We Did It - Channel Swim Complete!

The phone rang on Saturday afternoon at around 4pm. It was Frosty saying that he had just heard from Andy King (our boat pilot) to confirm that we were on for a swim on Sunday morning and to be at Dover harbour for 3am.

Right then, off home to pack, grab some dinner and try and catch a few hours sleep as we'd be leaving Marlow at midnight to get to Dover on time. After a few hours kip and double checking the kit we met at the Marlow Club for the big off. You could tell that we were all excited and a bit nervous and after a month of waiting for the date and nearly six months of training the big day had finally arrived.


We got to Dover on time, met Andy, got all our kit on the boat and set off from a cold and windy harbour at 3:30am to Samphire Hoe beach our starting point.

Joining us on the boat were: Jay, my wife; Lisa, Jezz's wife; Caroline, Frosty's girlfriend; Steve, from the Channel Swimming Association and the Skipper's first mate (are they still called that these days??) Gary.


We got to the beach at around 3:45am and got Frosty ready for his first stint in the pitch black darkness. Andy wanted three glow sticks, one on the head and two on the trunks so that the swimmer was visible to all. Our night swim experience came in good use and we sorted this all out with the minimum of fuss. Frosty then swam to shore via guidance from a torch from the boat and then upon hearing the foghorn started swimming towards us. The countdown had started. We were off. There were around four other boats joining us at this point and immediately the competitive juices started flowing as talk began of beating them across. Great stuff!!

I should mention at this point that we had set ourselves the task of hitting a time of sub 10 hours. This is a fantastic time for channel swimmers (including relay swims) and would mean that we would have to swim at around 4kms/hour for the duration whilst battling the cold, waves, jellyfish, tankers and whatever else The Channel could throw at us. Whilst this was a tough ask, we trained hard so that we could push at this speed all the way through. When we first set off we told Andy (Boat Skipper) and Steve (Channel Swimming Association) of our target and you could tell by their faces that they were thinking, yes whatever boys, let's just get you there and seemed doubtful that we would achieve our target.

Frosty soon came up to the boat and followed the advice of Steve "Just follow the boat" and we started heading out into the Channel. We had agreed to signal the swimmer in the water every 15 minutes so that they knew where they were in the hour and then five minute countdowns in the last 15 minutes.


One thing that we had not realised was that we would have to stick to our swimmer order throughout the swim and that each swimmer would have to complete an hour before handing over to the next. We thought that we could mix it up if one swimmer was suffering and do shorter stints which was not the case at all. We quickly realised that if one swimmer failed through cramp/seasickness etc then the whole relay team would fail. This put a bit more pressure on each of us as individuals as you obviously would not want to let down the team after all the work that had gone in.

Frosty produced a steady swim in the dark to get us going and next up was Heath the South African in the team. We readied Heath, the same as Frosty for the changeover. As soon as the hour was up Steve (Channel Swim Association) would tell the next swimmer to get in and then the new swimmer would tread water whilst the old swimmer would go to the back of the boat. As soon as old swimmer was out, new swimmer would be given the go ahead to get back on with it. Vitally important to do it this way in the dark due to the danger of losing someone.

The first changeover produced one of the most dramatic and comical moments of the entire swim. It was still pitch black when Heath jumped in and while Frosty was getting we think Heath went of a fraction early what with all the adrenaline in his system. We then watched in horror as Heath left the side of the boat (ignoring Steve's advice) and then started swimming in a big arc and heading back towards Dover! Andy started blaring the ships horn to get Heath's attention but there was no stopping him. We had to turn the boat around and get him and shepherd him back on course. It was quite scary how quickly he got away from the boat and you can see how people can become lost at sea. Talking to Heath after the swim he thought he was doing a great job as he had "pulled away" from the pilot boat whilst setting a new course backwards much to everyone's amusement.



Heath put in a solid leg and next up was me for the sunrise stint. I started getting ready about 15 minutes before, checking kit, then checking again etc. I got my glowsticks sorted, put a bit of vaseline on and was pretty much ready to go. Steve was giving us a countdown every few minutes so we knew how much time we would have before stripping down to our swimmers. For me the time had come to show off the worst pink speedos I could find (as promised) much to the horror of all aboard the boat.

I felt pretty nervous in the last few minutes and went quite quiet before I was due to get in. Check out the video...







It wasn't too nice waiting in the water for Heath to get out, I'd have rather just got cracking on and got warm but I didn't really want to make the same navigational error that a certain South African did so baded my time until I got given the all clear. Soon enough I was good to go and was finally swimming the Channel. The temperature felt good (around 17/18), definitely warmer than the river we had been training in and the water was so salty it was disgusting. One of my first thoughts was that I was feeling strong and that we had prepared really well for this as a team which felt great.


The first 15 minutes went pretty quickly as I received the signal (on a white board) and from here I really started to push the pace as I went through a mini session that I had devised in my head based on arm strokes. These sessions took me through to the last 15 minutes and consisted of periods where I would swim hard then at a steadier pace to catch my breath. When I went off swimming fast for my first set I think I took the skipper by surprise as I surged ahead of the boat and started to do a bit of a Heath manoeuvre. The skipper blew his horn, I turned back in and all was well.


As I swum on the sky became lighter and everytime I surged ahead of the boat I could see the sun rising slowly to my left which was an amazing sight and experience. I was soon on the last 15 then ten minutes and pushing as hard as I could at this stage ready to get out. It is a great feeling to be given the 5 minute and then 2 minute warning and see the next swimmer stripping off as you know that you are almost done. I could see Jezz coming to the side and as soon as he hopped in I raced to the back of the boat to get out so Jezz could start. I'd taking us to just outside the first shipping lane so it was Jezz's job to guide us through.


I was pretty cold so got dry as soon as possible and into warm dry clothes with a cup of soup to also warm me up from the inside. It took a good hour to get warm before I felt normal again but the sun was coming up and the air temp was also rising making it a lot more comfortable.


Jezz was swimming and the support crew came up with novelty ways to keep the swimmer amused (as it does get a bit boring) by devising dances at the side of the boat. I think the full repertoire was YMCA, Chicken Dance, Diver Dance, Walk Like an Egyptian and the Macarena. Only knows what Steve thought of all this and I did have a chuckle when I saw one of his notes in his log which went something along the lines of:


"9.30am Jezz swimming - 74 strokes per minute.
Air Temp 14 degrees. Sea Temp 18 degrees.
Girls giving Jezz Y.M.C.A dance."

Jezz put in a storming swim and we made good headway through the first lane. Fortunately there wasn't too much traffic and we made good progress along the lane. Each lane is 4 miles wide so a bit different to crossing the motorway!!
It was then back round again to Frosty who could now swim in daylight for the first time. It was obvious this time that everybody looked a lot more comfortable during their second stints and everybody seemed to be putting the hammer down and really pushing the pace.

