Emma France's Journey to Swimming the English
Channel:
Lake Zurich
fsid fundraising
so far....
Great event, fantastic location. I became sick after a few hours and couldn't take on much food for a good few hours, as a result I didn't quite make the full distance and was pulled out 2km from the finish after 11hrs 50mins.
We arrived in Zurich early on Friday and made our way to Raperswil made all the easier by Georgia's excellent German! We stayed in Hotel Speer which was conveniently located just over the road from the train station. The hotel and the staff were fantastic - we were all set for a great weekend.
We met up with Dana, had some lunch in a lovely Italian restaurant (that seemed to be all there was which was useful for carb loading!) and then headed out to find a supermarket to stock up with food and water for the event. After all the important details were taken care of we heading down to Raperswil lido for a quick splash. The water felt quite pleasant even the kids enjoyed a good swim so it must have been good! The sign at the lido suggested that the water was 22C.
I had a bit of a trapped nerve feeling which was causing me concern - I was worried it would be linked to shoulder pain like before so I only did a short swim so as not to push it too much.
Friday night was very wet with a bit of
thunder which freaked Lauren out, so a few of us went out in
search of a takeaway sandwich and stayed in for the evening.
I went out in search of someone to give me a massage on my back & neck but with no luck - I'll have to just keep my fingers crossed!!
The rest of the family went shopping, I decided to rest up in the hotel. During the afternoon whilst they went pedaloing I made up the feeds for Sunday - it took ages and is a very messy business!! I finished it all just in time to join Emily Morris and a bunch of other swimmers for a lovely Italian carbo loading meal before attempting to get an early night!
This was the big day!! Strangely I didn't sleep all that well last night! Breakfast was at 0530 - porridge and a bread roll was the order of the day, although I really didn't feel like anything at such a ridiculously early time. Once we'd finished we headed down to Raperswil Lido with a ton of food and bits and pieces ready for the start. Once we located the rowing boat all the bits and pieces were loaded, my kit was placed with the other kit bags to be taken to the finish and I got myself greased up. There was a real air of nervousness and excitement.
A few minutes before the start the names and home countries of all the competitors was read out and then we entered the water ready for the start. After lots of exchanges of wishes of luck there was a countdown and we were off!!
The first target was the first headland. Sounds simple but that was a couple of hours across the bay. It was going to be a very long day. Although I wasn't really all that far behind some of the swimmers I soon felt like I was last!
The relay swimmers started about 30 minutes behind us and it wasn't long before the really fast teams overtook.
I really enjoyed the first couple of hours and settled in for a long day after I'd thrown my toys out of my pram to get the rowing boat to stay beside me rather than going ahead (the continual looking up was really hurting my neck). However it was all a bit too good to be true. At about 3 hours I started to feel sick. This wasn't supposed to happen!! I took the feeds right down to try and correct the problem but it didn't do any good and at 5hrs 20min I was very sick. As well as feeling sick I had pain in my stomach which just made me want to crawl up into a ball which doesn't really work very well with streamlining!! The other problem is that the effect of pulling just made me feel worse.
So the more sick I felt, the more I stopped and the less power I could put in my stroke and so the slower I became. This was not good. This was EXACTLY the same pattern as the sickness I experienced on my solo channel attempt in 2007 despite changing the make of feed that I was using. At least I now know that this has nothing to do with drinking too much salt water.
Every part of me wanted to give up. I don't ever want to feel this ill again. I thought about every person who has helped me get to this point and whom I didn't want to let down - the beach crew in Dover, my family, baby Leo and his family, the 'beach bums' I've trained with and my sponsors. I couldn't quit. Just when I thought that there was no hope Paul told me that we were close to Meilen which is the 14.4k point which had to be reached by 6.5hrs. Somehow I managed to get there by 6hrs 5mins. If I could just get back on track the full swim would still be possible within the 12 hour time frame.
The problem is that even water was making me feel ill and there is only so long you can go before you simply run out of steam. I became slower and slower and was becoming physically exhausted. The medical boat kept coming to check on me. At about 7.5hrs they gave me a concoction of ginger water with magnesium and something else and it was the first drink that didn't make me feel worse. At this point I accepted that it wouldn't be possible to make the full distance within the cut-off time and the normal strategy of swimming from feed to feed was not a good strategy as feeding was a very negative event, so I needed to create new mini goals. I told Georgia that I'd aim for double digits (10 hours) which at that point seemed impossible, but first I wanted to achieve 8 hours to match the amount of time I spent in the water on my solo in 2007. Once I got to 10 hours the finish was visible (a long way off), I was starting to feel better and I knew I could continue until I either finished or I ran out of time.
I feel privileged to be in the position to be able to get Georgia to call Freda for advice - it's reassuring to know that she's at the end of the phone with advise which is beyond question.
Once I started feeling better (about 9 hours) we started to re-introduce feeds, very weak to start with but gradually increasing in concentration. Suddenly I got a second wind and my speed started to pick up again. Unfortunately it was too little too late. At around 11 hours I started to feel ill again, so there is definitely a fine line to be found.
At 11hrs 20mins one of the organising boats came towards me and told me that it would not be possible to finish within the time limit and gave me the choice of giving up then or carrying on for another 30 minutes. There was no way that I was going to voluntarily quit at this point so I said that I would continue swimming until they told me I had to stop. By the time they stopped me at 11hrs 50mins I was about 2k off the finish. Frustratingly close.
Paul & Georgia had been conscientiously making notes of co-ordinates, stroke rates, feeds etc. So I now have some really good data to analyse.
The map below shows my co-ordinates at various points.
The graph below shows the information about the amount of feed and my speed at each hour and cumulatively
Not surprisingly you can see the link between lack of feed and speed and the effect of the ginger and feeds bringing my speed back up again. Another hour and I would have made it.
After the event we decided to get the train
back to Raperswil. Problem was it was a 15 minute walk and
that was simply too much on dehydration and exhaustion. We
got to the train station but I then went on to faint on the
train - clearly I did push myself as far as I could. I
should be pleased with that - no-one can say that I didn't
try!!!
There are lots of positives from this swim:
I now have a month to work out what to change for my channel solo. I am very nervous - I really don't want to feel like that ever again and I am very scared that this will happen again on my solo or alternatively I'll reduce the feeds to much and completely run out of steam.
The other issue that I have is that my 9 year old daughter was completely freaked out by my fainting and doesn't want me to ever do something like this again. I think she's OK with the channel as the pilots are so experienced and safety conscious but it will worry her.
NOTHING GREAT IS EASY!!
When: Sunday 26th July 2009
22nd Int. Self-Transcendence Marathon Swim from Rapperswil to Zurich
Distance:
26.4km
Maximum time permitted: 12 Hours (this
is going to be very tight)
Water
The lake is clean and usually calm. Small waves from
boats and wind are usual. The water temperature is
expected to be between 19-23C.
Rules
1. Swimmers must not use any type of flotation aid
(boards or flippers etc)
2. Pacing is not allowed
3. Swimmers may grease up before the swim
4. Swimmers must not touch the boat while swimming
5. Swimmers must organise their own food, grease and
helper
6. Swimmers who have not passed Meilen (14.4km) by 1.30pm
or reached the finish by 7pm will be taken out of the race
This swim is shorter than the channel, warmer and the conditions are far better, it is however still 26.4km of swimming and will be great preparation for my channel solo. It will give me the opportunity to test my feeding regime over a long distance, given that feeding caused me a problem on my last solo attempt, that's definitely a bonus.
Views of Lake Zurich