going the extra mile

6 months ago my wonderful water loving sister sent me a link for the 2Swim4Life event at Guildford Lido, "fancy this John?" It looked very simple- just swim a mile an hour, get out, then swim another an hour after you began the last one. For 24 hours... ahem... Heated outdoor pool- England, April- how hard could it be?

Easy for Ruth too, since she lives in Australia.

I decided it wasn't in line with my goals, not much of a challenge, one mile per hour. And such warm water! I put it out of my mind and didn't think about it for 4 months. I noticed on 'Did You Swim Today?', (a Facebook swimming group page) that several of my friends and/ or acquaintances were going to attend.

Hard to look handsome while snuffling half a pool full of water

On DYST you either put a nice picture of some water and a short description of what you did there, or you put a huge number of yards or metres followed by a list such as this:
345,924 lcm
5,000m warm up
75x 250m sprints on 1:24,
20x 1,000m pulls on 12 mins
(change goggles and hat)
500x 100m backstroke on 43 with jumbo hand paddles
60x200 breast stroke on 2:45
interspersed with 90x 100m hypoxic with boogie board and single flipper
57 x 200m lashed to a dolphin kicking with left leg
60 x 50m underwater fly legs doggy paddle arms (with pull buoy)
20,000m relaxed and stretched out swim down
brings the total for the week to 15 light years, 4 down on last year's total :-(

Followed perhaps by a little grumble about pool etiquette and a statement like this:

WHEN WILL OTHER POOL USERS LEARN THAT IT IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE CONCERNED IF THEY JUST *SPEED UP/ *SLOW DOWN/ *CHANGE LANE/ *STAY OUT OF MY WAY?(*delete as applicable)

Please excuse my digression- getting right back to the point now.

For some reason at this point I thought, "this sounds perfect for me... I am already swimming a mile (albeit once a day)... I have several towels... I can get out of a pool, I can put warm clothes on, I am certainly capable of putting on a pair of trunks and getting back in a pool again... I like eating and drinking stuff after swims, this is right up my street"... I'm not sure what gets into me at times. This was five or six weeks before the event.

The Paul Smith go faster hat took 5minutes off a mile

For the next few weeks I tried to swim as much as possible outdoors- temperatures were still around the 4 to 5C in the lido, so I couldn't swim much over a mile at a time (the best I managed was 2,408m at 5C.

I tried a pool crawl. On Good Friday, 1,700m in Parliament Hill Lido, 2.7C, 1,600m, London Fields Lido (50m, 27C), another 1,700m at PHL, 4C, a mile at Kentish town Baths (30m, 29C. This was very good training for Guildford. Tired that night.

I tried the old in, out, in, out, shake it all about at Chesham outdoor pool, (25m, 29C). First time I did three miles, my shoulder really hurt, needed a couple of days to recover. A week later i did 6 separate miles, my shoulder lasted until half way through the 5th mile. I was totally exhausted.

With a week and a half left until Guildford I tried to get a couple of miles in each day, then for the last 3 days, with the an ill-defined dread rising in me, did a mile or less a day. Three days before the swim my support bailed out and left me with a perfect excuse to quit before it got too humiliating and painful.

Luckily the ever enthusiastic Alexia, my 9pm to 9 am support wouldn't let me off the hook, put the call out for support during the day. My top swimming buddy Jeremy stepped in heroically to save the day, was outside my house at 6.30 cajoling me with his unique (and counter intuitive) take on the motivational pep talk.

We got to Guildford, struggled with my monstrous tent, registered. A lovely moment, Paul Smith presented me with the new brightly coloured harlequin swim hat I forgot he had promised me on DYST when I broke my lucky hat completing my official ice mile. There was a condition attached- that I promise I would or would not go for the Ice 10K, I forget which.

Before I knew it, it was 9am and I was in the water. After 75m I had largely made up my mind that I had forgotten how to swim and breathe and that I was going to get out as soon as I got to the end. I considered briefly how I was going to explain this to Jez, who had woken up at 5.30 that morning, taken time off work at the last minute, driven me down and helped pitch my tent. I decided to at least finish the first mile.

Felt in pretty good shape as I clambered out. 30 minutesish, quicker than normal. The thought crossed my mind that I had overturned my game plan of not rushing, conserving energy. Mile two in my opinion was my best mile. Felt smooth and easy, similar time.

Mile 3. Goggle trouble. Some would say it is a trap for young players to get a pair the day before a swim. They may have a point. Stop, start, steam up, rinse, leak, gasp. Felt awful after that mile- only my Paul Smith go faster hat got me through. The doubts I'd had about whether I would complete the swim were supplanted by a utter certainty that I would not.

At this stage the cold could do its worst for all i cared

The next two miles passed uneventfully. Tiredness and stiffness was settling in. Mile 4 proved that it could get easier, it wasn't all one way traffic. At the end of the sixth mile I thought that I was done, my arms were so sore. Doughty Kate Robarts gave me some stretches and the aches eased.

A quarter of the way in and 2Swim4Life had already turned from a challenge to an ordeal. As hard as the physical part is, the true test of this event is mental and emotional. Over the next four hours as I swam, stretched, ran, changed, drank, ate, warmed up , cooled down, got into cold wet trunks,  I saw a tortured look in the hollowed out eyes of solo swimmers.

Swim buddies are so important not just because they look after the physical requirements of the swimmer, but because they supply the very basic human need for love or comfort.

Miles 8 and 9 I got a second wind and repaid the ex squaddie, my buddy from Bolton who had dragged me through some of my toughest miles earlier by dragging him through a couple. My back started to feel bad- I got out thinking if it gets much worse I will have to quit.

My tenth mile was only a few minutes longer than my first. I took it easy but when I got out at the end I knew it was over for me.

It gladdens my heart and brings a smile to my lips and a tear to my eye when I think of the laughs, kind words, hot drinks, tips, claps, go faster swim hat and the care Tom, Lala, Helen, Paul, Bryn, Kate, Debbie and Jez gave me.

Alexia and John drove down just to pick me up, Russian Andrew turned up unexpectedly from PHL. All my buddies, the guys I swam with, everyone who exchanged a knowing look or a wry smile with me as our paths crossed remind me of who I am.

As I walked away, left the good people to their insane nocturnal splash, count or huddle, the memory of the discomfort faded fast and I resolved to come back in two years and conquer... myself.