After all that waiting, I finally got the chance to swim, and made it across in a time of 16 hours and 9 minutes.
I'm going to write it up properly over the next couple of weeks, but have been in a bit of a befuddled daze since finishing and need a bit of time to digest it all first. Plus, I'm about to fly off to Sydney, and have a packed few days immediately after I arrive, so need to focus on that for now. But for now, I will just say that it was an extraordinary, brutal, intoxicating, frustrating, exciting, painful, exhilerating, exhausting day that I will never forget.
Thank you so much for all the e-mails, texts and tweets of support - it made a huge difference. And apologies to all those who we inadvertently kept in suspense by not sending the final tweet to say we'd made it!
Much more later...and in the mean time, I'm going to get back to the pressing business of eating and sleeping a lot.
Hey Karen, I look forward to reading some of the story, when you get a chance. (It took 2 weeks to write my first draft). Talk about training, fears, hopes, expectations, what helped, what didn't, where it was hard, and where it was harder, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think there's too much mystique about the Channel. It bloody tough, brutal and unforgiving, and harder than a lot of people who know nothing about it say. So I think we should try to capture as much of the relevant detail as possible.
Dear Karen, Congratualations again!!! What a tremendous feat, not only for swimming it but for putting up with all the delay and frustration in the long wait and then having to suddenly find the strength and willpower to go ahead with almost no notice. It will be interesting to learn what part of the experience was hardest - the swim itself or the wait. And now that you've swum it once, do you think you'll do it again?! And will you have a swim in Sydney while you're there? It's really a lovely place to swim... Bon voyage, Rebecca
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Congratulations - that's a real achievement. And, hooray for the eating and sleeping. Looking forward to reading your write-up. All the best. Eve P.
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