After the first few hours I think there was some doubt about whether we were close to achieving our target but at around the half way mark, in between the shipping lanes, it was looking like we may just hit our goal of a sub 10 hour swim. Andy was saying that other boats were catching us as the banter started was flying between different skippers across the radios each vying to have the fastest team for that day. I'm pretty sure that they weren't catching and that this was Andy's way of geeing us up to swim faster. To be honest the fact that we were in with a shout of doing a sub 10 hour swim was enough for me. I was desperate to achieve this target and I didn't need any more pumping up by the time I got in for my second stint.

I pushed from a lot earlier on this second stint and did the following set:

50(strokes) hard 50 steady x 5

60 hard 40 steady x4

70 hard 30 steady x 3

80 hard 20 steady x 2

90 hard 10 steady x 2

100 hard 50 steady x 6

110 hard 50 steady

120 hard 50 steady

130 hard 50 steady

etc up to 200 hard then stuck here for the rest of the hour.

I was going pretty hard throughout and was thankful to receive my half hourly dance and then be counted down from 10 minutes. I didn't notice any ships during my stint, you really do have your head down and just go for it! I did seem to swim through a few patches of seaweed which was a little unnerving but was not going to slow me down!

I knew that this would probably be my final stint so pushed hard right to the end until Jezz jumped in next to me. Time to get out sharpish and let Jezz get on.

Jezz produced another fantastic swim and by this point the support from the side was pretty much constant for the swimmer as we were focused on our time now that we knew that we had a chance. France was now in sight and the trips into the skippers wheelhouse were becoming more frequent as we checked on the distance left to go. By now we had left all the other relay teams behind and no one was in sight any more. Both Andy and Steve seemed keen for us to hit our time and were encouraging us as far as possible to ensure that we didn't slack off at any stage.

Pete was next for his third swim and was pushed on by the support throughout his swim. Pete took us to the point where the beach was now in sight and the responsibility fell in Heath to bring us home within our goal.

We devised a special signal to give to Heath to tell that the Sub 10 swim was "on" and that we would give the signal when he needed to push like mad. At about 10 minutes out from land we all gave Heath the signal (arms crossed in an X fashion) and he put his head down and pushed for the rocks under the lighthouse at Cap Gris Nez.

Our boat could not go right into land with Heath so Gary (First Mate) took out the zodiac to guide Heath in. There was a bit of a worrying moment when Heath took a lungful of water from the Zodiac and stopped to gather himself before swimming to the rocks. It was a great sight to watch Heath climb aboard the rocks in France and stop the clock at 9 hours and 29 minutes. Check out the video of Heath finishing...

Heath came back to join the jubilant team in the boat and we cracked open a bottle of champagne and a few beers to celebrate our achievement. We cruised back went to find another team who were still battling away. We circled the swimmer and boat and gave them encouragement for the final phase before we went back to the white cliffs of Dover.

We had completed the Channel in under ten hours and finished in a time of 9 hours 29 minutes. To put this time into perspective there has only been one faster time than us since 2006!

We have since found out that if no one beats our time for 2009 we may be awarded a prize for the fastest channel crossing of the year which would be a great achievement by four blokes who hadn't really done open water swimming before.

It was quite sad in some respects finishing the swim as it really has been a great experience all round. I couldn't have picked three better guys to be part of a team with and would really like to thank them all for making it such a special achievement.

I'd also like to thank all our support crew (my wife Jay in particular), Andy King the captain and Gary first mate as well as Steve from the Channel Swimming Association. I should also say an additional thank you to all the people that have sponsored me, taken the time to read this blog with my ramblings and showed constant support. I'll post some more pictures and stories about the swim and there will no doubt be another big adventure to tell you all about in months to come.

Until then I'll leave you with one final shot with the pink speedos in all their glory...

Any further donations would be welcome here...

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Good News - Sounds Like Saturday!!

Great news all, it looks like we will be ready for the big off on Saturday morning. As long as the weather holds we are now next in the queue.

It feels quite unreal and I am starting to get excited again.

We have to been down in Dover to start at around 4 in the morning so will be swimming in the dark to start with which will be ace. We have a pretty good tide and the BBC says that the wind will be 2mph which should make it a breeze (geddit??).

Hopefully the good weather will mean that it won't be too chilly.

I'm off now to go and buy some last minute food, pack etc (will I remember the pink trunks??) and shall be up early tomorrow for what will hopefully be a final training session in the river. I'll miss it but not the cold!!

Any more donations are gratefully received here...
http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Red Skies In The Morning...

Gorgeous morning today. Air Temp around 11 degrees so fairly chilly and water temp at the start was just above 16 degrees. It was also pretty dark this morning and quite cool to see the sun rise as you are swimming along with all the colours changing along the way.

At the dock today were myself, Heath and Jezz. We decided to do a fairly short swim 40-45 mins as it was pretty cold and we were not feeling particularly 'up for it' at about half six when we started stripping down to our swimmers.

Went up to Marlow weir and back down again. Was swimming at a pretty good pace this morning and sticking to my routine of warm up, 50 hard, 50 easy and increasing the hard strokes by ten every time through until I hit 100. Then I just kept it at 100 hard/50 easy until I hit the turn around point. Was a little ahead of Jezz and Heath by the time we got to the weir but not by more than 20 seconds so we are still pretty even as a group. At the weir, if you go near enough, you can stand up so that you waist is almost out of the water. When I stood up this morning my back spasmed, probably as a result of standing up yesterday for a couple of hours at the rugby, and I needed a minute or so before I was good to continue. I think a preventative massage is in order!!

Going back the back was fine and I swam at a rhythm of 100 hard/50 easy increasing the strokes by 10 until I hit 200 on the hard strokes.

Heath went off like a rocket but on my second set of hard strokes I managed to reel him in and get past. About halfway back I could feel Jezz on my shoulder, first on my right and then my left (this was either Jezz trying a dummy pass or a result of him swimming in zig-zag fashion) trying to get past. At this stage I was now doing fairly long hard stints and I was able to hold him off until the finish. I don't know how hard Jezz was pushing but I was going at a good pace and when Heath finished, who was trying to catch us, he definitely was breathing hard.

All in all, a good short sharp session - in more ways than one - and I feel a lot better for being back in the water. Last week I only did one session as have been suffering from a virus I think I picked up. Just had no energy so felt it best to listen to my body and stay out of the water. Feeling a lot stronger now, so should be good to do a full week of fitness work this week.

I got some fantastic shots on my phone and the old proverb that surrounds a red sky in the morning does not bode well for us. As I seem to recall it is "Red sky at night; shepherds delight, red sky in the morning; shepherds warning." Let's hope that the weather is good, some swimmers can get across at Dover and that it will be our turn shortly.

The latest news is that we are still waiting to go. The weather down in Dover according to our skipper is still not good as at Friday last week and there are still teams ahead of us in the pecking order. We are all frustrated at the constant waiting game and although we could be called any day to go our skipper is not positive about the weather forecast ahead. We have been thinking about contingency plans if we cannot go but I am keen to remain positive. The last date we can swim is 26 October so still a month to go! Until then, we shall be in the river training.

