Swimming the Channel

New Blog (By Mallory)

2009-10-30T19:10:00.002-04:00

So its been over a year since my channel swim and I'm still swimming. I was recently awarded a sponsorship with the Endurance Trust and I am now swimming for Riley's Children's Hospital and the PLGA Foundation (Pediatric Low-Grade Astrocytoma i.e. Highly fatal brain tumor). I have a new blog that will chronicle my swimming adventures from now on so if you read this blog and enjoyed it please hop on over to the new one and sign up to follow me. There you can also find links to my Sponsored Athlete Page (with my firstgiving account) and links to the these two great charities.

http://swimsevenseas.blogspot.com

See you on the other side!

-M

Prizes! (by Clara)

2008-11-28T11:44:00.003-05:00

UPDATED 11pm

The CSA Awards Banquet was held at the beginning of the month, and I've been waiting for some kind of email or website update to see if Mallory or I would win any awards. Julie Bradshaw previously had sent out a preliminary set of completed swims, which had yet to be officially ratified. From that document, it appeared that Mallory would win both fastest American and fastest woman for the season. There weren't any ages listed, so I could only sit and wait.

Today, I discovered that there was a short summary of the awards banquet online here. The report confirms that I was the youngest swimmer to make it in 2008, at 19 years of age at the time of the swim. For some reason, the writeup didn't seem to name the winners of all the awards (namely, the awards Mallory seemed poised to win weren't mentioned), so I've sent an email to the secretary to inquire about the status of those awards. Will update when I get a reply. I received the email from the CSA, and apparently the list had been given to the webmaster for posting on the website in October (and thus ahead of time for the banquet), but somehow was never posted. They are working on that now, but in the mean time, we have a definite confirmed for Mallory getting BOTH fastest woman AND fastest American! Woot! We rock! (Or, rather, Mallory rocks, and I'm just a wee young tot.)

In other news, there is at least one photo of Mallory on the home page of the CSA website. It's possible there are two... the in-water picture looks like Mallory, but I'm not 100% sure. Mallory thinks the in-water photo is not her, because the cap appears pink. I'm not completely convinced... I still think it looks like her. You can check it out and make your own decision.

Cheers!
Clara, a.k.a. Polar Bear, a.k.a. Youngest CSA Swimmer of 2008

Clara the Polar Bear's Helpful Tips for Swimming the English Channel

2008-09-18T00:29:00.002-04:00

It's been nearly two months since Mallory and I completed our channel swims, and I thought I'd write down some advice based on our experience. I must stress that this advice is based on the experience of two people, both college-aged girls and life-long competitive pool swimmers, so you will have to decide for yourself how our experience would apply to your own attempt, if you are reading this to get advice for that purpose. I think there are definitely some things that are universally good advice, and I was certainly happy to get whatever advice I could while in the planning stages. So, that in mind, here we go:

It doesn't matter how much you train physically if you aren't mentally ready. It is possible to make it with minimal or spotty training if you can tough it out mentally, but it's impossible if you don't think you can make it.
That being said, make sure you train! The more you train, the faster you will swim, and no matter how mentally strong you are, there is a minimal amount of fitness you will need to get across. I would think that level of fitness would positively correlate with speed of recovery afterwards. Also, I think the minimum amount of fitness necessary scales with proficiency at swimming: very strong swimmers will not tire as quickly and can get away with training less, but weaker swimmers will probably need to be in very good shape.
I don't know how to know if you are mentally ready. I think you probably can't know for certain, but you can do things to increase your mental toughness. Make yourself do a long, boring, grueling, repetitive set in the pool, or swim for many hours at a time outside. When race day comes, do whatever it takes to make sure you stay in the water. For me, that was thinking about all the people who helped me out along the way, and not wanting to let them down.
Swim in open water as much as possible, especially if your open water experience is limited. If you are land-locked, get to the ocean as much as possible, because it's totally different than fresh water.
There isn't one tried-and-true training program that works. Marcia Cleveland, who wrote Dover Solo, had a high yardage-based training program. Mallory and I worked a lot more on quality interval training and cross-training. We rarely got above 7,000 meters in a day, and on days when our dryland training was particularly rough, that number dropped significantly. (Note on cross-training: make sure you ease into any new kind of exercise to prevent injury, especially if you have a recurring one that might flare up from new stresses!)
Don't underestimate the power of cold. Along the same lines, do your qualifying swim as early as possible, so that any unforeseen complications (like not realizing how bad the cold can be) can be worked out before the real thing.
Practice swimming in the dark. Preferably with a buddy.
All the usual logistical advice: book everything early, be there early, be ready to be flexible on your time slot, etc.
Go into this knowing that it's not a sure thing. You could do everything perfectly -- the training, the mental toughness, the cold acclimation -- and still be dashed by the weather. Mallory and I had tried to schedule in August and ended up having to move to July for better slots. We had perfect weather, and the poor folks who tried in August were dealing with storm after storm. So, be prepared for this to happen, and have a plan B. We didn't, and we should have, and if we had been more on top of our stuff with scheduling, we might have needed it.
Finally, when you get the opportunity, GO FOR IT. But, go for it within reason. Don't do something ridiculous like drive 6 hours straight and jump in the water straight-away with little sleep and little food, and, also, be reasonable about your abilities. If the weather is borderline, and you are a poor swimmer, maybe it's not the best idea (especially if the weather looks good ahead). That said, if you hesitate, the opportunity may disappear, and, especially if you're foreign and have a limited window of time, it may not come again. And once you're in the water, don't waste the chance: there is NO guarantee of another good opportunity later in the season, as a number of the swimmers this season found out.

As a parting thought, I guess what I most want to get through is that you can really handle a lot more than you give yourself credit for. When I started out on this, I thought I was going to need to be in the best shape of my life to have any shot at making it. Don't get me wrong, being in the best shape of my life definitely would have made the whole thing a lot easier and more pleasant. My course of crash-training last minute left me with a nagging shoulder injury and a lot of worries, but I made it anyway. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it's okay if your preparation is not textbook or up to the expectations you set for yourself. There wasn't a single point leading up to my swim that I felt prepared. You can do it anyway.

More Photos (by Mallory)

2008-08-07T09:08:00.008-04:00

Boating to the start

Light Stick on my butt.....made me feel like a stripper.

Grease Application

Hilltopper Pride

Sitting on the Boat is Hard Work

And Again....

Feeding

Did I mention Clara goes to MIT?

My Father's Perspective (by Mallory)

2008-08-02T12:16:00.003-04:00

Below is an email my father sent out to his mailing list that shows his perspective on the swim. I am sharing it with you all now.

At the start of her swim, Mallory, fighting the swells that occur next to shore was swimming at a 80 stroke per minute rate. Once clear of the coast (hour into the swim) she slowed a bit to around 70. Never during the 10 hrs and 14 minutes did she drop below 68, even with the pain.

There were about four other swimmers starting close to the same time, one swimmer (from Brazil) started about 45-60 minutes before her. During prep time, Keith (the Channel Observer) kept repeating that "this is not a race". During a feeding,three hours into the swim, after leaving the others behind, and passing the guy from Brazil (who later was pulled after 4 hrs because of the cold, and I think perhapse from Mallory blowing by him, sorry about that) Keith commented, "Mallory, you are doing great! to which she responded, with a smile, "who says it isnt a race?"

In order to conserve heat, Mallory did not kick until the last 40 minutes of the swim. Longest pull set in history.

I know my daughter, I know her stroke. Seven hours into the swim, I KNEW she was really hurting. With feedings every hour(energy gels), and drink every half hour I kept track with my watch, in order to conserver heat, we tried to keep the stops around 30 seconds, for drink, a minute for feedings. But for the final three hours I could not look at her in the water. I basically did the feedings then went back and set down, with my back to the water, covered my head with my rain poncho and thought "warm water, warm water" and "why did I allow her to talk me into this"over and over again until the next stop. The longest, most agonizing three hours of my life. I knew she wouldnt stop, no matter what, as the night before the swim she confided in me. "I sure hope I make it, I dont want to let everyone down."

Our crew and observer were the best! While all the pilots are great (there are only six certified pilots) our observer, Keith, was absolutely a gem. He talked to us all during the day, with stories of peoples wins and defeats. and called like 15 people on his cell phone after Mal finished. (The association people are as excited as we are when someone makes it) During the finish, our Pilot Fred, jumped into his small dingy about a thousand yards from shore. Standing up in the middle and rowing with small powerful strokes, he escored Mallory into the finish, and YELLED into his radio when she cleared water. Music to my ears. (Mallory told me later, she wondered if she would need to slow up for him to keep up, was not a problem at all. I told Fred I could tell he had rowed that boat a few times.) Fred is about the oldest pilot stationed at Folkestone, all the local kids call him Granddad. When asked about it, he said, "I'm not their grandad! Have you ever seen their grandma?" LOL

When Mallory was about 500 yards from shore, I called my mother on my cell. After talking to her for a few mintues, about how her cats were doing. I said. "Mom, I am calling you from just off the coast of France. Mallory is about to finish" I then proceeded to keep her on the line until Fred announced the end of the swim over the radio. I am so glad I thought to do this.

After she finished I walked around the boat, thanking them all for their help. Fred says to me, "dont thank me.....you paid for it!" then smiled, and I could tell he was quite pleased.

Dave Bennett (Claras dad) was an absolute ace on deck... Always quick to offer help/advice. Never pushy or concered if I didnt take it. Mallory told me later. "Dave is the one person I noticed the most on the boat."

Mallory had said that after this swim she was going to retire. When she got back into the boat, I went to her, and as she laid there I said, "Mallory, I dont know if you are going to retire or not, but I cannot ever do this again, I am absolutely retireing from being your support person" She replied, "dont worry dad I AM retiring"

During her swim around Manhattan Island (28 miles, 7 hrs and 44 minutes) four years ago. We took our time during feedings. In fact during one stop I handed her a water proof camera, and she swam over and took a few photos of the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge.That WAS a race, Mallory finished 4th overall. During Claras Channelswim, I mentioned to her, " You know Mal, I think if we had done the feedings like this during the Manhattan marathon, I think you could have won that race (as the winning woman, took her feedings right from her support kayak, did not even go over to the support boat). to which Mallory replied, "yeah, I was just thinking that". Dave Bennett says to us as he glances at his watch. "Total time of retirement, just under 36 hours."

While talking to everyone back on shore after the swim. I was describing the finish, and how excited and relieved I was. Clara's mom said to me, "did you cry?" I looked her in the eye and confessed. "Like a baby."

Thank you all for your support. Thank you all for putting up with all the updates. Now I need to go answer the 293 emails I received at work while we were gone.

KDC

Day in Dover (by Mallory)

2008-08-02T11:46:00.011-04:00

There is a Mecca for Channel swimmers, and it’s called Dover. Of course the main attraction is the harbor, but for the elite there is The White Horse Pub (white horse is a nickname for “white caps” or waves). You see, when someone successfully crosses the channel, they get to marker their name to pub’s interior (walls or ceiling) and whatever wisdom they would like impart on the pub’s clientele, which consists largely of channel swimmers and regulars who know all about the channel swimmers.

So the day started with a trip to Dover Castle Clara and her family left early in the morning, and my family and I left later in the day. The Castle trip started with a “20 minute steady walk” from the bus stop which is neither 20 minutes nor what I call steady. As my dad put it “20 minute steady walk, if you’re part mountain goat.” The castle is situated on the highest point in Dover, looking out over the channel and protecting it from invaders as it has done for 1000 or so years. It’s features vary in time period as it was constantly being adapted for the new warfare. There is a Roman lighthouse, a medieval tunnel system, a castle fit for a king, and another tunnel system originally built for the Napoleonic Wars and later converted into an underground military base for WWII on up to the cold wars. It was very interesting and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially history buffs. After we finished exploring the vast acreage of Dover Castle, we headed over to the White Horse to do the deed.

When I walked through the door of the White Horse, it was almost overwhelming. There were literally hundreds of names written on the walls and ceilings. I saw short entries with just a name, date, time, and place of origin, and I saw longer entries with multiple attempts, dedications, and observations (such as “Cold? My willy has never been so small!”) Some wrote big and took up more than their share. Some wrote small and were definitely the more interesting ones. As I stood there in awe, an American woman turned to me and said, “So, what was your time?” It felt really good to be in the company of someone just as crazy as I was. The woman, I learned, was Marcy MacDonald, a doctor from Connecticut that has 9 crossings to her credit, including 3 doubles. She was the first American woman to succeed at a double crossing. I immediately fell into conversation with her about all things channel swimming. As we were talking, I was scanning the walls and ceiling for “my spot.” I felt as though it were a very important decision and settled on a small part of paint lining a wooden ceiling beam. I figured there was plenty of room and it was somewhere between the horizontal and vertical surface. It would definitely be seen, as it was located just above the bar. Just as I was about to grab the marker and put my name in the spot, I reconsidered. It was such a small space and what if I wanted to come back? There would be no room to put my additional crossings. I think that this thought was the official end of my retirement from open water swimming (although Dave Bennett places it much earlier, when I was crewing on Clara’s boat). I found a new spot, larger, and close to the bar on the ceiling, and I wrote this:

Mallory Mead – Indiana
7-26-08
10 hrs 34 mins
“Never Again?”

When I swam the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 2004, I met another lady who had swam the English Channel. I also proclaimed after that swim that I would never do this ever again. I will never forget what she told me.

“Open water swimming is like having a baby. It hurts so bad you swear you’ll never do it again, but then you forget and you do anyway.”

Assorted Photographs (by Clara)

2008-07-30T14:26:00.007-04:00

Preparation for the cold:

Mallory doubles up: ice bath and ice cream

she used a snorkel to breathe

I put ice on her back to increase the cold factor

Ice for my ice bath in the condo in Hawaii

My swim:

All greased up, with white cliffs of Dover in the background

Jumping in the water

Just before the start

One of the few large ships we could see in the haze

Getting out on the other side

Officially done!

Getting hauled into the dinghy, looking like a total loon (I couldn't really use my shoulders to pull myself in)

Looking chipper after a refreshing swim

Uncle Ralf poured Champagne on me, courtesy of Pilot Eric Hartley

First Mate Lee, Observer Anne Slone, Captain Eric Hartley, Swimmer Clara Bennett

C-O-D-E-I-N-E Spells Relief (by Clara)

2008-07-29T18:23:00.003-04:00

I spent basically the entire second half of my second sophomore semester worrying about coming over here to swim the English Channel. I worried that I wouldn't be able to train properly, since I definitely didn't train as much as I needed to during the semester (largely due to a particularly grueling academic schedule). Also, once I moved in with Mallory to begin training, I think the sudden large amounts of dryland (as opposed to in-pool) training was really taxing on my shoulder, and began to limit my pool workouts. However, I seemed to have gotten all my worrying out of the way, as I didn't once feel nervous after getting to England (although I worried that all the people asking me if I was nervous would cause me to become so).

