It was a privilege to witness a group of experienced endurance athletes, all successful English Channel or Loch Lomond soloists, demonstrate their mental toughness by swimming through the night at Dover harbour on Saturday. They all started at nine in the evening, and 12 hours later at 9am, tired smiling bodies were greeted and applauded by fresh faced swimmers preparing for their comparatively measly four, five and six hour swims.
The swim started at 9pm with the target of going through the night. From the Serpentine, were Deirdre Ward, Dani Lobo, and Stu Bowman. They were joined by Philip Hodges, Vicky Miller and Jason Bettley and Becky Lewis.
The photos tell the story, but congratulations to Stu Bowman, who on top of swimming the English Channel and also completing four ironman races in the past; on this occasion decided to exit after six hours of swimming in the darkness. Six hours is the holy grail for qualification for many who want to swim solo to France. Stu can add this to his recent swim of swimming one mile every hour for ten hours.
Although Phil Hodges has not swam the English Channel, "he was one of the two finishers out of nine at Loch Lomond last year, which, with the 2014 conditions, is easily as tough as an EC swim" commented one of the other English Channel swimmers.
There was a large support crew on hand, with credit going to the organisers Nick Adams, Sakura Adams, Ange Johnson, Mike Barron, Boris Mavra, Mummy and Daddy Lewis, Amy and Helen Gibbs. It was wonderful to see Freda 'the Channel General' Streeter pop in just before the start to also wish the swimmers well. Fan club included Volker, Natasha, Vanessa and John T and Jaana and Kirstie.
The battle of the mind would have eroded all of the swimmers, but enormous congratulations to Deirdre, Dani, Philip, Vicky, Jason and Becky who swam for a punishing 12 hours. James Norton, a Canadian English Channel soloist with a penchant for Shakespearean drama summed it up sweetly as a Midsummer night's wet dream."
A great bonus for the motivational memory banks for those who did it and the rest of us swimmers who share the positives of their huge swim in the darkness.
[John Tierney]
Did you swim for 12 hours on Saturday night