110% on the Donations / Update

Way to go! Hit 110% this week. Thanks for the support. May even hit £2,000 before we get to swim.

Weather still not good in the channel. The team is back together now and we have told our skipper that we are ready to go whenever there is a window so hopefully the fact that we are being flexible will help.

Sea temperature is hovering around 17/18 degrees and we swam in 16.5 degrees this morning so the temperature is still within our range.

Check out the donations...

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

2nd Aquathlon Result

Entered the 2nd aquathlon today (750m swim and then 5k run) and race prep didn't go quite to plan. The last one I did, I arrived around an hour early so thought that this time I could probably leave home a little later and get a few precious extra minutes in bed.

I probably left at the perfect time but what I didn;t bank on was Junction 5 of the M4 being shut so I had to go a lot further to get there adding about 15 mins to my journey. I arrived at 7:45am with registration shutting at 7:30 and the race starting at 8:00 this is not good preparation.

I convinced them to register me, hurriedly stripped off to get a number felt tipped on my arm and sped over to the transition area to bag a spot to put my towel out with shoes, socks and t-shirt for run. By this point everyone had been briefed and was getting into the lake for the swim. I quickly pulled on my wetsuit smeared some vaseline around my neck grabbed my hat and goggles and waded into the water. A lady next to me kept saying that it was freezing and was visibly shivering! It felt like a bath to me what with all the river swimming and the fact I was wearing a wettie so just smiled and told her to get in!

It felt so strange to be wearing a wetsuit again after swimming for so long without one. The water was warm and it was amazing how buoyant I was in the water which is a really odd sensation.

There was quite a sizeable field of around 50-60 competitors and we got away on time at 8. The first 50-100m was carnage as per normal with swimmers swimming on top of each other, fighting for the same bit of water. I headed off to the far right and found some clear water and felt a lot better without the distractions of swimmers all around me. Swim was ok although I didn't really get into it, perhaps as it was so short.

At the half way point you can roughly get your bearing on where you are and was in the top 10 which wasn't so bad. I finished the swim 3rd last time round so wasn't too chuffed although I was trying to save a bit of energy for my run this time.

Finished the swim in around 10th and ran over to my transition spot whilst trying to release the zip of my suit. I struggled with this for a little while but eventually got there and got the suit of smoothly.

There is an order that people do this in properly which is zip down, free chest, arms both out, roll suit down to ankles and then step out of each leg while standing on suit. This seems to work well and I was definitely quicker than last time. Hat and goggles are left on until the last minute and you must look kind of funny with all the running gear on with goggles and hat.

A fair few people don't bother with socks (for speed I guess) but I do and I find that balancing on one leg when you are knackered after the swim is quite a challenge. Nearly fell over but got socks on, slipped trainers on and finished transition with t-shirt in hand. Wrestled it on in under 60 seconds so all good.

Run went ok, just kept it nice and steady for three laps of the lake. Don't normally like running laps but at least you know exactly how far you have to go to the end. Overtook a few people on the run but also lost a few places as well so lost places here. Had to kick for the final 200m or so as I could feel someone catching me. Managed to hold them off so good finish.

Looking at the splits I was 30 seconds slower on the swim/transition and 35 seconds quicker on the run. I guess 5 seconds quicker overall is ok though would have liked a quicker swim! 15th overall.

Back in river on Tuesday, still waiting for our window to open for the channel swim - doesn't sound like it will be before the 24th.

Move Over Darling

Got down to 'our' jetty on Friday morning and to our surprise found a narrow boat parked up in our spot called 'Move Over Darling'. A few of the resident triathletes had got down there before us and we talking in extremely hushed tones so as not to wake the residents of said boat. Enter the channel boys and any talk of a lie in for the resident of the boat soon went out the window.

After a few minutes of commotion and talking suddenly there was movement from the boat. The hatch opened and a lady's head poked out to see what all the fuss was about. This was at precisely the point that Frosty was bending down and applying vaseline to his sides directly in front of the hatch/lady's head. What a way to wake up in the morning!!

After a few hellos and asking what on earth we were up to we stated that we'd be back in about an hour and put in a tea/coffee/bacon sarnie order. The hatch quickly closed and that was the end of the conversation.

Swim was good. Temperature at 17 degrees so still fairly cold.

Swam some similar stints to last time upstream towards the weir working 100 strokes hard and 50 steady. On the way back down I increased the 100 strokes by ten extra each set until I finished on around 200 on the final stretch. I'm finding this is a great way to break up the swim and is helping me swim a bit faster too.

Have entered another aquathlon over at liquid leisure on Sunday morning so that will be my next swim although I'll be wearing a wetsuit and it will be short at only 750m with 5k run after.

Close Call This Morning

Just myself and Heath this morning plus four triathletes in wetsuits. Water temperature up to 17.5 thanks to the sunshine yesterday. It is amazing how much difference that one degree makes as it makes that water that little bit more bearable.

We headed downstream towards Bourne End again today and were pretty much stroke for stroke on the way down.

On the way back I pushed fairly hard and ended up doing about 6 sets of 100 hard strokes with 50 at a steadier pace. After this I pretty much got into a decent rhythm and just kept grinding out the yards at a good speed. Felt fresh as did no exercise at all yesterday so must have had some energy to burn.

On the final leg there were loads of sculls in the water and a few four's as well. Usually there is nothing and today there were easily 15-20 boats. What gives??

I got a bit of a scare when I heard a loud shout across the river and upon stopping to look up saw a scull right in front of me heading right towards me. I had to take evasive action and duck out the way and the young lad in the scull quickly apologised as he realised he was on the wrong side of the river. A bit annoying but just shows how aware you have to be.

Went for a run at lunch as thinking about doing another aquathlon at the weekend as the lake is due to close shortly at liquid leisure and it would be nice to do another competition. I'll keep you posted if I enter tomorrow!

Breaking News...Sun Dance Works - People Swimming Channel

Just heard the news today that our skipper is taking people across the channel. Fantastic news. This means that as soon as Jezz gets back from holiday (13th/14th) we could be called up anytime to do the swim providing the weather holds.

Jezz is up to 64% now...

http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Lovell-Davis/

Wouldn't it be great if he agreed to shave that 'J' in his chest!?!

Back in the river tomorrow morning. Can't wait.

It's F-F-Flippin' Freezing!

Back in the river on Sunday morning up at the Flowerpot in Henley and this morning back down in Marlow. Temperature down to about 16.5 now so it is getting even colder still.

Getting in on Sunday morning was not pleasant. I really felt the cold after submersing my head in the water. My sinuses starting hurting and my chest felt like it was about to explode. It took a minute or so to acclimatise and we just tried to keep moving to minimise the cold.

Aim was to go for a good hour and about 10 minutes before the end we stopped to regroup up by the lock upstream from the Flowerpot. After only stopping for a minute I could feel the cold getting to me and had to immediately start swimming again as I was already shivering. I couldn't even feel my legs and arms upon getting going again and pretty much sprinted to the end just so I could get out of the water. It took me a little while to warm up after the swim so am trying to keep the stops to a minimum now.