So, on Saturday, July 26th, I boarded the Samallan at 3 in the morning to watch Mallory swim to France. I'm embarrassed to say that I slept for large chunks of her swim, but in my defense, I was to be swimming in two days and needed to conserve my strength. I watched her enter a period of extreme pain about 8 hours in, struggling to keep going and crying with the pain. I wanted very badly to enter the water to be her pace swimmer, but I wasn't allowed to do this unless she asked, so I just ended up swimming with her to the finish. Even though I could obviously tell she was in unbelievable pain, and she shouted it at me at the finish (in case I had missed it before), none of this made me want to swim it any less. Her shoulder pain made me a little more worried about my own shoulder, especially since hers had never been injured before, but there wasn't much I could do about it at that point, so I just took my medicine and tried not to think about it.

At 5:15 on the morning of July 28th, we met in the lobby of the hotel again and headed headed over to the Folkestone Harbour to board Eric Hartley's Pathfinder. We met a one-armed Frenchman with a penchant for kissing who was also going to be attempting to cross that day. When we were heading back, we heard over the radio that he was about 6 miles out, but making little progress, and a thunderstorm rolled out that night. I'm not sure if he eventually made it, but I'm pretty sure making it 15 miles with one arm is pretty damn impressive.

We boated over to Samphire Hoe, a beach and sea-wall constructed of dirt from the Chunnel diggings, just off of Dover. They gave me the option to climb down the ladder, but I decided to jump over the side: no chance to try to turn back that way. I exited the water, waved, and then re-entered at 5:57 to begin my swim. 11 hours and 12 minutes later, exhausted and sore, I hauled myself out on the barnacle-covered rocks on the south side of Cap Gris Nez. To be honest, I was surprised to have swum as fast as I did, seeing as how much my shoulder hurt through the whole swim. Also, I didn't think I would be so close to Mallory's time, but she wasn't quite as accustomed to dealing with shoulder pain, having never had a serious shoulder issue before.

I would like to thank my parents, the Cooks (who, at this point, I might as well start calling Mom and Dad No. 2), Calley, Mallory, and my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ralph for being such a smashing support crew (Janece wasn't on the boat, but I know she was pulling for me from England... and probably chewing off her fingernails with worry, as she is wont to do). Eric Hartley was a fantastic captain: I was the first person to reach shore on my day, even though I'm quite sure another swimmer with whom we were playing cat-and-mouse for a while was actually swimming faster, and that's all thanks to Eric's skillful piloting. We ended up getting swept past the cape, but not nearly as far as the other boats. Also crewman Lee and my observer Ann (who overlooked my incidental boat contact! I pushed away quickly...). I definitely wouldn't have been able to hoist myself into the dinghy without Lee's help with the condition my arms and shoulders were in. And last, but not least, I would like to thank Boots Pharmacy in Folkestone and the nation of Great Britain for providing acetaminophen (Tylenol) with codeine without a prescription. Hallelujah!

So on to the bit where I describe details of the swim:

I was able to commission the infamous MIT Weather Machine for my swim. (For those of you who don't know, the MIT Weather Machine is used during the admitted students' weekend in April to fool the prefrosh into thinking Boston has good weather.) There were some issues with getting it to work in England, but I managed to find a loophole in that in only functions in Cambridge. Since we're reasonable kinda close-ish to Cambridge in England, we were able to get it to operate from there, and then just increased the range to get it to the English Channel. It was a stretch, and there was only enough power to run for about 12 hours, but it worked! Smooth sailing for basically the entire swim, and the water was a balmy 62-63 degrees Fahrenheit.

The feeding schedule I followed was very similar to Mallory's, except that I got mouthwash more often. On the half-hours, I got a more sugary juice drink and mouthwash, and on the hours I got less sugary juice and a Maxim gel pack. I was a pretty big fan of the Maxim gel packs for a number of reasons. 1) There were three servings per pack, so I could get more gel if I wanted than with the Power Gel, etc. 2) The opening was a rigid tube (rather than a flat slit), and the consistency was fairly runny, so it could be sucked down quickly. 3) The flavor was quite nice, both while I was eating it and while I was spitting part of it back up... I didn't know until after the swim, but my dad was dissolving regular Tylenol (acetaminophen/paracetamol) into my drinks the whole time. What I did know was that I took a Tylenol with codeine before I swam, and starting at 3 hours, I got a Tylenol with codeine every 2 hours in my gel pack (another advantage of the Maxim pack was that the pill could be easily inserted, since they were non-dissolvable tablets). There was really no change to my feeding schedule, except that I didn't get my 11 hour feed, since they figured I'd be landing in a few minutes anyway.

My mental difficulties were totally backwards from normal. Most people (or so I've been led to believe) do all right for the first large chunk of the swim, and then encounter a "bad patch" some 8 or 9 hours in (often corresponding to the time when the swimmer uses up the glycogen in the muscles and turns to fat for the primary energy source, I think, though neither Mallory nor I ran into that particular difficulty). For me, however, I was having extreme mental blocks at the beginning of the swim. It seemed like forever to my first feeds, and I ended up facing backwards on my first gel feed (at one hour) and ended up seeing how close we still were to the Dover Cliffs. Somewhere around 1.5 to 2 hours, I began to get a serious twinge in my injured left shoulder. By 2.5 hours, I was sobbing, and the combined effect of boat fumes/pain/thoughts of not finishing were causing me to retch and dry heave. I stopped and floated for probably a minute or two, while everyone from the boat was yelling to ask if I was okay (at this point I was on the non-pilot side of the boat, so I had to be far away so that Eric could see me). I yelled that my shoulder was hurting, and Eric came out of the forward cabin to basically ask if I needed to get out (I think his words were "It's your decision Clara, either way"). Anyway, I obviously decided to keep going.

After about 3 hours, I had a complete mental shift, and from that point forward, it never occurred to me that I might not make it. The question was when and how (because it seemed pretty clear that my shoulder wasn't going to hold up in normal fashion the entire way... sidestroke maybe? elementary backstroke?). I knew the crew must be pretty worried about me after my mental break, so I did my best to show them that, while my shoulder still hurt, I was doing much much better in my head. I grinned, squirted water through my teeth, and made faces at my support crew as they watched me swimming over the side of the boat. While I was feeding, I made jokes about whether I'd be allowed to use my arm as a paddle if it fell off, and told Kip Cook that if he didn't stop looking so grim, I was going to give him a big greasy hug when I was done. (At 7 or 8 hours or so, he performed a rap for me during a feed with Mallory doing the beatboxing. Lyrics to come in a later post, and perhaps a video, if I can get him to do it again. This may involve shelling out more than a few pounds for beer, but it would be worth it.) I think it worked. After I was done, Calley (Mallory's little sister) told me that they were really worried after my breakdown, but after witnessing my antics, confusedly commented to each other: " I... think she's happy!...?" The comedian Lewis Black says that sense of humor is the only way to survive and stay sane in this world, and I don't think I could have come up with better advice while I was swimming.

My plan at three hours was that I definitely had to make it to four hours at least, because I swam for four hours into the wind in 5 foot waves in Boston, so it would be embarrassing to stop after that. Then, once I got to 4 hours, I had to get to 6, since that's the amount of time you have to swim in 60 degree water to qualify to attempt the English Channel. Once that was done, I had to at least get to 8 hours, since the 70-year-old who tried to break the age record the day Mallory swam made it 8 hours before quitting, and he's freaking 70! I figured after that I would throw in a few hours for good measure, and then I'd be able to see France, and I wouldn't be able to quit then. My plan broke down a little there, because it was too hazy to see France until we were really close. I managed to get around this by setting myself times to ask whether we had exited a certain shipping channel or whatever, or a time at which I would allow myself to look for France. I thought I was a lot further back than I was though, because my plan was to not look for France until 11 hours... I got a few incidental glimpses before then, but I didn't get a really good look until just a few minutes before landing. I definitely didn't want to do what Mallory did and look up for France every 10 strokes for 3 hours, so I kind of took the other extreme. It worked out okay for me though: I was completely content to ask how many miles from shore, or whether I was at least making progress. Any more information would have been enough for me to overthink things a little too much, instead of just getting my butt in gear and finishing.

At 8 hours, I asked if we had left the Northeast Shipping Lane (the second shipping lane we pass... exiting at about 3/4 of the way). My dad said "almost there," and at 8.5 hours told me that we'd be out before the next feed. At 9 hours, however, he said nothing, and I worried it was because I wasn't making progress and they just didn't want to let me know that. It didn't seem implausible, given how little water I was pulling at this point: having overloaded my right arm the whole way to save my injured left shoulder, my right shoulder had become very painful as well. Also, at 9 hours, I was supposed to have a Tylenol with codeine pill in my gel feed, but I guess it had slid to the bottom of the pack, and I didn't get it. My right shoulder was really suffering from carrying the larger part of the load the whole way, so I was a little snappy about the fact that I wasn't getting the painkillers I had so been looking forward to. My dad managed to locate the pill, and sometime between 9 and 9.5 hours, I picked my head up and asked for it. That was definitely the worst I felt mentally since the first two hours: I don't think the pain got significantly better, though the codeine was definitely helping me cope. However, knowing I was close really helped me ignore the pain, and soon the muscular pain was getting to be on-par with the joint pain, so it was easier to ignore (for a while I was convinced that I had torn my right bicep).

At 9.5 hours, it was very obvious that the people on the boat could see France, but I told them I wasn't going to look until 11 hours. My dad said, "Well, make sure you're looking down then, because you might see rocks first!" That cheered me up a good bit, as I was thinking I wouldn't be finishing until the 12 hour realm. I asked how far I was, and, after a little hesitation, my dad told me I was 3 miles from shore, but that I would probably have to swim further than that. Since I had never been informed when we left the Northeast shipping lane, I had been thinking I was 5 or 6 miles from shore, so 3 miles was joyous news indeed. From that point forward, I really ignored the pain and just pushed as hard as I could, kicking like a madwoman (or at least, a very tired madwoman). I got a view incidental glances of the shore while breathing, but I didn't look straight up until Lee and Mallory got in the dinghy to lead me into shore. Since the ground dropped off so much faster where I landed than where Mallory did, I only had to swim 50 meters or so into land, rather than half a mile. I kept climbing (stumbling more like) over barnacle-covered boulders until people from the boat shouted for me to come back twice (I didn't want to get disqualified for not reach a point beyond all water). Then, I grabbed three rocks and stuffed them in my suit: one for me, one for Mallory (who forgot to grab one), and one for good measure.

I tiredly swim-limped back to the dinghy, and Lee tried to haul me in, but the rocks in my suit made me get stuck. I told him to let go, plopped back in, pulled the rocks out, and he hauled me out again. I flopped headfirst into the dinghy like a large greasy fish (see photos), boated back to the Pathfinder. Once I got on the boat, my Uncle Ralf exploded a bottle of champagne (real champagne) on me, and then I curled on up the air mattress for a while, trading jokes with Calley and nursing my swollen eye.

So how did I feel after I got out? Well, my hands, knees, and feet were all quite cut up from scrambling over barnacle-encrusted boulders. My shoulders were obviously in extreme pain, and my ankles and calves were pretty stiff and sore. Mallory didn't kick during her swim to try to stay warm, but as I wasn't so worried about that, I kicked a solid 2-beat (2 kicks per arm-cycle) through the entire swim (except when I had to pee... that requires still legs), and switched to a 6-beat/4-beat broken rhythm at 9.5 hours. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to stand on those rocks given how wobbly my ankles felt. I had had some small particle under my right contact for basically the entire swim, and as a result, rather than blinking, I just allowed the small amount of salt water in my goggles to swish over my eyes every time I turned my head to breathe. I'm pretty sure that eventually that salt water became nearly isotonic from all the tears that streamed out when the salty salty ocean water hit my eyes, but I definitely had a serious eye puffiness problem, especially in my right eye. I definitely looked like I had come off worst in a fight. (If you think about it... I fought with the ocean for 11 hours and change and came out pretty banged up, and the ocean never had a scratch! I guess it stormed later, so I had some indirect revenge...) My mouth and throat weren't nearly as swollen as Mallory's had been: probably a result of my having the diluted mouthwash every hour, rather than every 2.5 or so. Obviously my arm muscles (and hand muscles!) were very tired, but the next day I was able to raise them over my head without too much difficulty (only rather slowly, and not for a very long time).

When we got back to the hotel, I showered quickly, and we rushed into the dining room about 5 minutes before it closed. I ate whatever soft and bland foods wouldn't offend my poor, salt-swollen tongue, wrote some of this blog, and then went up to bed. My pain and the heat in the room kept me up for a little while, but after sitting by the window with some music, watching the storm, I was able to conk out like a sack of potatoes for some 10 hours or so.

Through all of our training, I've never really had a problem with the cold. True to form, I never really got cold on the boat ride back, except perhaps a little from the wind and splash after about 30 minutes. When I asked Mallory what she thought my "power animal" would be, she replied, after short consideration, "polar bear." I figure that's probably about right, although I'm not sure polar bears are as goofy as I am. Maybe some kind of polar bear/dolphin hybrid, what do you think?

Forrest Gump's mom said, "Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get." I've decided that the chocolate that is swimming the English Channel would be a large candy-coated dog turd with a 10-carat diamond in the center. It's pretty icky the whole way through, but the result is totally worth it. Also, you can practice eating dog poop all you want, but it's still going to be tough to get down.

**Note to anyone who made it to the end of this post: Thanks for putting up with such a ridiculously long summary! I didn't mean to make it so long, but writing in chunks for a day and a half can do that. Also, pictures will be posted soon in another post.

OUCH! That hurt! It's STILL hurting! (by Clara)

2008-07-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

I finished. 11 hours, 12 minutes. Details to come later when I'm not so effing tired.

And Tomorrow is Clara's Big Day (By Mallory)

2008-07-27T16:06:00.002-04:00

We meet at the dock at 5:15 am London time for an estimated start time of 6 or 7 am (1 or 2am Indiana time).

I hope life is a little easier from the spectator position.

Unofficial Swim Report (By Mallory)

2008-07-27T13:37:00.011-04:00

Yesterday, I swam the English Channel.

When I woke up and realized what took place the day before it felt so surreal.

Then I realized that my shoulders hurt if not as bad then worse than the day before. As I started to move my body it started feeling very real.

It started as a great day for a swim. I jumped in the water at 4:15 London time and labored on for 10 hours and 34 minutes until I landed on the beach right next to Cap Gris Nez (the shortest point). It was dark at the start, and they had to attach a light stick to the butt of my suit before I got in. My mother and Clara slathered my body in sunscreen and grease (purchased at the Boots Pharmacy in Dover) and Keith, the Channel Swimming Association Observer, took a few photos of the “getting ready” including one of me with the coveted Hilltopper red towel. There were three other channel swimmers starting at the same time and place and I waved vigorously to one of them and yelled “WE’RE NUTS!!” Later I learned that of the four CSA swimmers, two were pulled from the water. I was the last one in so I saw the other three start their swim. When I was ready I jumped from the boat and swam to short a couple of hundred yards up onto the pebbly shore just outside of Dover. The pebbles were hard to walk on and I had a hard time getting “one half pace” away from the water to make it a legal start. I started to fall, but then I realized that my observer needed to see the light stick on my butt or he would start time before I was ready. I struggled to point my rear in their direction, collected myself, took a deep breath, then turned around to face the channel and waved my arms to signal I was ready. Then the whistle blew and it all started, and after that, I never looked back toward England.

