark, fear of marine life, and time. And she made it!!! (www.thelongswim.blogspot.com) It was very moving. All the bad stuff melted away in the water. Maybe not all, I am still very humbled by what she accomplished, and terrified of what I am about to do, but I am not curled up in the fetal position asleep. I am swimming, although much reduced since I am officially tapering, and packing and planning for my big adventure.

Way to go Karen, I am in awe of you, and so proud to have been a witness to your accomplishment. I hope I can live up to your example.

So Many Good Things

So many good things keep happening to me. Last week I was freaking out. So much so that I couldn't write. Everything was worrying me. Which suit to wear, should I take seas sickness medicine, what about food for the people on the boat, I'm going to have my period during my window (bummer), should I use channel grease or bag balm, sunscreen, how do I get solid food, why do the last two km take longer than the first five and on and on and on. My friend Steffan said that this is the time when the romantic notion of swimming the channel gets run over by the enormous reality of the challenge ahead. Well I was getting a splitting headache with too big a dose of reality.
But that has all changed.
So many good things keep happening to make my channel swim feel like a group effort.
Cathy gave me a yellow silicone South End swim cap.
Katrina loaned me a new two piece suit with South End stitched on the butt (and it fits)!
Mark loaned me his spot tracker so that everyone can follow me across the channel.
Joe asked to swim for three hours Wednesday morning to help him train for his Tahoe event, as did Danielle for this Saturday and Suzie and JP plan to jump in too. Fast Eddie wrote my name on the Channel plaque (in sharpie - I hope it comes off) just to make me laugh. My cup runneth over with good feelings and encouragement. I am feeling so much support from every corner.
I am going to crew for Karen from England on her Catalina Channel swim, just think what an invaluable experience that will be. I will see first hand just what a channel swim is like.
It might freak me out, but I think it's worth the chance to learn what goes into one of these events before I try to host my own.
Suzie reported to the chat line that "Summer had reached SF, the water hit 60 degrees." Well it left the very next day. Tonight the water was 57 again. Who cares, I love the cold water! It's better for my sore shoulders, right? My right shoulder is sore. I go to the doctor Thursday for him to take a look (ultrasound). I think he will recommend corizone, and I will probably agree to it just before I travel. You have to take four or five days off from swimming after the shot, so I need to wait until the last minute...
I have this funny feeling that my channel experience is coming to an end. It's bitter sweet. I have been thinking of little else for the past nine months, and now there are only three weeks left of swimming, then about a week of waiting, and then one really tough day of swimming!
Wow, then what? Well, I think all of the great things that have been happening this week will come back to me while I am swimming and they will help me get through the tough parts. Eddie, writing on the plaque, Mark telling me the sweetest parts of his channel swim, JP telling me not to do a 6/7 back to back that I had done enough and a 4/5 would be fine (oh joy) and Suzie asking me to help get her out of the house before 7:00 am and Kristine getting me to kayak for her in Lake Del Valle. All of this is karma and good feelings in the bank for the dark times in the cold water. And Jonathan's story of him making it even though his rotator cuff was shot, and Katrina lending me her suit, it's like they'll be there with me. And Steffan wants to use my bubble cap after I christen it. This all feels good, and lucky and I know I will make it.
Stick with me, I have a spot tracker to follow now, thanks Mark!

Does Eight Hours in Fresh Water still count?

Fourth of July weekend, Lake Winnepesaukee New Hampshire, I swam for eight hours escorted by my faithful husband and joined for two important hours by my sister Krysia. We got a late start, about 4:30 am, but the sun never really came out luckily. I swam from Kenniston Island to Parker Island, back to shore and down to Goodhue and Hawkins Navy Yard to get some gas, then back across the broads to Kenniston so Jorge could have a break and grab some food. While he was on land I kept swimming around Kenniston, then he got back in the boat and my sister Krysia and I swam across to Barndoor Island, around it, and Little Barndoor, and back home. This wasn't quite eight hours so I went around Kenniston one more time for a total of 8:05. I don't know how far I went because my phone GPS crapped out because I hadn't charged it properly. The water was about 66-68 degrees, there were about two hours of the eight that I would consider rough swimming, waves, wind and white caps around the backside of Barndoor and in the Broads, but all in all a great swim. I can't believe how well Jorge did. He just slogged it out. I can't imagine what he was thinking, but he probably thought the same thing about me. I counted to 100 a lot.