Heath and I also got bitten/affected by the swimmers itch on Sunday quite badly. No idea why some days are better and worse than others in this respect but it was a very fitful nights sleep yesterday. This is definitely something that I won't be missing about the river!!

This morning was a bit of a dull affair weather wise. Very cold in the water again and apart from the company of a number of swans there was little action. We did another solid hour and will be back in the water on Wednesday.

I'll be spending the time in between doing a sundance!

Thank God It's Friday

17 degrees this morning! It is getting colder. This is most probably due to the recent rains but a bit worrying as I expect the Channel is also getting colder as well.

Just myself and Heath this morning for a session accompanied by a gaggle of triathletes who now seem to be doing a regular Friday morning swim.

Getting a little bored of the usual swim up to the weir so we headed off downstream this morning to start with, past the boatyard and down towards Bourne End. It's quite a nice stretch down this way and the river starts to narrow a fair bit so you have to be on guard about boats/sculls as it would be quite easy to get into a bit of trouble.

We felt the cold as soon as we got in and the best way to deal with it is just to swim at a pretty hard pace so that you keep your body relatively warm. Heath set off first and I was trailing him trying to catch up all the way until after the island after the boatyard. I got to about level but could not get ahead of Heath.

After the island the river opens up and as we got there the sun was just coming up although it was still so low you could hardly feel the benefit. We stopped for a few seconds to take in the scenery and then turned round for the long slog back upstream. It had taken about 15 mins to get there and it took 35 mins to head back to the start which is a good indication of how strong the stream in the river actually is.

We swam pretty much together all the way up and I was trying to break away from Heath every so often. Heath was wise to this so upped his pace when I did and stuck to me like a limpet. Come the last 500 I really pushed to try and get away and despite my best efforts I couldn't shake Heath who doggedly stuck with me. The pace kept increasing and we cruised past some of the triathletes that were finishing their swim and pretty much ended up sprinting. Great stuff!

The fact that we were pushing so hard help keep the cold away despite the fact that we felt pretty numb after the swim.

Have attached some photos from this morning and a picture of the "castle house" I was talking about earlier.

Planning to do a swim on early Sunday morning but I think that this is dependent on how many beers I have at Twickenham on Saturday!

Marlow River Swim

Back down in Marlow this morning for a standard swim from the Rugby Club. I must admit it was difficult finding the motivation to get up this morning as when I peered through the bedroom curtains at 5:50am it was a dull grey drizzling morning. Not exactly inspiring.

Got down to the Marlow Club for the meet at 6:15am. Swimming this morning was me, Freddie (from our swimming club), Matt Baker, Heath, Pete and Charles (a work colleague who is keen to take up triathlons).

Took the water temperature - 17.5 degrees. Eagle eyed readers will note that that is 1.5 degrees cooler than normal and we could feel this dip as soon as we got in. With nothing to keep you warm apart from a pair of speedo's the cold hits you instantaneously and it takes a few minutes to acclimatise.

We swam upstream to the weir right by the Compleat Angler hotel and I pushed all the way from just before the Marlow Bypass bridge; more to keep warm than anything else. Matt led the way and I was trying to chase down Freddie who had a jump start on the rest of us but didn't manage to catch him.

We regrouped at the weir and then set off back down stream towards the boat yard. Again, I kept up a fairly decent pace which helped keep the cold at bay and after Matt swam through managed to open up a bit of a gap between the others. Swam hard to the boat yard and turned round ready for the final upstream stint back to the jetty. The house opposite the jetty is our landmark and I look out for this as I'm on the final leg willing it to come into view as soon as possible. The house looks like a castle and has mock ramparts to boot! I'll take a picture next time I'm down so you can see what I mean. As the "castle" was coming into view I introduced my lazy leg beat and only succeeded in getting cramp in both calves. Nice one! I wonder whether this was down to the colder water or the cross training weights session I did yesterday morning or the run I went on yesterday lunchtime. Probably a combination of everything. The cramp is a little bit of a worry as I do not particularly want to have to deal with this whilst battling waves in the channel so will have a look at some magnesium supplements to try and get this sorted.

Right before the end we ploughed through an eyrar of swans (yes - eyrar is the collective noun!!) which can potentially be quite dangerous as swans can be quite aggressive. Fortunately they gave us a wide berth and we were not attacked.

Swim time was about 54 minutes which is pretty good going. I normally do 55-57 so it was definitely a little faster. Nothing like a little bit of cold water to get you going in the morning.

After the swim we were joined in the water by Billy the dog a Kerry Blue Terrier (I think). Billy belongs to the ladies that I have mentioned previously and seemed pretty interested in all the commotion. Perhaps he could join us next time!!??

RNLI Donations for Jezz

Just wanted to give a shout out to my team mate Jezz who is raising money for the RNLI. Jezz is at 62% of his target.

Check out the below link.

I am trying to convince Jezz that, as he has one of the hairiest chests known to mankind, he should shave a big 'J' into it if he meets his target!! What do you all think??

http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Lovell-Davis/

Piccies from Henley Bridge Swim

Group shot, action shot of me diving in and group shot at the Flower Pot.

Bad News - Swim Postponed Until Late September

After the swim this morning Jezz and I phoned Pete to get an update on the situation with the swim. The weather still appeared bad and Pete confirmed that in his Saturday phone call to our skipper that the winds had not abated.

Pete managed to patch through our skipper to the call who stated that things still looked bleak and that he did not see the winds calming down until after this week.

The options were to still wait and be sent out in strong tides which could mean than we did not go until maybe 6 September or wait until the next neap tide which is around 24 September.

We have decided to wait as Jezz had holiday booked which he was unable to start until the swim commenced. Jezz has now gone on holiday and it looks like we will reset to do the swim around 24 September.

We are all absolutely gutted about the delay as we felt ready to give it our all and do a decent time. We are off out for a drink tonight to commiserate (without Jezz who is now in warmer pastures) and then look to refocus on another date.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to think that you may be going one day and then the weather doesn't play ball. I guess at times like this you just have to look at the positives. We'll be able to get in some extra training which will make us even better prepared.

Let's hope that second time round the weather will be more favourable and we'll be able to finally get going. Until then there will be more training (and blogging) so I'll keep you all up to speed with our progress. Perhaps we could do another night swim to pass the time??

Thanks for all the support so far. It is really encouraging to see how many people are reading this.

We will get across!!!

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Bridge to Bridge

I found out on Friday that a Henley to Marlow 'Bridge to Bridge' swim was taking place at nine on Sunday morning. As I enjoyed the change of scene yesterday so much I thought it would be a good idea to gatecrash this event for the first part of the swim.