When I got in the water felt pretty good and I started off fairly easy, trying not to strong arm the channel into submission too early. That was for later. I had no problem swimming in the dark (I think that the night swim helped) and it didn’t take long until I caught up with the boat and we were on our way. In my head I was singing any song I could think of that had to do with warmth or sunshine. One of my biggest concerns going into the swim was the night swimming portion, just because warmth-wise the sun makes a big difference. It ended up being a non issue and I stayed fairly warm even though the sun hid behind the clouds most of the day.
My feeding schedule was set at every 30 minutes. The first feeding was a high-calorie juice drink, and I tried to keep those stops under a minute. The second was a sports gel pack with some liquid (started out water, but my crew switched to juice later on to increase my caloric intake) and these took a little longer, but still less than 2 minutes. One of the most frequently asked questions is can you stop? The answer is yes and no. At any time you are allowed to stop swimming, but you cannot touch the boat for even a second. If you stop, you have to tread water. So that’s what I did, tread water until I sucked down my gel or my liquid, as fast as I could so that I could avoid running up the time or losing too much heat. One good thing about the feeding schedule was that it allowed me to track my time in the water. Juice, 30 minutes. Gel, 1 hour. Juice, 1 hour 30 minutes and so on. Another good thing is that it worked! I never once felt exhausted or out of energy. Halfway through the swim I started to understand the people who turn around for a double crossing. I definitely had the energy for it.

At the beginning of the swim I felt strong and fast. The water conditions were pretty smooth and the time seemed to go by quickly. For the majority of my swim I was in good spirits, keeping fairly warm (I shivered most of the swim, but no uncontrollable shivering, although my jaw was sore at the end from the clenching) and feeling good. In fact I will have to report that not too much happened for the first 7 hours! After the swim I got to see Keith’s report and the most eventful things in the report was that at one point, my father fell asleep (like I said, we started early in the morning, and it was hard to sleep with the nerves) and Clara visited the bathroom three times before anyone else on the boat did. There was once when I swam through a patch of jellyfish, the only ones I saw the entire swim. The first few were a couple of feet below me, but then I felt a sharp stinging sensation in my rear. I was reminded of the scene from Forrest Gump when a bullet ricochet into his rear and he yells out “something bit me in the butt!” So I yelled out “a jellyfish just stung me in the butt!” In an area of about 50 yds I saw maybe 20-30 jellyfish, and I think I was stung a second time in the legs, but my grease was so thick on my legs that it just felt like an itch. By the way, feeling itchy is abnormal. In 60 degree water nothing itches.
Sometime in the first seven hours I started to feel some pain in my elbows. To save my elbows, I changed my stroke a little bit which put more pressure on my shoulders. By the time the 7 ½ hour mark rolled around, I was feeling some significant pain in my shoulders. It was around this time that I started really looking to try to find France. Oh yeah, I broke that rule. I looked for France. Visibility was really low and I couldn’t see it, and I felt like I just HAD to be close. After that the swim was a struggle. I have been fortunate throughout my swimming career to have minimal shoulder problems, with the most severe being a slight overuse that goes away with rest. Therefore I was unprepared for the excruciating pain my shoulders would put me through for the next 3 hours.

When I started asking the crew where this “France” place was, they just ignored my questions and looked quite worried that I was asking them. Apparently it is protocol not to tell the swimmer how far away they are, especially since the tides can change and negate any progress the swimmer would be making. In his report Keith marked every comment, as an observer is told to do, in order to monitor the mental well-being of the swimmer. I had no intention of getting out, I simply wanted to know how easy or hard I should be swimming. Luckily, I just assumed I was close and kept my stroke rate up, which held very steady throughout the swim at an average of 68-70 strokes per minute. I thought I was “close” for a good 3 hours.
Towards the end I could think of nothing but my shoulder pain and getting to France. I first saw the coast at around 8 hours. The Indian swimmers were right, the coast never seems to get closer. It wasn’t until I could see people on the beach that I knew I was really getting close. Even though I could see it, I wasn’t really sure I could push through the pain much longer. Then I kept thinking about all of my sponsors, the proud t-shirt sporters, the people who sent me encouraging messages, my family, my husband, and I knew that I couldn’t stop. I was doing a sort of “swimmer limp” in which I pulled mostly on my right “better” shoulder. I stopped often. I cried out in pain. I didn’t know this at the time, but my mother was pleading with my crew to pull me out. No one asked me if I wanted to get out. My answer if they had would have been no. No way was I going to be the one who trained that hard and came that far to stop when they could see people on the beach. Once we got too close to shore for the boat to follow any longer, Fred jumped in the dinghy to row with me (he was surprisingly fast) and Clara hopped in to pace me to the finish. I must admit that it really helped to have Clara next to me, because she was going the same pace as me and made me feel as though maybe I wasn’t going as slow as I thought. Later I learned that she was barely pulling in order to keep the same arm speed as me and make me feel better about myself.

When I could feel the sand in my fingers I stood up out of the water. Usually I would swim a little further before standing up, but I would have done anything at that moment to be able to stop using my shoulders. I started running up out of the water, but scattered throughout were large slippery rocks that I slipped on and fell a couple of times. It was a public beach, so happy vacationers were staring at this swollen sea creature that arose from the water covered in thick white grease and groaning in pain. Once I got out of the water I yelled to Clara “THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE.” And “I CAN’T IMAGINE ANYTHING MORE PAINFUL!” I threw my body on the beach and sat there for a couple of minutes. One lady came up and asked me if I just swam the Channel. I don’t remember what I said if anything at all. I do remember Clara talking to her for me. I looked down and realized that my foot was bleeding from the falls. Later I realized I had also cut my hip. The last hour I had thought I had something in my throat and I was trying to cough it up. Later I realized that it was just the little hangy-ball thing in the back of my throat that had swollen up because of all the salt water exposure. I climbed into the dinghy and spent the boat ride back scraping the grease off of my body. When we arrived there were two camping mats laid out on the deck with towels on top of them. I laid down on my stomach and stayed there with towels, raincoats, and blankets on top of me. I probably shivered for about 15 minutes, but it wasn’t severe. I fell asleep. I woke up a few minutes later and people were talking to me. My father was offering me water. My mouth and throat was too swollen to swallow. Keith asked me if I knew who he was. I thought about it for a second and answered correctly. Then I told him that he was lucky, because I’m really bad with names. I talked to my husband briefly on the phone. I laid there on my stomach for a good hour and a half. I finally got up because my ribcage was starting to get sore. Once I got up, I started feeling better. I sat in the cabin with Fred the pilot until we got back to England, another 2 ½ hours later. I wasn’t cold and ignored people’s requests to put on clothing, stating I didn’t want to get grease on them. I started eyeing a bag of potato chips, but decided against it because of my already swollen throat. I talked to Fred about various things, including monkfish, and we set a time to meet so that I could pick up my charted course on a nautical map. Keith came in the cabin and showed me his report and proclaimed me a “proper channel swimmer.” Once we got back to shore it was almost anti-climatic. I took a quick picture with my crew and walked back to the hotel. I showered, ate, and then went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning at 7 am, it all felt surreal. Then my day went on business as usual, even though my arms were unusable. Nothing else hurts, save my hip from the fall.

I asked the guy at the front desk today, what there was to do around here, and he told me “that the sandy beach was very nice; maybe you should check that out.” Yeah right.

*More Pictures to follow when I receive them from Keith, the official observer.

My sign made the trip across the big pond.

Sunrise on the Channel

Tankers have the right away, I was expected to swim around them.

I see London, I see FRANCE!

Clara and I going in for the finish.

My Parents Celebrate the Finish

The Dinghy bringing the swollen hideous me back to the boat.

Resting after the swim

Me and the Crew Left to Right: Keith Jeffers (Observer), Me, Fred Mardle (Pilot), and Russel ? (First Mate)

I MADE IT!!!! (By Mallory)

2008-07-26T15:25:00.002-04:00

I MADE IT!!!!!

10 hours and 34 minutes

Details tommorrow, I'm going to go to bed

Looks Like Saturday is the Day (By Mallory)

2008-07-25T11:53:00.003-04:00

I met with Fred Mardle today, and it looks like I will be boarding the boat at 3 am London time with an estimated start time of 5 am (11 pm Bowling Green, 12 am Indiana time). I've got my grease, drinks, sports food, passport (if I get stopped by French Coast Guard I will need it) towels, my red towel, camping mats for the boat ride back, and light sticks for swimming in the dark.

I swam 20 minutes today to finish up my training. Soon I will go to bed and hopefully get a good night's sleep. I have trained more for this day than any other. I will swim my heart out tommorrow.

The water was listed at 63 degrees today. All those warm thoughts from everyone is really helping. Thanks everyone for all of your support.

That's it, I'm speechless.

A Fellow Member of the Laptop Gang is Listening to Rap While 70s Music Is Playing Over the Speakers and It's Awkward (by Clara)

2008-07-24T18:42:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this isn't really a post about the dude listening to rap, but I'm kind of writing about a number of things, and didn't have a better idea for a title. I wish he had some headphones though. *sigh*

My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ralph arrived today (it might be yesterday by the time this posts... Thursday at any rate) from Germany. As interesting of a time as we had driving today, it is probably a lot more interesting for them. They are driving in a car that they are used to, but the driver is on the wrong side of the car in this country (alternate interpretation: the driver is on the correct side, but everyone in this country drives on the wrong side). Anyway, they also had an interesting time regarding hotel rooms. (Oh god, now the boy listening to rap is singing along. Badly.) The people at this hotel are really nice, but they seem awfully clueless... when my dad checked in, they gave him the room that I had reserved for the Cooks (i.e. a three person room... for just him for now, and my mom in a couple of days) AND had a real problem trying to figure out how much he owed. So, of course, when the Cooks showed up, they received the 2-person room for three people, so poor Janece is sleeping on a roll-away bed. And today, when my aunt and uncle showed up, there was no room for them at all! They have to stay in a hotel down the road for the night... but we did get upgraded to the premier restaurant for the night. (The rap boy left for a bit, but it was apparently just to get a power cable. Now he's back, and after stinking up our area of the lobby with his bad cologne, his computer is powered up again and playing more music. *sigh*) My mom shows up tomorrow, and seemingly, they wouldn't be able to screw anything up for her, since my dad is already in the room for both of them. However, he IS in a room on a smoking floor, and my mom definitely cannot handle being in the vicinity of a place where people have smoked, due to her allergies (non-allergic rhinitis actually, but it's basically allergies that don't respond to medicines). So don't hold your breath... they could screw up the room again yet.

I'm scheduled to meet my boat pilot tomorrow evening, but my father spoke to him on the phone today. It seems likely that the first two swimmers in the queue will go this Saturday and Sunday, and that I will swim on Monday. So, hopefully Mallory will swim on Saturday, for a couple of reasons. I want to go on her boat and be her pace swimmer, but it might be a bad idea the day before I swim. If I get in to pace several times, I might make myself overtired, and I'm unlikely to get much rest on the boat at all. Also, there is the liklihood of getting seasick, which might not be so great the day before I swim either. On the flip side, if Mallory swims the day before I do, so might be too pooped to come along on my crew and be my pace swimmer, etc. I guess it might be possible to pass up Monday in favor of Tuesday if she swims on Sunday, but I'm not sure that I really want to pass up an opportunity to swim, in case the weather suddenly decides to turn crap or whatever. So, we'll see.

I've got a few pictures from our trip to Dover to share... but they may have to be added later, because the picture thing doesn't seem to want to go. (Okay, really... what is this music? The lyrics are as sappy as boyband music, but the beat is all hip-hop and r&b, and it really just does not go.)

So, I don't think I wrote about this before, but the day I left, I went into the sports med doctor to see about my shoulder, which had been bothering me a lot. I was interested in getting a cortisone shot, and since I was in Indy, and then in Hawaii, this was really the only time I could go in to get one. It turns out, however, that the rest time after getting a cortisone shot is usually more than a few days. Of course, swimming doesn't accelerate the shoulder quite as fast as, say, baseball pitching, but apparently the shot weakens the tendons a little bit and you increase the chance of microtears. (Okay, now it's techno...) So, I was given a choice: get the shot have a 90% chance of dramatic pain reduction, but have an unquantifyable risk of injury; or continue with the naproxyn and hope for the best. I opted for the cortisone shot, because I decided it was worth the risk (especially because I would often have pretty significant pain within just a few hours, and it happens faster in rougher water). Anyway, since I've been here, I've continued with the naproxyn and have felt virtually no pain in my shoulder, which is very encouraging. I was pretty worried on the first day we swam, since the waves were about 5 feet, but I clearly got through that okay. I can't take the naproxyn on the day of the swim, because apparently it and all other anti-inflammatories (like ibuprophen) are metabolized through the kidneys. During exercise, there is a low-flow state through the kidneys, so you risk build-up of the drug which could lead to kidney failure (as I understand it). Tylenol (acetaminophen) is fine though, so I'm feeling pretty could about the condition of my shoulder for the swim. Hopefully I won't end up with shoulder surgery later though!

Okay, pictures work now! (Suddenly the hotel full of old people is inexplicably overrun with young whippersnappers who are being really loud... I guess they just don't frequent the lobby during the day, being of the nocturnal type.)

more jumping pictures

and again

so, we're a little close to the ground, but i think it looks like we're kind of floating away (like if the gravity turned off, as Mallory was imagining one day while swimming)

sculpture in dover

it was decided that, in order to complete her weight-gain diet, Mallory needed to eat Dover Castle

real photo with Dover Castle

nearish to where you start

Not Swimming On Friday (By Mallory)

2008-07-24T17:02:00.000-04:00

For all of you who will be wondering…..I will not be swimming on Friday.

The good news is that the weather is looking good for the weekend, possibly some rain, but my crew has rain gear and I’ll be swimming anyway. The winds were pretty high today at 14 mph (which made our training swim interesting) but they will be down to 5 mph on Saturday and slightly high on Sunday.

