21 July 2014 – Happy Monday my Beautiful Bolds!

21 July 2014 – Happy Monday my Beautiful Bolds!

Stat – 81+ swimmers, 0 newbies, 16.7 degs C

I’ve been asked to write a few words about my attempt this month to swim the English Channel.

I did it, and it took me 15 hours 20 mins which was maybe 3 hours longer than I expected it would.

I’ve already written quite a bit about the swim and if you’re interested in the detail I’d love to be your Facebook friend, I’m easy to find there’s only one Miles Tollan in the whole wide world. In summary: I started at 1.30am in flat calm water, shivered my boobies off until the sun rose at 4.15, got swept by the tide into the path of the Dover-Calais ferries, and then faced a stiff headwind for 6 hours that really slowed me down. By the time I was supposed to be having my champagne and flirting on a French beach I was in fact still 3kms offshore.

[note – the time of the tracker shots is Sydney time on the day of my swim]

Unfortunately (ha! that’s an understatement) the tide changes direction every 6 hours so if you’re not done in 12 you have to finish with the tide pushing you back out to sea. Let me explain this: if you can get across in 12 hours you hit the shore before the tide turns against you and all you have to contend with is a 12-hour swim. But if you get held up like I was and you miss the 12-hour target, you find yourself battling against a changing tide that wants to send you back where you came from.

Imagine going for a swim after work at Manly in 16-degree water, and then thinking “Hey, I’m here I might as well swim all night and join the 7am crowd”, and then when they show up you’ve still got three hours trying to swim out through the biggest surf break you’ve ever seen.

And there wasn’t even any champagne on the beach, or hot French honeys for that matter. Not that I’d have noticed because I was a little delirious apparently.

So instead of talking about the swim I think I’ll talk about the support I had instead. Before I attempted the Channel the one question I always got asked was ‘Why?’ Afterwards it was ‘How?’ If you really want to do something as dumb as this, here’s how.

Sleep with someone who supports your vision.

I mean truly support, not just someone who thinks it’s a cool idea and wishes you the best. You need someone like my lovely wife Amy who never once said “come back to bed you can always swim tomorrow”, or the worst “you’re not off swimming again are you?” Amy already shoulders more than her fair of parenting, yet when I started training seriously I told her “honey for the next 12 months it’s basically down to you.” And I mean sleep. You need a good sleeper, it’s no use having a frisky one who wants to pounce on your elite athletic body in the early hours and sap your energy.

Choose as boat support someone you’d trust with your life.

Your handler is like a hedgehog: she does just one thing but blimey does she do it well. Every 30 mins she fills a water bottle with 300ml of energy drink, ties it to a rope and throws it at your head. Alison Annett (yes, Alex Prendergast’s squeeze) was mine.

What makes Ali special is that in that brief exchange every half hour she kept my head straight. I only stopped for 10 seconds each feed and in that time she would smile, show that she knew I was in pain, give me important information, and give me enough spirit to get to the next feed stop. Absolutely unflappable, she just exuded calm. While everyone around her was barking orders, checking the sonar, pressing stop-watches, rummaging through kit-bags, and spewing over the side, Ali would just sit there on the gunwale, nibbling a biscuit and smiling at me. I’d think “Well she doesn’t seem too bothered about the force 4 sea or that supertanker, so neither am I.

” Her methods may be unconventional, like when she appeared with a pair of Minnie Mouse ears, 0r, when she said she’d show me her cleavage if I increased my stroke rate.  Obviously it helps to have someone who understands what makes you tick.

I also had on board Jason my best man and best friend, with whom I’ve shared basically everything apart from my virginity.

He’s the guy you want on board if there’s a risk of sea monsters or pirates, or to sing a Beatles ballad  or play I-Spy in a completely empty sea (“It’s a ferry Jason: F for effing ferry”).

Join a team. There were four solo swimmers in my camp, and we hijacked a holiday camp outside Dover. Between us we had assembled 15 friends and family from all corners and we made a very happy party. Incredible support before, during and after (lots of tears) the swim.

Personally I got tremendous support from the B&B swimmers who have constantly asked me about my preparation, which really helped with my motivation. Thank you B&B you’ve been wonderful and if I hadn’t joined you I’d never have done this thing.

Do it for charity. Yes there’s the extra pressure that if you don’t complete the swim all those orphans / maltreated pets / political prisoners will be annoyed with you, but truly that’s only pressure of your own making. Knowing you’re doing it for a cause that’s important to you really helps when it gets tough. It’s also a good idea to let everyone track you on the net in real time. It’s a bit like you’re doing the swim in the nude: when it’s going well you feel like a superhero and you want to smile for the camera; when you’re struggling and it looks like you’re swimming doggy-paddle you think “Heck this is embarrassing I’d better finish or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

My charity, which so many of you have generously supported, is Giant Steps the school for autistic kids in Sydney. You can donate online or like little Sarah Abbott today, in a fistful of dirty cash.

http://www.giantsteps.net.au/english-channel-solo-swim

Do the hard yards. It takes 35km a week for a year, swimming six days a week. If I’d known how hard it would be, I’d have done more, certainly the longer 4-6 hour swims at the weekend. It’s ok to ‘listen to your body’ when you can’t face training one morning, but if you do that more than one day a fortnight you’ve picked the wrong challenge.

Finish the swim before you get in the water. You can’t trust your own judgement once you’ve started.

Back with my adorable family at last!

Miles xxx