This was another swim that I believe was the brainchild of Tom Kean (see earlier posts) and it now appears that Andrew Allum of Wycombe Masters Swimming Club has taken over the reigns in the organisation department. Andrew comes with a distinguished open water track record and is not one to blow his own trumpet but in my view he has achieved some of the most remarkable (and mad) things. Just to give you a flavour Andrew has, swum the length of the Thames, achieved at least two solo Channel crossings, swum in the open water cold swimming championships and countless others! Andrew's most recent achievement is completing the Arch to Arch triathlon event. If you haven't heard of this prepared to be amazed. Start from Marble Arch and run/walk to Dover. Swim the Channel to France then bike down to the Arc De Triomphe in Paris. Bonkers or what?? This makes an ironman challenge look easy. Check out Andrew's report here...

http://www.wycombe-swimming.org.uk/record.jsp?type=news&ID=348

Anyway, I digress. Andrew was this morning leading a swim from Henley bridge to Marlow bridge with abut 8 swimmers (most in wetsuits) and Jezz and I who were gatecrashing for the first hour or so. Jezz and I were to swim from the bridge down to the Flower Pot pub leaving the others to get on with the rest of the c.13 mile swim.

We set off at a healthy pace and the water seemed even colder today than yesterday. Was it really colder or just the fact that everyone around me looked considerably warmer in their wet suits??

Andrew kept the pack together by stopping at around half hourly intervals and inserting some stage sprints into the mix a la Tour de France. Jezz and I were only around for the first sprint of about 200m and we featured in the top 3 for this one thanks to some confusion where the finishing point was. Everybody managed to stop 40m too early and Jezz and I quickly realised this and managed to gain a metre or two on the rest of the pack as we pushed on to cross the line. Much hilarity ensued but as they say 'If you snooze, you lose!'.

Shortly after the sprint section we came upon the first lock which we had to get out for and go around. This is the point where the cold morning air really started to decrease my temperature and I had to resort to some Bear Gryllsesque jogging on the spot to keep warm whilst waiting to get back in on the other side of the lock. Cue much amusement from passengers in a nearby boat who observed that it was much easier to navigate the river in a motor boat. No arguments there!

After the lock it was about 500m to our exit point but still loads of time for us to incur the wrath of the local fisherman. As we rounded the corner I can guarantee the last thing they were expecting to see was a shoal/swarm/pod (insert correct collective noun for group of open water swimmers) of swimmers who promptly managed to get tangled up in their fishing lines. I must admit it was quite funny to see their genuine anger and them lifting their rods high and reeling the lines in superfast as if a prize marlin was on the end of the line. One of us managed to get hooked but fortunately we eventually managed to get untangled and left the fisherman to it.

Our time was now up and we exited at the Flower Pot leaving the others to continue onto Marlow. Thanks to Andrew for organising and to the canoe club for supporting us during the swim. I think I'll try to do the whole swim next year as its a fantastic way to take in nature and annoy fisherman!!

Waiting...

Still waiting for good news about the weather. Pete reports that the winds in the Channel are still high and therefore makes it too dangerous to swim as the waves are far too big. We are third in line behind two solo swimmers. No swimmers have gone out yet at all and my thoughts are with an Australian guy who has flown over to do a solo swim. It is not looking good.

Unfortunately, the more time that goes by means that we may miss the neap tide window and may have to reconsider doing the swim during the next neap tide at the end of September. This is something we really don't want to contemplate though and we are praying for good weather!

I've just been out to stock up on loads of food for the swim. This includes the usual mix of high carb stuff; pasta, jaffa cakes etc. Also have got loads of ginger nuts as they help with sea-sickness!

Flower Pot Swim

In order to mix things up a bit we decided to do a swim from the Flower Pot pub in Henley on Saturday morning. Me and Heath from the team were there together with Matt Baker and Tom Kean. Matt is an ex national rower who regularly trains with us and Tom is also an ex rower and masters swimmer who is one of the creators of the Henley Swim that I wrote about previously. Jezz was due to join us but bailed at the last minute citing alarm clock issues and Pete had other matters to attend to so was never in the running.

Arrived at around 7 and was a good 5-10 mins ahead of the other guys so thought I would snap a few photos on my phone. As you can see it was a glorious misty morning on the river until the four of us ventured into the water disturbing the peace of the numerous Canadian Geese that were resident. These birds are very vocal and were not shy of telling us that our presence was not appreciated. This wasn't enough to deter us and we set off downstream towards Harleyford. The river was a little colder this morning but Tom did his bit to help warm it up for us. After a twenty minute downstream stretch we regrouped to go upstream which took about half an hour. We went at a pretty decent pace; Heath seemed to really have the bit between his teeth this morning and going downstream it was a struggle to get ahead of him. As I've mentioned previously; we are all very competitive so it is no surprise that there are 'no easy overtakes' in the river. Although, slip streaming does work!!

Perhaps the most notable thing about this morning is that it was nice to vary the location as it can get a bit tedious ploughing up and down the same stretch of river. Being highly organised this morning, I remembered to pack a thermos flask of coffee to enjoy after the swim which quickly gets you warm again.

I'm off now to go and buy some food for the swim as expecting the call any day now providing that the weather gets better. The last report said it was still windy so the frustrating wait continues.

Donations at 100% - Break Out The Pink Trunks!

Wow!!! Got back from Paris and checked my donations page, which I'll admit has become a bit of an addiction these days, and was chuffed to see that I had hit my target of £1,500 and the donations are still rolling in.

Thanks so much to all that have supported me from friend and family to work colleagues, business contacts and the friendly locals of Marlow who have stopped to speak to us and find out what we are doing.

I have purchased the worst pink trunks I could find so be assured that I shall now be wearing them for the swim.

So, "When Are You Off?"

is the question I am most asked and the answer is that we do not yet know. The window for this neap tide opens on the 26th (today) and we are the 3rd swimmers to go in the group. This means that if the swimmers ahead of us get delayed due to weather this has a knock on effect for us. Pete spoke to our skipper yesterday and bad weather in the channel has already delayed the first swimmer and the earliest we will now be going is Sunday (30th) which is Pete's birthday.

Fingers crossed now for good weather so that we don't get battered too much. Although saying this part of me kind of wants the conditions to be obscene so that we have a real battle on our hands so to be honest I don't mind either way, as long as we complete the swim!!

Taper Weekend in Paris

After feeling exceedingly rough after the night swim (I think I caught something from the river) I headed off to Paris for a long taper weekend ;-) for my birthday. Had an absolute blast and made sure I kept up my training by numerous bike rides around the city, climbing the Eiffel Tower and lots of walking.

After visiting France around 30 times this was my first time in Paris and what a great city it is. Jay kindly organised the weekend for my birthday so a big thank you for this. I think the highlight was sitting under the Eiffel Tower at midnight on my birthday drinking champagne and watching the tower sparkle. What a way to spend your birthday eh??

The weekend went too quickly though and before I knew it I was back at home getting up at half five, ready to get in the river whilst it drizzled under a grey sky. Welcome Back!

Follow the jump for donations...