I had a really good day today. Clara and I and our fathers took the harrowing (harrowing that is, if you are an American driving in England in a stick shift euro-car) trip from Folkestone over to Dover for a variety of reasons. One was that we put in an order for two batches of channel grease. The other reason is that I wanted to see this Dover Harbor for myself and meet a few fellow channel swimmers in the process. You see, most channel swimmers stay in Dover and swim in the harbor. Clara and I elected to stay in nearby Folkestone, mainly for financial reasons, but it is really going to work out well for us. For one, the Folkestone swim area isn’t a sheltered harbor like the Dover swim area, allowing us to experience the ocean in her full temperamental glory. Also, I am guessing that a sheltered harbor could be a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the channel. Lastly, both of our support boats are docked in Folkestone harbor, so the morning of the swim we will be able to sleep a little longer, cut out a little travel stress, and make the whole thing go a little smoother.

Like I said, one thing we wanted to do while in Dover was to meet a couple of channel swimmers, and that we did. In fact, I just happened to meet Pete, the man who is was supposed to go out with my boater Fred today or tomorrow. Obviously, Pete didn’t want to fight the 14 mph winds, and since Friday isn’t looking good either, he is rescheduling for possibly Monday or Tuesday. I also met a whole group of swimmers from India who have been in Dover since June and are scheduled to swim in August. Apparently the Indian climate isn’t conducive to cold acclimation. I also ran into Julie Bradshaw, the secretary for the Channel Swimming Association and the holder of the Channel Butterfly record. For each of them I asked “any last minute advice?” This is what I found out.
1. Don’t look at France. It never seems to get any closer and it will depress you.
2. Don’t look at England. It never seems to get any farther away and it will depress you.
3. Imagine your finish the entire time you are swimming. I will imagine myself jumping up and down in joy (with my last bit of energy).
4. Don’t think about that four letter word that starts with a “c.” (Cold) Only think warm thoughts.

On a side note, I received a channel swim inquiry from this blog from P.H. Mullen, a Michiana man who swam the channel 13 years ago. He had heard about Clara and I and dropped us a little note of encouragement. This is what he had to say.

The advice is simple: Before you swim, stand in front of a mirror and promise yourself you won’t get out until you finish. Promise until your brain is sick of hearing it. Somewhere near the end of the swim that promise usually comes in handy.

I like to follow good advice, so I did. Last night, I spent a good hour and a half talking to myself. The last couple of days a little bit of doubt had crept into my mind, so I had a little bit of extra promising to do to myself. Here is what I promised.

I will not get out. I will not doubt myself. I will swim the English Channel.

As I was saying this I looked at my body and assured myself that this would all come true with THIS body, not a body with 20 lbs of extra fat for insulation. THIS body was all I needed, THIS body and my mental strength.

I must admit my mental strength is not all my own. A couple of weeks ago as I was practicing at the pool in Indianapolis and the thought popped into my head “I hope God is on my side for this swim.” I started worrying about it, wondering if this was all me and my selfish ways, after all I wasn’t hungry or hurt or suffering, and wondering if this was the type of thing that God concerns himself with. I finished my set and was on the wall long enough to strike up a conversation with a little old lady who got in to do a couple of laps beside me.

“Wow, you are amazing!” she said to me. “You are so strong, and so much stamina!”

“Well thank you,” I said. “I’m practicing to swim the English Channel.”

“That’s what I was wondering! That’s amazing!” she exclaimed.

That’s when the doubt set in my voice. “Well, I’m starting to get very nervous about it.”

Her face lit up. “Don’t be nervous! You have all the support you need! You have the support of your family, you have spiritual support. You will do great.”

Later, it hit me. Right as I was wondering if God was on my side, a lady that I had never met and that knew nothing about me decided to tell me that I had all the spiritual support that I needed. I call them like I see them and I refuse that as a coincidence. Not one person said that other than her, not before she said it and not since. That’s all the proof I need. She left as quickly as she came, gone before I even realized what I had just witnessed. God is on my side.

To cap off this post, I would like to give you some photos since we’ve been here. There’s a lot more that I will publish later, but these are the most relevant ones.

What I will be imagining as the finish.....minus Clara and my sister Calley, of course.

Folkestone Harbor, High Tide

Folkestone Harbor, Low Tide (The reason you have to wait for high tide to start)

Swimming Under the Stars (by Clara)

2008-07-23T05:30:00.000-04:00

Note: This was meant to be published a few nights ago, but I was waiting to get the pictures off of my dad's camera, and it got delayed... Oops. Apparently it gets published with the timestamp of the draft though. Weird!

Yesterday, Mallory and I went to go swim individually. I've been waking up really early every morning, so I swam at around 6:30 in the morning. I was having trouble psyching myself up to get in the water, because it was so early, and I really just did not want to swim, but there was a little old lady out there calmly swimming easy breaststroke. So, I decided that if she could do it, so could I (same reasoning I use every time I swim the 200 fly and see those poor people swimming in heat 1). Anyway, I swam for an hour so before breakfast, and Mallory got in for an hour and a half later in the morning.

My dad arrived yesterday around 5:30 in the evening. After my dad settled in, we ate and then all sat together on one of the couches in the lobby on our computers. One guy came by and cracked some joke about taking a picture of us and putting it on YouTube? I didn't really understand why people on their computers garnered a YouTube video, but whatever...

The plan was to go swim again, and Mallory and decided that we should go swim in the dark to get used to it, since, chances are, we'll be swimming in the dark at some point during our crossing attempts. We got in the water at 10 pm, and it was still somewhat light on one side of the sky. The way we were swimming, Mallory could see me pretty well, but I couldn't see her at all. I was periodically picking up my head to listen for her splashes like a blind person. As darkness fell even further, I think I got used to it more, and I was mostly able to see her silhouette.

I was a little freaked out when we were starting, especially since I had brought my dark mirrored goggles (good for bright daylight), which seemed to cut the amount of light in half, but once we started swimming, it wasn't so bad. The worst part was not knowing where Mallory was most of the time... I think I would have been pretty freaked out swimming out in the dark completely by myself also, but I think having a big, lit up boat next to me should be okay. It seems likely that I'll be starting in the dark, which means boating out to somewhere, jumping out and swimming to shore some 200 meters away, and then getting back in the water to begin the swim. That might be a little scary, but at least I'll be swimming to shore and then to the lit boat, so I think that'll be all right, right?

Here are some pictures, to prove that we were out swimming in the dark:

before the swim, looking scared

walking out into the water

afterwards

Buoy Locations (by Clara)

2008-07-22T16:18:00.001-04:00

In case anyone was wondering, this is where the buoys are located. So, the Sandettie Lightship temperatures are probably more relevant, unless there is a lot of wind blowing northeast up the channel. I'm adding a smaller version of this picture under the links to the right.

Note: For whatever reason, sometimes the buoy links aren't showing up. Just reload, and they should come back.

Monkfish Makeover (By Mallory)

2008-07-22T15:02:00.000-04:00

So the monkfish post has been really popular. Compliments of my cousin, Mark Bitterling, is the monkfish who had a makeover (porcelain veneers)

The Princess and the Monkfish (By Mallory)

2008-07-21T17:44:00.000-04:00

So today I got to meet my boater, Fred Mardle. He is a very nice English fisherman who resides in Folkestone and has been taking channel swimmers out since the 60s. He told me that when he first started taking swimmers out, the going rate was 60 BP (1BP= $2.12) which is a far cry from the 2,000 or so BP that is currently the rate. Makes me wish I would have swum it back then, you know, the year my mother was born.

I talked to him about a variety of things, including channel grease, light sticks (I will most likely start in the dark) weather, tides, etc. A couple of times he pulled out the tide chart and would say things like “See, these are good tides” or “See, these are bad tides.” I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at and would just nod in agreement. After all, I have to trust that after all these years, he knows what he is doing, right?

He told me that he just had a swimmer that had to reschedule his swim for later in the summer, because weather was not permitting for him to make an attempt. I really hope that this is not the case for me. It’s all the luck of the draw.

Clara’s father found an interesting blog from another girl that just attempted (and finished) a channel crossing. Apparently as she was finishing, she swam until she could swim no more and went to stand up on the French coast. However, as she had been swimming for 12 hours at that point, she passed out….in 6 inches of water. Her crew came and got her out of the water and she was okay. After that the only concern was legality. Channel Swimming Association rules state that a swimmer must exit the water until there is no more water beyond. Should she or should she not be disqualified? After much deliberation, the CSA ruled in her favor, which makes me very relieved. I would hope that if I labored away for 26 nautical miles and STOOD UP on French soil that it would count.

Speaking of, I have of late being telling people who ask that there are two conditions on which I will be getting out of the water. The first, obviously, is victory. The second, less obviously, is death. My mother didn’t like the second option too much, so I assured her that I will shoot for victory. However, on careful consideration I have added one more condition. Monkfish. While in London we passed a Fishmonger (endorsed by the Queen of England and the Prince of Whales, of course) that had a fish that stood out from the others. With its mouth full of poorly maintained teeth, it is a force to be reckoned with. It piqued my interest, so I started asking the fishmonger about it. He informed me that this ugly fish, the monkfish, resides in the waters of the English Channel. The thought made me shudder. So here he is, for your viewing pleasure, a monkfish.

I think that if I happen to run in to a monkfish, I may invoke condition three and get out of the water. But not really. Really I would just punch him in the ugly face and swim away before he even knows what happened. But again, not really, that would be cruel. The most realistic scenario would be that I stay on the surface of the water, and the monkfish stay on the bottom. That way, everyone is happy.

I’ve noticed that not kicking during swimming has kept my core warmer, which was the goal. Although my legs are so cold they go numb, my core feels nice and normal (not quite toasty) and I can swim without getting abdominal convulsions which was the case during my Boston swim. Also, I think the extra fat is helping. I'm sticking to my non-diet, and the fish and chips are helping. By the time the fish and chips come you realize that you just ordered a pound of lard to go with your fish and your fries.

Now it is late, and I am going to bed. Sweet dreams, monkfish.

Update: 3 Days in Folkestone (by Clara)

2008-07-21T03:08:00.000-04:00

Here we are in Folkestone; we've been here for three nights now. On our first full day, the winds were really strong, and we went swimming on a beach that was comprised of decent-sized stones rather than sand (i.e. painful to walk on). The waves were probably about 5 feet high, so that was pretty fun to swim in. We swam back and forth along the beach for a bit, and then when we tried to come back in, we ended up getting swept way down the beach away from our stuff, so we had to walk along the painful stones for several hundred yards to get to our towels. Right after we got out, some British guy came up to Mallory and told her we were insane to be swimming in that kind of water, and that he had almost called the Coast Guard because we "looked like we were struggling." Which is a little ridiculous... I think anyone is going to look like they are struggling when trying to swim in big waves.

There was some sort of festival on Saturday, and then a market on Sunday, so there was plenty of food vendors around to buy our lunch from cheaply. We managed to find an actual sand beach to swim at on the other side of the fish market, although the "beach" is only so during low tide... at high tide it gets completely covered! Mallory went to swim there by herself first, and she had to get out pretty quickly so that her things wouldn't be swept away. However, it's worth it so that our feet won't get completely pommelled. Also, yesterday and today the water has been much calmer (although yesterday we thought it was colder), so it's been easier to swim.

Well I think that's it for now. My breakfast has digested enough to go swimming now, I think.

What I've Learned About England By Mallory Mead

2008-07-19T07:22:00.000-04:00

AMERICANS ARE FAT AND STUPID- however, when polled in a comedy act, 4 out of 4 people would rather be American than German. One person’s reasoning was because “bigger is better.”
LIABILITY WHAT-Can you imagine if a city in the United States had a gap between the train and platform large enough to drop a small child down? Lawsuit city! In London it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
THERE IS NO WARM WATER-Most of faucets I have encountered in England have a hot faucet and a cold faucet. I’ve been turning on both and doing quick passes across to try and get the warm effect.
DON’T EXPECT SUBWAY DOORS TO OPEN WHEN THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH SOMETHING-For example, a person. I had to turn myself into the Incredible Hulk in order to free myself from the grasp of the train doors.
GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AN AMERICAN INVENTION- It may or may not have something to do with the type of establishments we’ve been patronizing (London is EXPENSIVE!) and might have something to do with being a fat stupid American, but by and large have been somewhat ignored since we got here.
KLEENEX’S ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE PRICE OF THE HOTEL- or even hand soap, in the case of the youth hostel.
And lastly, to be fair, ENGLAND IS VERY BEAUTIFUL- even the train ride was picturesque. Lots of purple flowers, rolling countryside, country cottages, and horses.

Hallo, from ENGLAND! (by Clara)

2008-07-18T08:58:00.001-04:00

Tally ho, old chaps, here we are in England eating fish and chips and doing other Englandy things. Ok, so we're not actually eating fish and chips... we're in an internet cafe in a church by the British Imperial War Museum in London. We've been here in London for 2 nights, and we're doing some last minute touristy things before we take the train down to Folkestone...

...okay, now I'm actually in Folkestone to finish up this blog entry. We ended up leaving that internet cafe pretty quickly so we could have a second go at the Imperial War Museum (highly recommend it, but a) give your self plenty of time, and b) don't get too excited about the "blitz experience" in the WWII exhibit, because it's kind of lame... "trench experience" is good though).

Somewhat quick recap of our days in London:
We met up in the airport on Wednesday, although not quite as seamlessly as we had hoped. I had called and told Mallory that I might be able to get on an earlier flight to England, and might actually land before her for a change. However, since my dad quoted me the "estimated" time of arrival, and not the "scheduled" time, I was under the mistaken impression that I would be landing nearly an hour before Mallory instead of just 10 minutes before. So, I told her that I would meet her in her terminal, and then of course when we landed, I was stuck on the tarmac for 45 minutes, and Mallory was able to de-plane immediately. When I realized that I wouldn't be able to go into the baggage claim in her terminal, I went to go have her paged, as I was worried she was waiting inside, not knowing I couldn't come it. Based on our later reconstructed timeline, it was about the time that I was at the information desk that Mallory figured it out and came out of the baggage claim, and then, not seeing me, headed to my terminal to wait, figuring I was on the original flight. About 30 minute later, just before I was going to call immigration to make sure she made it through, she called my cell phone on Skype from an internet cafe in Terminal 1. We decided to just walk toward each other and meet in the tunnels between the Terminals, and of course we saw each other while on moving walkways in opposite directions. There was no one behind me on my moving walk way, so I decided to turn around and SPRINT back to the entering end. I think I looked pretty ridiculous, but I think every person has at one time wanted to go the wrong direction on one of those, right? Anyway, once I got to the end (completely winded... I was dragging some 60 or 70 pounds of luggage), we decided we needed to go the direction I had originally been headed to get to the tube station anyway... *sigh*

Then, we checked into our hostel. The original plan was going to be to immediately go out sight-seeing, because we were landing in the morning, only we couldn't check in until 3 PM, and Mal didn't want to sight-see until we were settled into our room. We were so tired, that once we did get our room, we ended up spending the rest of the day in the hostel (we ate dinner there, and the food was pretty crap, so we didn't make that mistake again).

On Thursday, we went on this free tour thing advertised on a flier in the hostel. It was a nice way to view London on the cheap, and the tour guide was funny and Australian, so how much better does it get? He also gave us some useful tips for getting into places for free (ask for people's tickets on the way out... it's so simple!). After the tour, we went to the Imperial War Museum for a few hours and only managed to get through 1.5 world wars worth of exhibits, despite being there for something like 3.5 hours. Afterwards, we attempted to find a West End musical to get into. We both wanted to see Wicked, but, by all accounts, it was completely sold out. We also waited in line for freed up tickets for Mamma Mia, but the only ones that were offered up were top price at £55 apiece, so that was scrapped. We ended up going to a little comedy show in the basement of a hotel for £5, which was quite a riot. I'm personally a huge fan of British comedy, and it was definitely fun to hear a foreign comedian... there were definitely a lot of American fat jokes. We then ended up walking around near the Thames, seeing the London Tower and walking across the Millennium Bridge, etc, until well past nightfall.

On Friday, we got into St. Paul's Cathedral for free, finished up at the Imperial War Museum, and finally managed to catch a train to Folkestone from Charing Cross station at 8 PM. The tube right do Charing Cross was a bit of an adventure... we've both become quite adept and wheeling two suitcases around, sometimes through very narrow passages. The other customers in the underground were quite nice: three times, other people picked up suitcases to help us, twice without even asking (not everywhere had escalators). In one of these instances, we were running to make a train, and a gentleman picked up one of Mallory's bags to help her on. As she was jumping on, the train doors closed on her backpack, trapping her like some large, red-shelled turtle. After struggling for a moment, her eyes glowed green, and she ripped the door from the side of the train and crumpled it like a piece of paper. When the train started moving, I looked down at the wreckage of the door on the platform floor and noticed an "emergency open" button that might have made the whole thing a little easier, and less costly for the London transit system.

Anyway, we are now in Folkestone, and have decided that today is going to be a lazy vacation-from-vacation day, as were are totally exhausted from trying to experience as much of London as possible in 2 days. The beach is just outside our hotel, so swimming should be pretty easy. Over and out.

Training My Body for the Cold (By Mallory)

2008-07-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry that I disappeared for awhile, but I’ve been super busy getting ready to fly out…….I leave on Tuesday!

So to aid my cold acclimation I’ve been taking the dreaded ice baths. I must say that I can’t think of too many things that you can do to yourself that are more horrific than that. I read up on Navy SEALS training to give me ideas and I learned that the SEALS lay on the beach letting the cold water wash over them for a specified amount of time, and then they get out and do calisthenics for awhile to warm up, and then its back into the water. This is repeated over and over. This gave me the idea for my own training.

It is interesting to note that the SEALS are adamant about the fact that they do not recommend taking ice baths on your own. Their hypothermia training takes place with lots of supervision, including doctors and paramedics on site to take care of someone if they come down with a nasty case of hypothermia. Unfortunately, the best I can do is to have someone with me to drain the water if I pass out and to take me to the doctor if necessary. When I am alone, I don’t push myself nearly as far. I can’t imagine how tragic the news story would be if an aspiring channel swimmer drowned in their bathtub.

The process is this…….

I grab my large swim backpack and trash bags and head to the nearby hotel to fill them with ice from the ice maker. Then I head back home and fill the bathtub with cold water and dump the ice in. Usually, depending on how much ice there is, the ice is melted by the time I climb in. I get in with my snorkel and alternate between lying face down and lying on my back, making sure that all vitals/my head are underwater at all times to maximize the effect. I stay in for 15 minutes, and then get out and do jumping jacks, push ups, crunches, anything to warm up for 5 minutes. Then I repeat, or not, depending on the circumstances (if someone is with me to supervise).

Also, I’ve been trying to make myself cold all the time, not just in the water. When I drive I try to blast the air as high as possible and force myself to deal. Earlier this week on my way up to Plymouth I did this and by the time I got their, my hands were so cold that they hurt, and upon turning off the air all of my windows and my rearview mirror fogged up immediately.

Then there is the weight gain……yesterday after I swam I weighed in at 158. Before we went out to Boston I was weighing in at 148-150, so I think it’s safe to say that it’s progress. It should be, the amount of junk food I’ve been putting into my body…….

So what do you eat when you want to gain weight, you ask?

1) Hagandaaz Ice Cream. I get the pint size and eat it in two sittings. Half is about 500 or so calories.
2) Potatoe Chips. I’ve been eating an entire bag in one sitting. About 1000 calories.
3) Popsicles, candy, marshmallows, fruit roll ups, etc.
4) Starbucks. Really you can get anything there and it will be fattening, but I’ve been doing the Strawberries and Crème with half-and-half.
5) Fazolis. Here is my order: Regular Fettucini Alfredo with Chicken and a side Cesar Salad, a Peach Lemon Italian Ice, 4 breadsticks, and a turtle cheesecake. Just in case you were wondering if it is possible to spend over $10 for one person at Fazolis, it is.
6) Olive Oil. I’ve been putting cream cheese AND pesto on my bagels in the morning. Delicious!
7) Peanut Butter. Yum.

Also in my research, I uncovered an interview with Lynn Cox (Swimming to Antartica) where she was talking about staying warm. She confirmed my suspicion that I will be better off not kicking AT ALL in the channel, as that just pulls warmth away from the core and increases the surface area from which your heat can escape. Since then, I’ve been pulling my entire practices and I dropped the leg portion from my weight training. It is a lucky thing that I do not have shoulder problems.

So now I’m tying up all of my loose ends, preparing to fly out on Tuesday. If things go as planned, Clara and I will be doing a 4 hour or so swim in Lake Michigan on Monday where the waters average in the mid 60s. Then we will be in London for two days before we make our way down to Folkestone where we will be able to swim directly in the channel!

It’s getting pretty real now.

Channel Conditions RSS Feeds (by Clara)

2008-07-10T15:33:00.000-04:00

I have posted RSS feeds for marine conditions at two buoys in the English Channel. So, if you get curious as to how cold the English Channel is NOW, you can check easily. Also, when the actual swims happen, it will be easy to view what conditions we are swimming through, even if we don't have time to knock out a full blog before we swim. Enjoy!

Dang, that water is HOT! (by Clara)

2008-07-07T18:39:00.000-04:00

I have changed locales for the week: I am now in Hawaii doing research. We are spending the first few days in a nice condo on the Big Island, and on Thursday we're moving up to the observatory on Mauna Kea and doing an observing run. I have to leave a little early so I can go back to South Bend in time to fly to England on July 15th.

Due to a mishap with the flight, I ended up arriving a day later than intended. My flight got in around 3:30 pm Hawaii time, so I managed to get into the ocean to swim at about 5, after the sun had been warming the water ALL DAY. I could tell that the surface of the water was much warmer than it was about a foot and a half below the surface, but I'm pretty sure the water I was swimming in was about 84 degrees. Which is HOT. I think I only managed to stay in for about 30 minutes before having to get out from discomfort. In the future I will probably try to swim in the morning and swim multiple times a day in order to get more distance in without suffering from heat stroke. I attempted to take cold showers twice after swimming: once in the shower by the beach, and once in the shower in our condo. Both were failed attempts. On the bright side, the tub in the bathroom is really deep, so I should be able to completely submerge myself for an ice bath.

Speaking of which, we're taking a little break after lunch now, so I might go take one of those ice baths. Before I go though, I'd like to thank everyone who bought up extra tee shirts! Two weeks ago, we had 35 extras, and now we're down to 6. If anyone else wants one, at the moment we have 1 small, 2 larges, 1 XL, 2 XXL, all logo style except for one of the XXL's, and mostly white, with a few greys mixed in. Contact me at cbennett@mit.edu or Mallory at mallory.mead@wku.edu if you would like one. The are $15 apiece + $2.50 shipping. Thanks!

Dang, that water is COLD! (by Clara)

2008-06-28T19:39:00.000-04:00

My father and I began the day at 5:30 am. Mallory and her father began an hour earlier, since they needed a shuttle to get to the T (Boston subway) from their hotel, and required 2 train changes before getting on the red line to get to Quincy. Our hotel is about 200 yards away from the JFK/UMass station on the red line, so it was a little easier for us. After a slight freak-out when the Au Bon Pain in our hotel, which was supposed to open at 6 am, wasn't open when we got there at 6:03 (it opened just after), we were on our way. Mallory had had trouble finding lanolin to make channel grease, and I had had trouble finding cheap ratty towels to use while all greased up, so as not to foul up Billy's boat, so we stopped at a CVS on the way to the marina. We got there at 6:40, and it didn't open until 7, so we had a second experience of arriving too early and waiting around for opening time.

We did manage to find some lanolin and vaseline to make the grease, as well as some $4 towels which didn't really absorb much water at all. After taking some bathroom breaks and preparing the grease, we were on our way at about 8 am.

Once again, Mallory proved herself to be the bringer of freak weather. In terms of swimming conditions, it was an improvement over the last time we came to Boston, but still. (Point of clarification: Mallory is at fault for all the weird weather we have encountered, and not me, because when I did Alcatraz when I was 14 - ostensibly my first training swim for the channel - the normally fierce current was calm, the waves were few, and the water temperature was several degrees higher than normal. Hence: blame Mallory.) Anyway, this round of freak weather was oddly cold and cloudy: weather that our boater, Billy Harrow, assured us was most usual in March, not the end of June. But, on the bright side, the water was nice and smooth all day. When we first looked up the weather, they were predicting T-storms (or T-showers... are those like T-storms lite?), but I think the largest waves were maybe a foot. Maybe.

Anyway, the day turned out to be quite a bit of an adventure. Since Mallory was swimming a little faster than me, she would swim out a ways, then turn around and swim back, and then turn around again, etc. No one was keeping track of mileage, but considering that I swam just over 8 miles in just under 4 hours with really crap weather, so I'm guessing we were somewhere between 2.0 and 2.5 mph during the swim (probably closer to 2.5 mph for Mal, and maybe like 2.2 for me). About an hour and a half in, Mallory started to have some real issues with the cold. We went inland a bit to find slightly warmer water, as we think the water we started out in was something like 58 degrees, and she managed to eventually get over it and keep swimming. So, on the list for additional preparations for Mal: 1) Consume lots of calories and gain 5 or 10 pounds, 2) No more hot showers, 3) Ice baths and swims in Lake Michigan.

My problem of the day was having shoulder pain, and a little stomach issue from eating too much solid food (bananas... I couldn't bring myself to eat the Gu packets we bought... the texture is just too gross). My dad had some Advil, so I took a bunch of that and dissolved some more in my tea. As for the stomach issue, I just had to tough that out.

By far the most interesting adventure of the day, however, involved Mallory's $20 grab bag swim suit she purchased specifically for our qual swim. It was one of those Finis suits that has rubber straps - kind of like goggle straps. She liked it pretty well for a while, but its weakness was revealed when she tried to wear it with channel grease smeared all over her body. It actually worked out fine for several hours, but eventually the grease managed to work its way into the buckle that held one of her straps on, and the rubber strap slid right out. I managed to get the strap back through the loop that held it to her suit, but there was no way it was going to go back through the buckle, or get tied in a knot, as covered in grease as it was. Luckily, Mallory had brought an extra suit, so she got back in the boat for a few minutes, had both our fathers and Billy face the front of the boat, and changed out.

The swim definitely turned out to be a good learning experience, and I'm pretty glad that it's required. It was definitely good to find out what we did now, instead of when already in England. Now for some photos:

On the boat before the swim

Greasing up

I got in first

Mallory's turn

First feeding stop, 30 minutes in

Billy getting the grease off the boat while we were getting the grease off ourselves

Boston/British Accomodations/Delayed Flights (by Clara)

2008-06-27T04:34:00.000-04:00

Well, my dad and I were supposed to be flying out of South Bend in an hour (5:30 am, to arrive in Boston at 9:48 am), but the wonderful crew at United Express at the South Bend Regional Airport have decided to trot out the Grand Ould Tradition of Delayed and Cancelled Flights. Was a time when a person had to plan for 2 or 3 hour layovers in O'Hare in order to barely make the connection by sprinting through the vast, sprawling concourses that United Airlines occupy in their midwestern hub. In those days, passengers learned not to get their hopes up with an on-time boarding, since there was sure to be something like an engine leak to keep the plane on the ground for another hour or so, and an on-time departure was shocking enough to send those with weaker constitutions into fits.

In this new, post-Wisconsin-Air-takeover-of-the-SBN-United-Express era, such delays are not nearly as common, and flights are on time often enough that one can usually book a relatively tight connection without worry. I suppose, however, that when the delays do occur, they can be blamed on the fact that the South Bend Airport is so small, and so little staffed: oftentimes the crew that flew in is scheduled to fly back out to O'Hare as soon as the obligatory rest time is up, meaning that delays just propogate without forseeable end. (The delays may be an artifact of the small staff, but they are still extremely frustrating.) This certainly seems to be our problem today, since the weather has been lovely for flying, if a bit thick with Indiana summer mugginess. It seems we will now be taking a flight at 8:20 am, and attempting to get on a 9:20 flight to Boston, which has plenty of room... but it's all in First Class. *sigh* Hopefully my father's status as a Premier Executive (i.e. the second-to-highest class of people who fly United Airlines a whole heck of a lot) will help us out there. If not, we'll be sitting in O'Hare until 2 pm central, which will put us in Boston around 5. Lovely. So much for my plans for a bracing swim in the harbor at noon...

Anyway, on a more swim-related topic, Mallory and her dad have been out in Boston for a day now (a plan of which her father was not aware until the afternoon before they left... at 7 am... from Chicago Midway, which is two and a half hours away on a good day), and she's had a chance to swim out there. Apparently it was around 59 degrees Fahrenheit, which didn't make for a very happy adjustment after training for weeks in an 81-degree lap pool, but it bodes well for our 6-hour qualifying swim tomorrow (which must be done in sub-60 degree water). The weather seems like it will be favorable as well: as I understand it, our plan is to begin the swim in the wee hours of the morning, so we should be well out of the way by the time the predicted thunderstorm rolls around at 7pm. Perfect!

In other news, I just finished making our final accommodation arrangements for the Britain portion of our stay (the bit in France has yet to be worked out, and probably has to be a little flexible, in case we end up needing to stay in England a little longer than planned). For the first two days of our trip, we'll be staying in a hostel in London, seeing a few of the must-see sights (changing of the guard, and a couple major cathedrals) and some of the cooler-seeming attractions, like an Imperialism Museum. Then it's off by train to Folkestone, where we'll be staying at the Grand Burstin Hotel (44 845 838 1005, in case anyone wants to surprise us with a visit while we're there!). They have a really sweet price of £25/person/night, which includes dinner, bed, and breakfast. Even without the food, this was the cheapest place around, so we're pretty stoked about the deal.

It occurs that perhaps I should spend my extra time doing something productive, instead of just sitting on the computer. Off I go.

Update: It's just after noon Eastern time, and I'm still sitting at O'Hare. If the flights had been on time, we would have been in Boston 2 hours ago, and we won't even be leaving for another 2 hours. Sometimes I REALLY hate flying.