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Night Swim

It was first suggested to us by Greg Whyte, the coach of David Walliams, that we should try to get in some swimming training at night in case we were required to swim at this time. To be honest, none of us had thought about this and a quick check of YouTube shows that quite a few swims have partially been completed in the dark. It therefore sounded like a very good idea to at least have a practice at this and gave me the excuse to buy lots of glowsticks!!

We met at The Marlow Club at 9pm with our support crew which consisted of my wife Jay, my Mum and Dad, and Jezz's wife Lisa. After a quick safety briefing which basically consisted of "watch out for boats", "don't shine your torches in our eyes" and "keep flashing your torch on and off if there is danger" we were ready to hit the water at our planned start time of 9:30pm.

We attached glow sticks to our behinds so that we could be seen and set for our normal swim which we had slighlty shortened to allow the support team on the bank to follow us. It was a lovely evening, still warm, and with little moonlight available it was pretty dark. When I put my tinted goggles on it got darker still and it felt a little unnatural to be in the river at this time. It also felt quite naughty too; as if we had broken into the hotel pool after opening hours - I'm sure you've all been there and understand where I'm coming from on this.

As soon as we started swimming we all noticed that it was extremely difficult to get our bearings which was evidenced by us bumping into each other all the way down the river. Heath came over to me and 'accidentally' bashed me over the head a few times dislodging my goggles so I had to stop and make some running repairs. I hope that Heath wasn't taking advantage of the dark to go around beating people up - you never know with these South Africans!!

After many mornings in the river not seeing a single motor boat I couldn't believe that we finally saw one in the dark! It crept past us with lights on giving us a wide berth. Pretty unsetttling but it passed without incident so all was well.

We finally made it to the danger sign and regrouped. The glowsticks were not working that well tied to our trunks as they became partially submersed and difficult to see. Jezz took action and altered his glowstick so that it was lodged under his goggle straps behind his head. This made Jezz a stand out beacon and we then all set off downstream following Jezz's orange glow. After about halfway down to the turnaround point we all stopped to regroup and adopted the glowstick on head stance which made things a lot easier.

At the final turnaround point we regrouped again before the final push to the end. When we regrouped we thought we heard a boat engine coming down the river but couldn't see anything so set off along the last stretch. A couple of minutes in and the flashlights on the bank were blinking and we stopped to hear shouts from the river bank of 'watch out for the boat' which was now approaching us. It appeared to be the same boat from earlier and we carefully watched as it went by and then carried on to the end. There was a fairly fast push by the group to the finish which is normal and no doubt caused by our extreme individual competitiveness!

I msut say that swimming under the stars on a hot summers night was a really unique way to spend and evening and I would certainly like to do it again. We all learned a fair bit about night swimming and feel a lot more comfortable if we have to swim at night for the actual channel swim.

Not long to go now, hope you like the photos!

Stunning Morning

Absolutely stunning morning today as was Tuesday. The river was calm and as we got in steam was rising up from the water creating a misty effect. As we started swimming the sun started to shine just above the tree line changing the colours on the trees and providing a little extra warmth on your back and six Canadian Geese flew over in arrowhead formation - glorious! Truly felt fortunate to be in the river this morning!

Did a solid hour this morning at a fairly consistent pace. Went right up to the weir where the view is fantastic overlooking the Compleat Angler hotel and the church. I was wondering whether it might be possible to order a croissant and coffee from the hotel as we really are not far at all from the restaurant. Not much room in a pair of speedos for a wallet though! This would be an excellent spot for some photography and may look into getting a waterproof camera so we can take some shots.

We're all set for the night swim today. 9pm meet for 9:30pm start, lets hope that today is the hot one that the forecasters are predicting so that the river is nice and warm for us. Two swims in one day as well - that hasn't happened for a long time either!

Beware Of Floating Logs

Training last week went well, with 3 morning pre work sessions in the river for about an hour each and then a longer lake swim on Saturday morning for 2 hours.

The river swimming this week was pretty steady. Not too much going on in the river but did swim very close to a perching heron on the bank which was pretty cool.

Temperature is now very comfortable and up in the high 18's and the stream has died down to normal levels.

On Friday morning we had just got up to Marlow weir and when we turned back to go downstream I decided to put a bit of a spurt on. All was going well until I got a smack square on the nose. I immediatley stopped and looked up to see what on earth was going on, I thought one of the other swimmers had clocked me one! But no, there floating in front of me was a log which I had swam right into. At least it was a log of the wooden kind!

The lake swim on Saturday was good. We covered around 7.25km in just under 2 hours. I did the first 3.75km in about 55 mins which is around the pace that we want to swim the Channel in. I've been trialling my new open water goggles this week (kindly given to me as a birthday present by Jon Keating) which have been excellent. The only problems I am having is when I wear a hat they tend to leak which is a bit of a pain. I tried the goggles under hat method on Saturday but that didn't work as my hat came off after two laps. I had to swim the rest of the session with my hat tucked down my trunks which must have looked quite amusing when I finally exited the water.

This was the week when we had a team meeting (down the Pub - where else!?) and finalised our team name....'The Marlow River Buoys' (geddit??). When Heath originally came up with this idea I thought he meant 'Marlow River Boyz'. Thankfully he didn't as I think we might have to be "packing some heat" in our trunks in order to carry this name off!

Night swim organised for Wednesday of this week which should be good.

Anyway, will leave with a photo of Jez, Heath and I at the lake. I'll leave you to guess who the idiot in the stupidly big goggles is!!

More Extensive Press Coverage!

Night Swim

Night swim coming up next Wednesday, stay tuned for more news on this with some photos. Can't wait. Bring it on!

So, How Busy Is The Channel...

The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping channels. Wouldn't it be cool to see, in real time, just how busy it actually is??

Follow the jump folks...

http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=1&map=folkstone

Pirates!?

Swimming across the channel people have advised us that we may come across all sorts of things from Jellyfish to French turds but no one mentioned Pirates...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8196640.stm

Casino Night

Wow, what a night Saturday was!! Jay (my lovely wife) organised a casino night party as an early 30th celebration at ours. The house was glammed up with loads of artful decorations and we had roulette and poker tables to gamble on!


The night was also for the reason of raising a bit of money for charity and I am really pleased that we made around £130! I'll be paying this into the Just Giving site very shortly so thanks everyone for coming and for the donations! I really had a great night.

Special thanks must go to Jay for all your hard work in organising this, I'm a lucky man!

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Another Early Saturday Morning

Had a great swim with Heath on Saturday morning over at Liquid Leisure in Datchet. In the water for 6:30 so early start required. Sun was shining which was a real pick me up especially after all the rain of the past week. Did 4 laps of 1.3km so 5.2k in total which took about 80 minutes. Lake pretty busy with triathletes and only got overtaken by one whilst going round ;-)

Avoided the dodgy bacon sarnie afterwards and Jay very kindly made me one when I got home.

We Made The Paper

Got an article last week in the Maidenhead Advertiser which is great. Hoping to get in the Bucks Free Press this week. All good!