Clarification on Shirts/Qualifying Swim in Boston (by Clara)

2008-06-24T11:53:00.000-04:00

First, I'd just like to make a quick note on the shirts... in case it wasn't clear before, we have around 30 extra tee shirts that have already been made that we need to sell off. So, if you are interested in purchasing one, BEFORE GOING TO THE CAFEPRESS SHOP, please email one of us and see if we have your size and style in stock! We currently have shirts left in every size and style (although some are limited at the moment). While we still will get money from the CafePress shirts, a) we will have a net loss if we have shirts leftover at the end, and b) because of their return/refund policy and they fact that they only mail us checks once a month, we don't receive the money for a while. So, if we are out of the size and style you want, feel free to purchase on CafePress, because even if we get the commission after we come back, we can use that to pay back money that was borrowed. But please PLEASE check with us first.

On a different note, we will be heading to Boston this weekend to swim our 6-hour qualifying swim in the Boston Harbor. Mallory's boater from the Boston Light Swim, Billy Harrow, will be our support boater. We checked the weather, and it calls for isolated T-storms all weekend, so hopefully we'll be able to find a slot to swim! Look for updates this weekend.

Pictures from Lake Maxincukkee Swim (Posted by Mallory)

2008-06-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

So I finally got a hold of some pictures from the Lake Maxincukkee swim off. Thanks to Katrina Carlisle for being the camera woman!

My certificate of completion, and my father's 1st place trophy.....looks strangely like the Chicago Miracle Mile trophy I got a couple of years back..........

The start of the race (just me though, dad was at the other end).

Me, my dad, and various Cook descendants and the awesome banner they made for me.

Buy Tee Shirts! (by Clara)

2008-06-16T12:47:00.000-04:00

So we still have a bit of an inventory of tee shirts remaining, and we really need to sell them off. We've sold more than enough to cover costs, but we'd really not like to have 30 tee shirts laying around. They aren't too expensive to ship, so no matter where you are, we can get them to you! We'll say $3 shipping for the first tee, and $1 for each tee after that. Since our inventory is likely going to be changing, instead of posting what we have left all the time, I think it would be best if anyone interested could just click the "place order" link to the right (or just email cbennett@mit.edu) and let me know what sizes you want and which style you would prefer, and I'll let you know which colors we have left! We only have short sleeve tees, so those are $15 apiece plus shipping. You can send checks or money orders or whatever (made out to Clara Bennett) to:

50928 Ridgeview Lane
Granger, IN 46530

Thanks!

Fish, Fluff, and F-ing up the Course: Swimming the 5k at Huntington Miles (posted by Clara)

2008-06-14T22:13:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Mallory and I drove back up to Northern Indiana to participate in the 5k at the Huntington Mile today. We weren't quite sure we would make it, as it was storming the whole 2 hours to Plymouth, and there were some very dark, very ominous clouds gathering above us. At one point, we spotted a formation of clouds just to the west of us that was definitely coming down out of the sky in a vaguely twisted pattern, and we were pretty sure we were going to perish in a summer thunderstorm, but we made it to Plymouth alive, and my subsequent journey up to Granger was uneventful.

After convincing Mallory's younger sister Calley to scratch the mile and swim the 5k instead, we drove down to Lake Clare in Huntington for the race around noon. The swim wasn't scheduled to begin until 1:45, and I think we ended up starting at 2 or 2:15, so the surface layer of the water was pretty warm at that time. The course was four laps around the perimeter of the lake, so I don't think that any part of the course was particularly deep... that definitely did not help with the water warmth, but open water is open water, and in land-locked Indiana, we'll take what we can get.

In addition to being warm, the lake consisted of what Mallory so aptly described as "duck water." In other words, there were a lot of feathers and probably a lot of bird excrement around. Of course, in the Channel, we'll probably be dealing with a lot of dirt and whatever leaks out of all those shipping vessels that cross those waters every day, so dirty is definitely something to be prepared for. Along with the feathers, there was an awful lot of seedy fluff stuff from trees or plants of some kind. There was certainly a good amount trapped in my swim suit and around my goggles when I finished. Yummy...

The way the course was set up, there was a quarter mile bit with a "lane-line" (a thick, straight cable strung with multi-colored foam pool noodles) and gates, which had been used in the morning to swim the mile (and half-mile for the wee tots). I had some major issues on the straight part of the course... I think it's easier for me to follow something in front of me than something at water level next to me. I think I was swimming .3 miles for every time I swam down that quarter-mile lane-line. The rest of the course curved around the other side of the lake, and was marked with enormous yellow inflated buoys, like man-sized beach balls, with smaller tall and thin white cylindrical buoys interspersed between them. Now, the buoys are all very easy to see when you're scanning the course from the beach, but a little more difficult to pick out from the water. The yellow ones were impossible to miss, with their size and color, but the white buoys were a little harder to spot. This wasn't a huge problem, because the white buoys were mostly located along the straight lines between the large yellow ones, so if you followed the yellow buoys, you were okay. There was, however, one white buoy that marked a corner of the course.

On the first lap around the lake, I didn't see a single white buoy. After I passed the first yellow buoy past the 1/4 mile straight section, I didn't immediately head to the next yellow because the course seemed to generally follow the perimeter of the lake, so I headed in that direction. But when I saw Calley shooting off to my right out of the corner of my eye, I could tell she was heading straight for the next big yellow buoy, and I hurridly changed course before I lost too much ground. On the second go-round, I headed straight for the next yellow buoy immediately... several strokes later, I breathed to my left and saw that little white buoy maybe 20 yards away (we were supposed to keep the buoys to our right). My stomach sunk a little at that sight, but I figured I was swimming to train, not to win, so it didn't really matter if I disqualified the race. As it turned out, the course wasn't being very well-policed, so neither Calley (who figured out the mistake at the same time) nor I were disqualified. I'm not quite sure why my vision improved so much over the course of the swim, but I swear that I noticed a new buoy on every lap of the lake.

Calley was quite relieved to have just finished the swim alive, but definitely the worst moment for me (aside from puking up a little bit of my Arby's popcorn chicken every time I passed the motorized support boat and breathed in the engine fumes) was when I was literally hit by a fish while swimming. I did not hit the fish. The fish hit me. This is not to say that I'm afraid of fish or anything, but have you ever been swimming along perfectly focused, when something black and slimy swims right under your face and collides full-on into your stomach and chest? Scared the living bajeezus out of me. Full-on involuntary body shiver from that one.

All in all a good swim though. This makes the second open-water swim for me in two weeks, and the third for Mal. Keep looking for more updates, they will sure to be coming in fast and furious over the next two weeks. Especially in two weeks when we are travelling back to Boston to do our 6-hour qualification swim. Over and out.

Battle of Lake Maxincukee (Posted By Mallory)

2008-06-10T16:11:00.000-04:00

Sadly, On June 8, 2008, I was not victorious.

Even so, I will have to proclaim that the Battle of Lake Maxincukee was a huge success. Things went more or less as planned, except the part when my father exited the water 18 minutes before I did. We had a great turnout, and the conditions were great for Channel Training. Though the water temp was a little warm (varied between 68-74) I encountered high winds and substantial chop (I prefer waves because they have a rhyme) on the first 2.5 mile leg of the course which turned into whitecaps coming in from the side (also difficult to swim in) for the second leg of the course. What I projected to be an easy and “smooth sailing” lake swim turned into a great test of mental and physical strength. I entered the water feeling a little sluggish from stepping up my training this week, and I had to work through some lower back pain. Apart from the physicality of it, I also had to deal with the familiar frustration of being unable to see the course coupled with the sneaking suspicion that I was swimming somewhat off course. On top of it all, my support crew (as well as my father’s one man support crew) also had to deal with the high winds and rough water throwing the boats around. My Uncle Kent, who functioned as the aforementioned one man support crew, had some issues of his very own, when the battery for the motor died right at the end of the swim. The weight of the two batteries and his body as he switched the batteries raised the bow of the boat high in the air and the boat started taking in water. He almost became the third swimmer in the race. I’m starting to believe that rough conditions have started to follow me around everywhere I go. I hope it is not so for my channel swim.
The support that I received from my friends, family, and even some strangers has been phenomenal. Now some thanks are in order.

I would like to thank the following people for sponsoring me.

Clete Bauman
Paul Weisser
Sherry Sullivan
John and Caroline Fowler
John and Katrina Carlisle
Dick Niemi
John and Melody Elliot
Jerry and Kenan Kimble
Mick and Janet Cox
Nathan and Leslie Cook
Martha Ann Cook
Kewanna Pro Hardware and Supply (Kent and Sherri Cook)
Linc Divane
Gary Treat
Gary Kerns

Also, thank you to the following people for volunteering their time and services to help the race run smoothly.

Kent Cook
Dave and Clara Bennett
Leanord Short
Clete Bauman
Dick Niemi

And last but not least, thank you to everyone who has purchased a t-shirt. It has really been adding up.

Right now, not including t-shirt sales, I have received $3,100 in sponsorships. I cannot thank you all enough!

Woods, Weather, and Water (by Special Guest Blogger Nicole)

2008-05-31T20:51:00.000-04:00

Saturday, circa 5 PM

So...bona-fide L.A. chick Nicole here. Thanks to Clara and Mallory for letting me come along with them and even grab a blog space.

I got in Thursday morning on a red-eye from Long Beach (as a result of the aforementioned confusion of a.m. and p.m.). Two iced mochas and a trip to the zoo later and I was all set. Well, until I passed out in the back seat of the car while Clara and Mallory got lost and frustrated trying to drive to the swim. Sorry about that, guys.

Which brings me to last night. Now, I have plenty of outdoorsy experience with backpacking and camping and stuff, but I was legitimately freaked out by the overgrown dirt roads and backwoods, especially at night. But I'm okay now. I am amused at the comparison between that little incident and when Clara's and my friend Rachel got freaked out driving through the streets of Brooklyn at night during our Spring Break road trip. But I guess that's just City Mouse/Country Mouse in a nutshell for you.

The swim was really great--well, what we made of it was. The river crossing was cancelled due to rough chop, high winds, and impending bad weather. So, the official race was relocated to a nearby lake. While I wouldn't have minded just doing that, the course was short, shallow, and calm, and decidedly not what C&M came to do. The race organizers off-handedly suggested that if we could find kayakers who would brave the conditions, we could go out and back in the river and they couldn't stop us, but that we wouldn't be officially with the race because of liability. After a little bit of trouble finding Mallory a kayaker--and a warning from the kayaker (and park ranger) with the awesome name of Radar about the frigid 68 degree water, we set off in the river. *

The 5-mile swim was more than double the longest time I'd been in the water and significantly farther than I'd swum in one go previously--the old record was the Long Beach Grand Prix 5K, which took me just over an hour. Well, I survived and had an absolute blast. You know, I think I could get used to this long swim thing.

It was quite choppy on the way out, but other than that, there was none of the thunder and hail they were worried about. I understand why they needed to cancel it, because many of the swimmers and kayakers were not as experienced, but the three of us (and the three other
intrepid souls that came with us) were fine.

The nice thing about wind and chop is that, though it works against you on the way out,
it works with you on the way back. That might explain why it took us an hour
and a half to go the 2.5 miles on the way out, and probably like 50 minutes or so to come back in.

When we got back in, most of the people from the lake swim were already finished and seemed excited that we actually swam in the river. Certainly a stark contrast from the discouragement and concern we encountered before the start.

Well, that's pretty much it from the swim front. We're back in D.C. now, but the drive was something interesting. The weather that we were concerned would hit the swim definitely hit us in the car. Thunder, Lightning, hail, and rain that probably counted as a flash flood--everything short of the threatened tornado. Now that we're back, I think it's time for a nap!

* Note from Clara: As a point of comparison, the conditions for the Potomac on Saturday were: 17-20 knot winds, 3-4 foot waves, and a water temp of 68 degrees Fahrenheit. In the Boston Light Swim, Mallory and I faced 25-30 knot winds, 5-6 foot waves, and a water temp of 60 degrees. Not only that, but we had swum into the wind for all 8.2 miles of the swim, as opposed to the 2.5 miles against and 2.5 miles with the wind on Saturday. So the point here is that we knew what we were getting ourselves into, and we knew we could handle it, even while the race coordinators tried to convince us that we would die in the attempt.

Night in a Really Old House

2008-05-31T19:53:00.001-04:00

9:55 P.M. 5/30/08

What an interesting day we’ve had. It turns out you need to get tickets ahead of time to see the Holocaust Museum, and showing up at 12 PM is way too late to get one, so we ended up wandering around the Air and Space Museum instead. While we were in the planet exhibit, I heard someone call my name, and it was the David family! They are friends of mine from back home who moved to Oklahoma the summer after I graduated from high school. Their daughter, Ashika, is one of my best friends, but I rarely get to see her, since, for her, going home for the holidays does not mean going to South Bend anymore. I had no idea she was even going to be in D.C., and somehow managed to find myself in the same exhibit at the same time as her family. Amazing!

Anyway, after that, we hoofed it back to Crystal City to pick up the car, which ended up taking a little longer than we anticipated. We were under way around 3:20, got a little confused about which way we should start out, but ended up figuring it out. I was navigating from some directions Mallory had pulled up on a computer program, but I couldn’t keep the computer up and running the entire time for fear of running the battery down. I had quickly jotted down the directions, but without much detail, so there was some confusion several times during the trip, and an hour-and-fifteen minute trip turned into a 2.5 hour frustration fest. We finally arrived at our host’s house at about 5:45 pm, 45 minutes before the pre-race dinner, and much too late to hope to get in the water before it. Then, the dinner, which had been predicted by the race organizer to last about an hour and fifteen minutes, ended up running for over two hours, and by the time we got back to the house, it was well past sunset. We drove down to the shore to take a dip, but when we realized how rough the water was, how rocky the shore was, and just exactly how dark it had become, we decided maybe it wouldn’t be so safe after all. After a short adventure involving the keys falling out of Mallory’s pile of stuff, we were on our way back to the house to sleep.

The house itself is quite nice. It, or perhaps the property around it (I’m a little unclear), is called Mulberry fields, and it dates to the 1700s. Mallory, the self-described city-girl, and Nicole, the bona-fide LA chick, are a little creeped out by our rural situation, but I think the house is quite charming. It’s been in Erik Jansson’s (our host) family for a few generations now, originally purchased in 1906 I think? Anyway, fascinating history.

So the weather reports are calling for thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. The good part of the bad weather reports is that, if the race goes on as planned, it will probably be nice and rough, and thus better preparation for the Channel. The bad news is that there is the possibility that the race will be cancelled. If that happens, we may do some 3.5-mile swim in some lake somewhere, but it really won’t be nearly the same. So here’s hoping the weather is good, but not too good. ;-)

Anyway, it’s now 10:10, and as I’m waking up at 4:30 in the AM to get to the boat launch at 6, it’s probably about time I thought about going to sleep. The easily creeped-out (i.e. Mal and Nicole) are sharing a room in the attic, so I’ve got a nice four-poster with a canopy all to myself. The mattress is one that the mama bear from the Goldilocks story would really enjoy: very soft and squishy. Time to sleep now.

10:13 PM

Update: 5/30/08

2008-05-30T10:40:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here in the lobby of a Raddison Hotel in Crystal City, waiting for Nicole and Mal to pick up our rental car. (This hotel has TRULY free wireless! I didn't need an access code or anything! We're not staying here, but I am fully connected to the internet... sweet!) Anyway, my camera ran out of battery yesterday in front of the White House, and then I forgot to charge it back up last night. I've been getting a lot of grief for that grave error, even though I'm the only one of the three of us who even remembered to bring a camera in the first place. *sigh*

Anyway, so Mallory and I got into the hotel around 5 on Wednesday evening. We had been hoping to do a little sight-seeing that day, but we were ultimately too pooped to do so. We DID manage to get into the pool for a swim, which was a pretty decent pool as far as hotel pools go. It wasn't rectangular, per se... it was kind of trapezoidal, but at least it wasn't the dreaded-but-popular kidney shape. And the height of the trapezoid was maybe 20 yards, so we could sort of swim laps (although, the lack of lines on the bottom of the pool and any defined crease between the bottom and the wall made it really difficult to tell where the walls were). Anyway, we had been swimming for about 20 minutes when some children came out to the pool area. We didn't think it very likely that they would actually get in and swim, given how cold the water was... how very wrong we were. Not only did they get in to swim/jump/splash, but they were quickly joined by about 30 of their closest friends. Also, I think all of these 10-12 year-olds should immediately get their vision checked, because none of them seemed to notice that we were in the pool trying to swim. I ran into the same kids over and over and over, and they were surprised every time! And we narrowly missed death by littletykejumpedonmyneckitis. I don't know if the adults with them were parents or some sort of program coordinators, but they did a remarkably poor job of supervising the children... we didn't even get yelled at for running over them as our frustration mounted. And the guy who we assumed to be the lifeguard just stood there while we got mauled. Needless to say, our workout didn't last very long.

Nicole arrived at around 8:15 yesterday morning, due to her accidental booking of a flight that was 12 hours later than she had intended. We attempted to swim in the morning, even though the pool didn't officially open until 10 AM, but we got kicked out, so we just showered and got ready to go out on our day of sight-seeing. We started at the National Zoo (free!) and checked out all the lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). Actually, we didn't see any bears... I think there were sloth bears? (Not really sure if those are sloths or bears.) We didn't get to that part of the park, but we did spend a good 3 or 4 hours wandering around, and I've got a wonderful purse tan-line (or burn-line) to show for it.

After that, it was lunch at Starbucks, and then off to the International Spy Museum. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures in that museum, but if you're ever in D.C., I would highly recommend it! It started out with a room where you picked out a cover story, which you had to remember during your trip through the museum (we were tested on it later). The cover story and the "de-briefing room" gave us the false impression that the museum was going to be much more mission-styled than it ended up being, but it was still pretty awesome anyway. (You could pay $14 extra for a mission thing, but as Nicole and I are just poor college students, and Mallory is just... poor, we didn't want to shell out.) Mallory's favorite part about the museum was finding out that all the spy stuff she thought was only found in the movies was actually the real deal.

Finally, we headed out to the National Mall to look around... pictures at the Washington Monument and WWII Memorial, hiked down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Vietnam War Memorial. Weirdly, Nicole and I both remembered the Iwo Jima Memorial to be near the Vietnam one, but we couldn't find it. Anyway, we then headed down to see the White House, which we sat in front of for about 15 minutes to rest our poor tired feet, and finally set off for the hotel (way too late to make the 9 pm closing time of the pool... *sigh*)

All right, Nicole just called me and said we have the car, so I've got to head out. I think we're off to the Holocaust Museum today before heading down to the location of the actual race. Over and out.

En Route to Potomac River Swim (Posted by Mallory)

2008-05-28T23:51:00.000-04:00

As I type this, I am camped out next to what I believe may be the only outlet in the Chicago Midway airport, conveniently located in the aisle leading to gate B17 no where near a chair. I have noticed this problem in almost all airports I’ve been too. Wireless is available, but you better hope you have a good battery with a long life. Alas, they have me there.

The last two weeks have been crazy. I graduated from Western on the 10th, and the following week, with Morgan doing movie stuff in LA, I packed up our stuff, and after he got back from the airport on Friday, we loaded the Budget truck and took off for Indianapolis. I would like to thank Brian Lee, Patrick X, Adam Beck, and Mark Bitterling for helping us load our truck so that we were able to finally leave Bowling Green at 10pm.

I am loving our new Castleton location. Last week I was swimming up at the Fishers YMCA, which is a very nice facility with separate lap and kid pools, and an outdoor pool that will open soon. Next week I will be trying out the Lifetime Fitness that is right next to my apartment. Not only is it a little closer than the Y, but it also has a rock climbing wall which is a fun way to build a lot of total body strength. Once I try out the Lifetime Fitness, I will have to make the commitment and designate my new training “home.”

On Memorial Day my father and I went out to Lake Maxincukee, hoping to get in a long lake swim. Unfortunately, the motor on the boat wasn’t working correctly and was rendered unfit for a support vessel. It was a good thing we brought the boat out before next weekend, so we wouldn’t be short a boat for the Maxincukee race. I did still get in, and I swam for 45 min-1 hour in the 62 degree water, a great way to start acclimating to cold water swimming. On Tuesday, I was in between gym trial memberships so I decided to check out the pool at our apartment, which had just been filled for Memorial Day weekend. What I found was a strangely appropriate duck-feathered 20yd-ish L shaped pool that made me feel a little dirty and dizzy after bouncing between the walls for awhile. The temperature was probably in the mid-60s, but I’m not sure if I was dizzy from mild hypothermia or from the excessive amount of flip turns, but it was probably a combination of the two. As I left the pool a maintenance worker saw me and asked me if it was cold. I told him “That’s the way I like it” which is a total lie and obviously weirded him out. Though I didn’t have much adverse reaction to my two cold water encounters this week, I noticed that I must have taken a shower too soon after getting out of the pool on Tuesday, because I felt colder afterward and had to bundle up in sweats. As a general rule you are supposed to warm up gradually after cold water exposure.

Coincidently, yesterday was my 22nd birthday which I celebrated by getting my Hepatitis A vaccine, which was recommended before getting into these dirty bodies of water. Unfortunately, I doubt the vaccine will work fast enough to counteract any Hepatitis exposure I may have encountered in the duck pool.

I am en route to Washington D.C. to swim the 7.5 miles of the Potomac River. To many this is a curious fact. My friend Margaret, who previously lived in D.C., tried to convince me that NO ONE ever swims in the river, save maybe the Georgetown Crew team after a boat-tipping accident. When I asked if there were any public beaches she laughed harder.

It is 8:47 here in Chicago, and my flight from Indy to Chicago, with a time change, lasted exactly one minute. I will land at Dulles Airport at 12:45, and Clara will land shortly after. Our friend Nicole, who will also be joining us for the swim (her first big open-water swim) will not be arriving until Thursday, thanks to a mix up involving travel itineraries and those tricky little a.m. and p.m. notations. We will be staying right outside the city doing a little sightseeing and some tune-up swimming today, Thursday, and Friday. Friday evening we are renting a car and driving toward Point Lookout State Park, which is from what I understand, is far south and very rural. Friday night we will be staying with a group of Potomac River Swimmers at a volunteer’s house who was kind enough to offer up accommodations. Saturday is the race, and hopefully the weather will be beautiful. Sunday we’ll be heading home, all ready to get back to work and to start preparing for the Maxincukee swim. Bring it on……..

Maxincukee Swim Invite-Posted By Mallory

2008-05-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Update (Posted by Mallory)

2008-05-08T11:41:00.001-04:00

Now that I am coming up for air after an extremely hectic 2 weeks, I can give you the update.

Training has been more of the same, but I accidently erased my training logs. On Saturday, my mother and I traveled to Memphis, TN for the closest meet before the qualifying deadline to swim the mile as a requirement to compete in 25K Open Water Nationals (swimming a mile to qualify for a roughly 15 mile swim seems slightly irrelevent to me). What an experiance. Upon arrival at the meet I realized that USS swimming would never be the same for me again. As the oldest swimmer at the meet, my favorite moment occured as I was checking in for the mile. A young boy at about a third of my size also inquired about checking into the mile. It was the first time I have ever felt "old." I said to him "Are you really swimming the mile?" to which he replied, "yeah, are you?" It was a far cry from the old days when I was always the youngest in my training group.

The cut was 19:00 for 1500m, which I swam in 19:04, just barely missing the cut. Though it was dissappointing, the really odd thing is that I dreamed the night before that I would go that exact time. I told my mom, then promptly forgot about the dream. When I got out of the water after the race, she was laughing, much to my confusion. I said to her "Mom, it's not funny, why are you laughing?" to which she reminded me of my premonition from the night before. Then I was just weirded out.

On a side note, I would like to thank the people at the Memphis Tigers for all of their assistance this past weekend. It is hard to describe how amazing it is to get so much support from complete strangers! They helped me with meet registration, worked with me on my USS membership issues, recruited a lap counter and a pacer for me, and showed sincere interest in what I am trying to do. I appreciate your support!

On Saturday, I will graduate from Western Kentucky University, after which I will be moving to Indianapolis, IN and will be starting the next phase of my channel swim training. I just started reading "Dover Solo: Swimming the English Channel" by Marcia Cleveland and its really helping me mentally prepare for the next step. I have come to the realization that my training will be very different that Cleveland's, and that I will have to come up with special solutions to prepare for the big day. Many channel swimmers, including Cleveland, live on or near the coast, making open water and colder temperatures much easier to come by than it will be in Indianapolis. I've got some ideas running around in my head, and once I nail down my training regime, the blog will be the first to know.

Yesterday I booked my plane ticket to Washington DC at the end of the month where Clara and I and our friend (also from MIT) Nicole will be swimming the Potomac River. We will be there a couple of days in advance to prepare for the race. I'm really hoping for frigid temps and rough conditions similar to the Boston Light Swim, so that we can get an idea of our true readiness.

One last thing that I wanted to mention is that Clara and I are working on setting up swim clinics by Coach Powell in the month of June or early July. In order for this idea to be successful, we are seeking special "pool sponsors" or organizations that will let us use their facility to host these 4-hour long clinics for competitive swimmers ages 10 and up. Coach Powell has been offering clinics for 20+ years, and he has generously agreed to run one or more clinics (with Clara and I assisting) as a fundraiser to help cover our channel swimming expenses. Although this gesture is generous, it is merely scratching the surface of the overwhelming support I have received from Coach. He is and will always be a major player in my life.

The Really Big Race

2008-04-27T12:49:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to give you all the heads up on the status of "The Really Big Race" as it refers to the swim off of Lake Maxincukee in Culver, IN between myself and my father.

Background: My father and I have a history of competitiveness between the two of us. One year, we had a pie bake-off for Thanksgiving, just because he claimed he could make a better pie than me. The results of that contest were inconclusive. Yes, his pumpkin pie tasted better than my banana creme pie (that I forgot to add sugar to). However, he used pre-made crust when it was supposed to be a pie FROM SCRATCH.

Anyway, my father has recently taken up swimming as his sport of choice. Last year he swam Lake Maxincukee in Culver (a 2.5 mile swim) and this year we are making it our newest competition. On June 8th, we will swim-off. I will be swimming a double crossing, and my father a single. Who will be victorious?

This will be the must attend event for the year. We will be renting out the Train Depot in Culver for the occasion, complete with refreshments and a map of the lake with frequent GPS coordinate updates of the swimmers' progress. In addition, there will be boats going out for spectators who want a closer look, and afterwards there will be a full celebration of the race/my graduation/and my channel swim attempt.

If you are going to be in the area (or just want to be) and are interested in coming, email me your mailing address! I will be sending out formal invitations soon. Also, if you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt to support the cause, please also denote this as we are going to be placing a second bulk order. There are links to online stores located on the sidebar, if you didn't know that already and would like to view your t-shirt options. Keep in mind, however, that if you place an order through me then the price will be slightly cheaper, you will not be charged shipping, and the margin is slightly better for us.

Who will be victorious?

Wall Street Journal Article on Open Water Swimming

2008-04-19T15:49:00.001-04:00

It's nice to know that open water swimming is finally coming into it's own, mostly because of it's inclusion in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Here's a link to great article published this week in the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120847591898524775.html

The article specifically mentions the English Channel (obviously) but also the Boston Light Swim, which is the swim that Clara and I competed in this past August.

My favorite part is when they ask Michael Phelps, who is arguably the greatest swimmer in history, whether or not he would consider doing an open water swim. Any guesses on what his answer is?

The qoute-"Not a chance. No way. I won't swim open water."

CafePress Update

2008-04-16T16:50:00.001-04:00

Mallory informed me that some of her family members had been asking about infant and toddler-sized shirts, so I have added those to the CafePress shop in both designs. I also added a few other products, so you can now purchase buttons, bags, mugs, and a few other things.

If you are looking to purchase regular adult-sized tee shirts, however, the cheapest way for you (and most profitable way for us) is to order through Mallory and me by using the links in the toolbar to the right.

Mallory's Training Log 4/7-4/13

2008-04-13T09:26:00.000-04:00

4-7 4,000 yds+ 30 minutes swimming on the stretch cordz~6,000+, weights, core training
4-8 6,000 yds, weights
4-9 4,000 yds + 45 minutes swimming on the stretch cordz ~7,000+, core training
4-10 5,800 yds, weights
4-11 5,200 yds, weights
4-12 4,500 yds + catching children leaping from the diving board at swim lessons for 4 hours
4-13 Rest

My time for a broken 1650 this week was 18:29, 34 seconds faster than last time. On Friday I did a set of 4x800s, negative split and descend. I started out a little fast, and went 9:16, 9:04, 9:10, 9:08 so I didn't quite descend. I hope to do that set again this Friday and see if I can get under 9:00 on the last one. It was still a good effort though, as 9:04 is holding about 1:08s.

The stretch cordz were an addition to the training this week. Its a big rubber tube that you attatch to the blocks and then attatch the other end to your waist with a harness. Then you swim. It stretches, so you can swim all the way to the other end, but it's not something that you can maintain for long. Not only do I get to swim continuously without flip turns, but the cord makes your hips sink and puts a lot of strain on the lower back, thereby replicating some of the channel conditions I will come up against.