The Force Was Strong This Morning

Amazing swim this morning. The rain last night meant that the river level had risen by a good 1-2 feet and the current was the strongest it has ever been. The water was dirty with mud which you could taste and there was a lot of foam in the water from it being churned up with the rain. The foam congregates into large clumps which look a lot like mini icebergs. I try and avoid these like the plague as have no idea what else might be in there.

To give you an idea of how strong it was, it normally takes us 23 minutes to reach the weir. This morning it took us 45 minutes to get there. We swim up to a boat as a marker and the current was so strong we were hardly moving forward at all, it was like swimming on a treadmill which was quite surreal.

Of course, the flipside of this is that swimming back with the current was amazingly fast. It was very nice to cruise back in double quick time, though at this point we were all pretty tired from our earlier efforts!

Me and the Drunken Mermaid

Just me and Jezz this morning in the river this morning. Lovely morning, clear skies, sun shining. Had one of those "it's good to be up at this time of the morning" moments which doesn't happen every morning.

Split todays swim up into 6 parts alternating easy/hard over the hour. Hard swimming pace is now classified as "must beat that oil tanker pace" which I think will serve as a big incentive for all of us to push that little bit harder when we need to come the big day.

I likened Jezz's swimming this morning to that of a drunken mermaid today. Whenever he swims hard I think the radar is switched off and he zig zags down the river in all sorts of directions. At one point he got so close to me I thought he was going to plant a kiss on my cheek! I was laughing to myself for a little while about that and Jezz seemed quite amused when I told him I thought he was acting like a drunken mermaid.

We saw a few regular dog walkers on the bank today who said that they had checked out this page! Always good to see you and give us a wave next time!!

Got the disco glowsticks today...ordered to work...I think reception now think that I am a serious raver. Might give me some street cred so I'll keep quiet what they are really for. Still planning logistics for the night swim, we'll need a few people on the bank for safety but can't wait!

Especially for the kind lady we saw this morning...

...here is a link to the Just Giving page for the charity I am raising some money for...

www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell

It's Starting to Come Together

First proper training session for the whole team this morning which was great. Took some pictures before and after. Water 18 degrees, current strong misty morning. Swam up to Marlow weir and back - around 50 minutes this morning - steady going. No real action on the river today although two very nice ladies walking their dogs stopped to say hi when we were done and I also recall passing two young lads when we went past the scout camp who seemed interested enough in us to actually get out of bed.

After the swim, Pete organised for us to have a chat with Greg Whyte (the guy that trained David Walliams) over breakfast after the swim. Greg has some serious sporting pedigree and has been involved in channel swims for a number of years. A number of points came out of the talk which I'll briefly summarise in no particular order:

1) Cold is the biggest enemy. We'll need loads of clothes including hats and gloves straight after we swim despite the fact that we'll be doing the swim in August.
2) We'll need plenty of food. We could be on the boat for 16-20 hours.
3) We may be swimming at night or very early in the morning in the dark. We should practice swimming in the dark so we are ready for this.
4) We'll need sunscreen as we'll get burnt spending that amount of time in and around the water.
5) Depending on how fast we swim will affect where we land due to tides.
6) As a relay we are just going to try and blast the swim as fast as possible.
7) Goose fat isn't that useful for us. We'l probably use a bit of vaseline to stop the chafing...that's all.
8) Not to bother with seasickness tablets. I will try to have some ginger the week before as this is supposed to help.

I've today bought some glowsticks for night swimming. They will help you be seen and I hope will not attract too much wildlife at the same time. To be honest I am quite excited about doing a practice nightswim. There is something so wrong about it which really appeals to me!?

Trying to get some press to help with the sponsorship and am pleased that I am now over 50% which is an important barrier. Thank you everyone!

It feels like it is starting to come together now.

Longest Training Swim

I completed our longest training swim yet over at Liquid Leisure early on Saturday morning. Myself, Heath and Jeremy made it over for a 6:30am start and we managed a respectable 1 hour and fifty minutes in the water. We were doing 1k circuits of the lake and I managed 6 in that time. In an hour I'm swimming about 3-4k's which isn't too bad and on par with the other guys in the team.

There weren't too many other people in the lake (say 50-60) all triathletes suited and booted in nice warm and fast wetsuits whilst we were in our trunks. I must say that it was a nice feeling to pick them off going around the laps. Competitor that I am, only two people overtook me so pretty pleasing stuff.

You'd think that doing circuits of a lake on Saturday morning is a pretty boring and monotonous thing to do; and you'd be right. It gives you a lot of time to reflect with your own thoughts and more often that not I keep myself going thinking about the food I'm going to eat when I get out. Before the swim I had spied a hut which was producing cooked food and it wasn't long into the swim before I was fantasising about a bacon sarnie afterwards. I'm talking lightly toasted brown bread, lots of bacon maybe some cheese and a dollop of ketchup to round off. Sounds good right? Well swim finished we got out and warmed in the jacuzzi for five minutes (nice touch eh?) and got changed in readiness for my welle earned breakfast. I ordered a bacon bap (£2.50) paid my money and was handed the biggest disappointment ever. The bap was the cheapest thing out there, you know, one of those baps that are almost yellow and just look totally wrong. I got one bit of bacon with my artifically coloured bap. One! It wasn't even nicely cooked as it was charred black and was obviously the cheapest, fattiest bacon they could get. To make things worse they didn't even have proper Heinz ketchup instead offering up supermarket own brand stuff! I mean, I'm not a snob but you've got to have some standards right?? I was pretty annoyed at this point so went to buy a coffee to try and get warm which was at least good and strong. I'll be taking a packed lunch next time.

Fundraising at 45%

Thanks so much guys for contributions to date, fundraising is at 45% of my target. If I hit my target I'll be swimming in some garish pink speedos so there is a little way to go yet!

Link below to see the figures...

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

Questions...where are they?

I can't believe none of you have any questions. Come on fire some at me and I'll try and answer them. We have just sent off a list of our own to the skipper taking us across so out with it.

Grinding out the hours in the river...

Have managed 3 sessions in the river this week, all roughly an hour apiece which will be the rough time for each stint in the water before we hand over to the next swimmer.

Training has been at a pretty steady pace this week and activity in/on/around the river has been pretty quiet. There was an old man by the side of the river bank this morning who just stopped and stared at us with hands on hips and mouth open whilst we stroked post. I think we all increased the pace a bit so we looked that little bit more impressive!

Joining us in the river were around 6-7 triathletes today all training for upcoming triathlons. They don't have to worry about the cold as much as they sport their nice warm wetsuits.

Reality is starting to dawn on us a little bit in that the swim is less than a month away and there isn't much time left now at all. We are most concerned about the cold as the channel could be anything from 15-19 degrees celsius depending on what the weather does so I am praying that the muc anticipated heatwave hits so the water warms up! I got a thermometer to meaure the water temperature in the river thinking that it would be around 16 degrees (ideal training zone) and was surprised to find that it was about 18 which is a very comfortable temperature. We have swam in colder water but possibly not for an hour at a time so this is a bit of an unknown and scary prospect. I don't want to be hitting the water in the channel for the first time, hyperventitlating because of the cold and looking like an idiot! I'm not sure what we can do between now and the swim to sort this.