On May 4, I will be traveling to Memphis Tennessee to swim the mile at the Memphis Tiger's meet. As a requirement for competing in the 25K Open Water Nationals in Ft. Myers, I must swim a 1,500 M (Long course) under 19 minutes. Truthfully, I haven't swam the mile in either long couse or short course for a couple of years, so I had to do some math to figure how likely this would be. Holding 1:08s (like I did for an 800 in practice) for a 1650 would convert to a 19:04, just short. I think that I might have to do a mini taper for the meet in order to meet the goal, which is okay anyway since I will most likely be taking a break the following week for finals/graduation. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Sponsorships

2008-04-09T11:34:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to thank the following people for sponsoring me. All this support is overwhelming!

Kenan Kimble
Coach and Joey Powell
Susan Sutherland
John and Donna Diercks
Mark Ritter
Wendy and Gary Binger
Jim Ludwiczak
Otto and Lori Scholl

Right now, not including t-shirt sales, there is roughly $1,500 in my channel swim account! That is enough to book all of my plane tickets (to London, DC, and Ft. Myers) for my swims. Thank you so much everyone. I couldn't do it without your support!

Mallory's Training Log 3/31 to 4/6

2008-04-09T11:15:00.000-04:00

3/31 6,300 yd water workout, weights
4/1 8,000 yd water workout, weights (haha April Fools, Actually 6,500 yd)
4/2 5,600 yd water workout
4/3 weights (the mother of all)
4/4 3,000 yd water workout, weights

By the mother of all weight workouts, I mean that I was so sore afterwards that I couldn't walk for 4 days. Getting out of bed was painful and time-consuming process. Originally when I discussed the weight program with John, my strength coach, I was under the impression that I would be doing high reps and light weights. While I thought light, John just thought lightER, which isn't saying much when you can squat your own body weight.

Saturday was my last first day of swim lessons ever. One of my lessons is with Kelli Mae Sutherland, a great little swimmer that I have been working with since the fall of 2004. I'd like to think that I taught her everything she knows, however, I have a feeling that credit is really due to her, as she is a great student of the sport and takes every oppurtunity to work on her skills. Also at the swim lessons were three of my second cousins, Andrew and Austin Bitterling, and Corey Bitterling. Andrew and Austin are both good swimmers, who are working on the more advanced swimming techniques. Corey is a brand new swimmer, who did exceptionally well after we got through the fear and crying stage and started to have some fun. I'd like to thank my lessons for your support, as the registration fees are being applied to my swim.

This week is already looking better than last. Training log to follow soon.

Mallory

Mallory's Training Log 3-17 through 3-28

2008-03-29T14:34:00.000-04:00

After a brief 6-week break from swimming once I was done with my college season (and with all college seasons) I returned to training on Monday March 17, this time specifically for my upcoming Open Water season.

My training log for the last two weeks is as follows. Somewhat impressive after such a long break, I think.

3-17: 5,200 yd pool workout
3-18: 5,600 yd pool workout
3-19: 6,000 yd pool workout
3-21: 5,600 yd pool workout, weights
3-23: (Easter) Sweets-eating marathon (it was a marathon, wasn't it?)

3-24: 6,000 yd pool workout, weights, and core-training fitness class
3-25: 5,400 yd pool workout, cardio
3-26: 6,300 yd pool workout, core-training
3-27: 6,300 yd pool workout, weights
3-28: 3,200 yd pool workout, weights

A lot of the yardage done these two weeks were on a 1:15 base interval and I'm working toward a 1:10 base. Among the sets include Coach Powell's favorite set, the Sub-Add set.

400,300,200,100,300,200,100,200,100,100, then I put on my paddles and went
100,100,200,100,200,300,100,200,300,400 all of this was on a 1:15 base.

Also, I did some broken 1650s where I went
275,250,225,200,175,150,125,100,75,50,25 on :15 seconds rest. 1 swim, 1 pull. My time for the swim was 19:03 and my heart rate was at 4 below.

One thing I have been incorporating in my practices is a lot of heads-up swimming to strengthen my lower back and to prepare for the stress that sighting in open water puts on your body.

As for my weight workouts, the main muscle groups I am focusing on are my lats, shoulders, back, triceps, and core. My weight training coach at Western, John Stephanski, put together a 4-day program that incorporates lower-weights (than what I am used to) and higher-reps, along with a sense of urgency that manages to keep the time commitment down to 20 minutes and heart rate up the entire time. Definitely different than what I am used to, and gives me the most bang for my buck.

The Core-Training that I am doing is through the Preston Center's Awesome Abs class, a 25-minute class offered 6 days a week with 4 different instructors. It's short time commitment makes it easier for me to motivate myself to go but once I am there, it is anything but easy. Also, with the different instructors the class seems different every time I go. I like the variety in that.

Well, that's it for these two weeks. My training goals coming up include 6 water workouts a week, 4 weight workouts a week, 1-2 core training sessions, and 2 additional cardio workouts a week. Then I guess I'll just take it from there.

Sponsorships

2008-03-27T19:01:00.000-04:00

I would like to take this opportunity to thank former Hilltopper swimmer Tom Angsten for his generous gift of a $500 American Airline travel voucher. He is officially my first sponsor!

In addition, I would like to thank all who have purchased T-shirts from us. Your support means a lot to us!

Training log to follow soon.

Tee Shirts Have Been Ordered

2008-03-13T19:36:00.000-04:00

We ordered several extras, and will probably put in another order later for those of you who missed and still want to order. They will be available in about two weeks. Thanks to everyone who ordered!

Also, to anyone who hasn't paid: payment is due ASAP. Thanks.

Tee-Shirt Update

2008-02-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

I've got an update on tee shirt options. We are now going to offer long-sleeve tee shirts, since there was some interest in those. The long sleeve tees will be $20 apiece, and short-sleeve are $15. Here are your color options again:

Mallory's design:
white or grey tee on either short-sleeve or long-sleeve tee shirt

Clara's design:
navy or sapphire tee with white writing, or maroon or white tee with grey writing in short-sleeve shirt

OR

navy or royal tee with white writing in long-sleeve shirt

Sizes are S-XXL, and XXL's are going to be a dollar extra.

Thanks again for your support!

So Here's the Deal: Boston/Bowling Green/South Bend/Purdue/IU

2008-01-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

Anyone who lives in Boston, Bowling Green, or South Bend, or who attends Purdue or IU, we will be bulk ordering ALL tee shirts together. We are taking orders over the next several weeks, and money will be due later. Please, if you tell us you are getting a shirt, you really need to be prepared to buy it, because the end price will depend on how many people order.

SO, order details (to see designs, please see previous post):

Mallory's design is available on white or grey tee shirts, with colors as shown below

Clara's design is available in white writing on sapphire or navy tee shirts, or in grey writing on white or maroon tee shirts.

Please email orders with chosen designs, sizes, and colors to either Mallory at mallory.mead@wku.edu or Clara at cbennett@mit.edu.

Thanks again so much for your support!

I Did Not Disappear

2008-01-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

Lately Clara has been the rock-star out of the two of us, I know. I have been a little difficult to track down lately.

Here's the rundown on me:

1. I finally have an application pack on its way (that was way more complicated than you may think, it can be difficult sending money over the pond, you know)

2. I have my contract for my boater and I will be sending it soon. (Once again, its hard to send money) My possible swim dates are July 25, 26, or 27, depending on the weather.

3. I applied for my passport!

4. I was accepted into the Potomac River Swim (7,5 miles one way). I'm not sure yet whether or not I will be allowed to attempt a double crossing.

5. I'm trying to nail down a date for the REALLY big race against my dad in June. I'm swimming across Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver, Indiana twice and he's swimming it once (about 3 miles one way). Who will be victorious?

6. I actually made it into the ocean over winter training trip down in Key Largo.

7. As I write this, I am preparing to swim in my very last home meet for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Phew, busy, right?

As for T-shirt order for the Bowling Green crowd, I need to get an idea of how many I'm ordering, so you can email those to me at mallory.mead@hotmail.com. I still have to talk to the local print shops in town before I can have any more details.

It's getting real now.

CafePress and Printfection shops are up and running!

2008-01-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

The T-shirts are designed, and are now for sale on CafePress.com and Printfection.com. Because CafePress has weird rules regarding free shops, I had to set up two separate shops for our two separate designs. The designs are shown on white, but there are a variety of color options in the shop, and there will be color options for bulk orders. The CafePress shop has a wider variety of clothing styles, while the Printfection shop has a wider variety of colors on regular tees.

Mallory's design:
http://www.cafepress.com/channel_swim
http://www.printfection.com/thechlorinator

Clara's design:
http://www.cafepress.com/channel_swim2
http://www.printfection.com/thechlorinator

Again, if you don't live in the Boston/Bowling Green/South Bend area, go ahead and order from the CafePress site now. Otherwise, standby for updates regarding bulk orders to these areas (which will be cheaper). We are considering bulk orders to Purdue and IU, pending interest and volunteered help, so if you attend one of these schools, you might want to hold off on ordering until we figure out what's happening.

And for the Boston area people, I will be collecting orders over the next few weeks, so go ahead and email me at cbennett@mit.edu with your desired styles and sizes. We will be ordering Mallory's shirt in either white or grey, and Clara's shirt in navy/white writing, sapphire/white, white/grey writing, or maroon/grey. Both styles will be the same price (in the neighborhood of $15), so go ahead and choose whichever you like best. Or just buy one of each!

First Official Post of Channel Swim Year!

2008-01-17T11:58:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! It is now officially the Year of the Channel Swim. Woot!

As is traditional in the swimming world, January means hard training. I haven't got school until February, so I'm just up to my ears in IAP (January term) training, with a little research gig on the side. My conference championships are coming up in about a month, and then after that (unless I make nationals) I'll be training on my own or with the MIT Masters until summer.

On the logistics front, I've got a deposit down for my boat, and just sent off the signed contract. Mallory's tee shirt design is done, and I'm just finishing mine up, so our CafePress shop should hopefully be up and running by the end of the week. Please please please buy a shirt (or five)! The estimated cost of this whole shabang is just under $5000, so we've still got a lot of money to raise. On that token, if anyone is interested in making a donation beyond the cost of a tee shirt, shoot us an email or something. We'll be setting up an account soon.

Well, I think that's about all I've got. Over and out. :-D

Progress Update

2007-11-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update: while we haven't made official contracts yet, our boating situtation is beginning to round itself out, and it looks like we'll be swimming in the neap tide at the end of July. A little earlier than we hoped, but maybe we'll get some time to go to France afterwards before school starts up for me again!

As far as training, mine is going swimmingly (feel free to groan). I had a little illness this week, but I'm over it and ready to get in another good week of training next week.

Hopefully tee shirt sales will be coming soon. I think that's it for now, but keep checking back.

We respond with a resounding, "Why NOT??" (posted by Clara)

2007-09-16T23:40:00.001-04:00

The act of diving (or in Mallory's case, awkwardly falling) into the frigid, choppy water eight miles from the South Boston shoreline may have sealed our plans for the next year, but it was merely the culmination of years of speculation and preparation. It all began early in our friendship... someone suggested that Mallory (already an accomplished distance swimmer) should swim the English Channel, and I jokingly replied that if she did it, I would too. I don't think I could put my finger on the actual moment in time when our grandiose plans morphed from being in jest to being deadly serious, but I think some part of me has always wanted to tackle the great white whale of open water swimming.

For most of my life, I've enjoyed pushing myself higher, harder, and faster. I came into my own as a distance swimmer at around 14 or 15, but I always chose to swim all the longest and hardest events available in my age group, long before I was any good at them. Why? Because other people were scared to swim them. 400 IM? Mile? 200 fly? Bring it on! Anyone who has ever played a game of ultimate frisbee or water polo with me knows that I always willing to sacrifice personal safety to win, and in my freshman year in high school, I wanted so badly to be the one to swim the furthest without taking a breath that I swam until I passed out. In short, if a challenge presents itself to me, I love to take it on.

Of course, pool swimming has its own obstacles. There is always the challenge of posting faster times, swimming longer and more difficult sets, etc, etc. But at the end of the day, you're still swimming in highly controlled, laboratory-like conditions. Some pools may be a little warmer, or more poorly lit than others, but within reason, every single pool race has the exact same parameters.

Not so with open water swimming. If it's cold, choppy, rainy, you just have to suck it up at TAKE it. Open water swimming is you against nature, and she is a fiery and unpredictable opponent. And every race is totally different, even on the same course. Yeah, sometimes it's so cold you can't f-ing pee, and the water is so full of minerals that your suit-rub spots are bleeding, and that stupid landmark you're sighting just never seems to get any closer, but when you finally pull yourself out of the water at the end... well, there's nothing like it. So why do I want to swim the English Channel? Because it's there!

That all being said, I don't think I would have ever seriously considered actually making a Channel attempt if it wasn't for Mallory. When she swam (and won) the 7.8-mile Little Red Light House swim in New York, the furthest I had ever swum open water was a mile, and that was in a dinky man-made lake. The next summer, when she swam 28 miles around Manhattan Island, I had made it out for a 2-mile ocean swim in San Fransisco bay, but I was still clearly playing catch-up. She's my partner in all of this madness, but she's also my inspiration. So in 10 or 11 months, when I'm ten miles in and ready to die, Mallory, who brings out my craziest and most hard-core traits, will be my motivation to just keep swimming.

You might be asking yourself "Why?" (Posted by Mallory)

2007-09-16T20:48:00.000-04:00

On August 18, 2007, Clara and I took a momentous leap into chilly 60-degree water for an 8 mile swim, thereby cementing the pact we had made years earlier. I'm not really sure how it got started: I'm sure the initial seeds were planted by family and friends, who upon hearing about my open water swimming adventures, countered with "So when are you going to swim the English Channel?" For me, that was it. The notion had been implanted. Now I understand that they were teasing me, a fact that has become glaringly apparent by their reactions as they learn of my plans for an August 2008 crossing. Before, when I boasted of my future plans, these same people would smile and nod, and maybe offer a small word of encouragement. Now they look on with disbelief as my childhood dream becomes a reality. I am, in fact, a freak. Very few people in the world enjoy a challenge as much as I do. I enjoy the daily grind of training, of pushing myself past imagined boundaries and achieving more than thought possible. I have found my niche with open water swimming.

The sport of open water swimming is a lonely one. Over the course of my pool swimming career, I have trained with hundreds of comrades by my side. I can count on one hand the number of people who have trained beside me in a body of water not chlorinated. There are so many more uncontrollables. The water can be any temperature, any color, and can have ANYTHING floating in it. It is usually impossible to see the bottom, and even if you could see the bottom, you probably wouldn't want to. Boats fumes can choke you and make you nauseous. Worse yet, boat propellers could strike you and severely injure you. Jellyfish can sting you, fish can nibble on you, and yes, a shark could theoretically bite you.

In spite of all this, I have found someone who shares my passion and who is living this dream beside me. It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Clara that she is doing this. As she came out of the water on August 18th, having been fighting the waves and chilly temperatures for almost four hours, she was completely unfazed. As I shivered in my sweats, winter hat, tennis shoes, and gloves, she declined so much as a towel, and was content to sit right there, looking out on the beach.