Breaking news...have just googled a website to see if I can find the temperature at the moment and have found a very cool website which links to a buoy just off Calais which measures the water temp! The recording is now 17.4 degrees which is fine!! Great news and I'll be keeping an eye on my new fave web page. Sad or what!!??


We still have not managed to have a session with all four of the team in the water in the same time due to commitments and are hoping that we will have a team session next Monday. I'm trying to get some press coverage sorted to help with the fundraising so watch this space!

Going for a long swim tomorrow morning at liquid leisure and will try to do at least 90 mins. Aim is to get the legs to not cramp so will be rubbing deep heat into my calves to see if this helps. If not no worries, love the smell of that stuff. Till next time...

Sea Swim - I Survived!!

What a fantastic event that was! I survived my first 5k sea swim down in Bournemouth and had a blast. The sun shone all day and the sea was much warmer than I imagined (18 degrees)and in the end it was a lot warmer than the river we've been swimming in.

I went down with Pete Frost (and my wife Jay) and our aim was to get some valuable sea experience in as the channel swim date is now fast approaching. The event was very well organised and upon registration we were handed our numbered caps and various limbs had our race number scrawled upon them so that our times could be recorded. The time to race soon came and before I knew it we were in the sea ready to swim the buoyed 1.25k course 4 times. The first lap was a bit of a shock as we were swimming to the first buoy (of 4 in a rectangle pattern) against the current whilst being battered by waves. I couldn't believe how long it took to get there! Thankfully coming back along the top of the course the current was pushing us along so it was a lot quicker coming back. I had a good battle around the course with one of the female swimmers (no 19 I think) and we kept each other going swapping positions every so often. I put in a final push along the back straight on the last lap and thought I had done enough but upon going to my legs badly cramped up and got overtaken right at the death!! I guess that it the way it goes sometimes so at least I have learnt that for a long swim I need to take some anti-cramping measures.

I finished in 1hour 16 mins which I was pretty happy with. There were around 60 swimmers who took part and that put me around 20th or 3rd in my age group category of 8 swimmers.

I've put a few pictures on of the event and will be back in the river tomorrow morning.

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

5k Sea Swim Tomorrow - Help!!

I have entered a 5k sea swim tomorrow morning down in Bournemouth with another member of the team, Frosty.

This will be my longest swim yet (in terms of time) and I expect it will take around 90 mins to complete. I am more worried about the temperature as I expect the sea to be very cold and a bit of a shock to the system. This will be the biggest test yet without a doubt so I am approaching tomorrow with some trepidation. The swim starts at noon so think of me then! I'll be happy to just complete the swim.


Had a great swim this morning in the river managing just over an hour. Not bad after last nights swim. Fair bit of traffic in the river and along the bank today. As I had time whiles swimming along (what else is there to do) I listed what there was to give you an insight of who uses the river:

2 x kayaks
1 x rowing scull (down and back past us)
4 x joggers
2 x walkers
1 x dog
30+ swans
3 x ducks
1 x cow (checking us out from the bank and mooing loudly as we swam past)

If it gets any more exciting that this I'll be sure to tell all here. I'm sure I won't be able to top the morbid tale that we were told last night about finding a dead body in the river.

Race Result

The race went quite well last night, I came ninth out of 80. Was swimming a lot quicker than I plan to during the channel legs so it was a bit of fun really. For anyone interested the results are posted here:

http://www.openwaterswim.co.uk/

From our channel team, Jezza also took part swimming with no wetsuit (hardcore) and was just a minute or two back from me. This highlights how quick a wetsuit is as we'd normally be fairly evenly matched!

The next race to be held there is on 27 August which is in our swim window for the big one so we'll have to see about availability.

Thursday Race

I've entered a 1500m race at liquid leisure on Thursday which looks to be a good fun event. Too short a distance to really help too much with the channel training so will be wearing my wetsuit as it is loads faster and warmer ;-) I'll post the results after. The lure of a post race bbq and jacuzzi sounds pretty good at the moment.


Did an hour in the river this morning which was again cold after the weekend rain. I thought we were supposed to be having a heatwave this summer!!??

Mount Snowdon

I have just got back from a very enjoyable weekend in Wales where we climbed Mount Snowdon. For those of you that have done it we went up the Pyg Track and back down the Miners Track. Unfortunately about half an hour before we reached the top we were in the clouds so the view from the top was extremely limited!!

It was a pretty hard climb up which worked the legs fairly hard but was still pretty manageable. I got a good overall aerobic workout with a lot of leg work (my absolute least favourite). There were some gorgeous lakes to swim in as well but I resisted the urge as it looked bloody cold - something which I'm going to have to get used to I think!!

I've put a few pictures on so that you can see what it was like.

Back in the river

Last week I was back in the river with 3 morning sessions ynder my belt. Conditions were generally good all week, although the temperature was a fair bit colder due to the recent rains.

There was much more traffic in the river this week and you have to keep your wits about you when there are a few single sculls heading down the river towards you as they have their backs to you. It would also help if they went down the correct side of the river!!

Friday's swim was a nice long hour and I managed to get pretty cold during the swim. My body didn't warm up the entire day and ended up with that horrible aching feeling you get just before you come down with flu. Luckily this passed and I now feel back to my normal self.

I've been in the pool this week which is a lot less exciting (no rowers to watch out for) but happily warmer.

I've entered myself in a race over at Liquid Leisure which is a 1.5k swim on the 23rd. I'll keep you posted.

I'm off this weeeknd to Wales to climb Snowdon. Should be good but won't be getting in any swimming unfortunately. I'm sure the walk up will build some stamina though!!

Aquathlon Results

10th out of about 40.

Out of water third. Lost one place in transition and another six places on the run. Will try to lose less next time on the run!

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/

My First Aquathlon: Verdict

Well I'm just back from completing this and have just devoured a well earned bacon sarnie.

The event was very well organised and I was surprised at how good the venue was down at Liquid Leisure. The lake was rammed with swimmers when I got there at 7 which was great to see.

The aquathlon event consisted of a 750m swim course followed by a 5k run which was 3 laps around the lake.

The swim went well and I was 3rd out of the water out of the 40-50 strong field which I was pretty pleased with. The transition from swim to run went ok and I managed to get my wetsuit off without too much difficulty and get my socks and trainers on and running top without losing too much time but did manage to lose one place during this period.

Starting the run I reckon my pulse was 180+ and I found it difficult to get going especially with it already being so hot. My lungs were burning and it wasn't long before I could feel my legs aching and the first serious triathlete overtook me. I lost about 5-6 further places during the 3 laps which I guess was to be expected given that I am not bult for running and probably finished in around the top 10.

Overall pleased with the performance and it was a great event. I'll look to do another one.

I'm off down the local brewery for a well earned pint!!

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/