A SCAR Wrap up – what I have learnt.

Important things I have learnt along this journey

The dust has now settled and I am enjoying a bit of R&R. As I have a bit of time, I would like to divulge what I have learnt about myself and also about open water swimming in general. So after a few days having a bit of  a holiday I thought it pertinent to put fingers to keyboard and share a bit of the experience we have just undertaken so let’s start at the beginning.

1 – the planning.

You can never plan enough for these things. It is all over in a flash. 7 months of planning and reading every email sent out by the organisers and booking accommodation and cars and flights and the like. Sadly, once an event like this starts it is over in a flash.A common saying that gets bandied around in this world is ” Failure to plan is planning to Fail!” I find that it is not so important in the one day events but when you are moving around the whole time and packing, unpacking and preparing for swims, Planning is everything. For those of you who know me, this can be a bit of an issue so having a great support team that pretty much hounds me into keeping up my end of the bargain is imperative. If it were down to me, I would have just pitched up with a few swimming trunks and a credit card but my success is solely down to one person – my support crew. Without them, I would have maybe bumbled through but it would have been due to the unfailing support and friendship form the group as a whole. I have now learnt the error of my ways and I am so fortunate to have such a “worrier” to kick my back side into action. These swims do not happen without teamwork – something which I have always been aware of but never really felt the true meaning of it until this swim.

2 – The swims

This is a very small part of a trip like this. Please if any of you take on this swim – or others like it, BE PREPARED TO GET STUCK IN. Kent and his team are amazing, do not get me wrong but when you have kayakers to move, kayaks to move and pack up every day, hotels to change, swimmers to keep in order – and plenty of other stuff, many hands make light work. Hanging around, and helping out if necessary is much appreciated especially as the day may end for you as you touch the buoys but continues way beyond that point for the organisers. Any help they can get their hands on, be it tired swimmers and kayakers, they are most grateful for.

 

3 – The training

Now this is very individual so I do not condone what I do will work for others. You have to tread your own path here. As I have been training in Britain, I have not had access to big stretches of water over the long winter months. I have had access to 25m and 50m heated pools. Swimming 6 hours plus in those is mind numbingly boring and even for the likes of me who has done this before, I admit to succumbing to that boredom. Up until SCAR, my last 8 hour swim was in August last year. The longest I have done since is about 2 hours, this is due to lack of time and work commitments – and yes, you guessed it BOREDOM. I spoke to Otto Thanning last year and asked him about his training. His regime is short, frequent swims. Now he and I both have a number of 8 hour plus swims under our belt so we know what it takes and, more importantly, what can go wrong. We have a pretty strong fitness level so I opted to just keep this level topped up with short frequent swims. There was no LONG 6 – 8 hour swims in my training. For me, this worked and I successfully managed to get through all of them, jumping from a 2 hour swim to a 3.5 hour swim and then, in Apache, from a 3.5 hour longest swim of the season right up to a 9 hour swim. My fitness was in the bank, it only needed maintaining.

Again, I do not condone this for everyone but I do think that nowadays, there is a lot of OVERTRAINING, only for swimmers to bomb out in their main event.

4 – Your support crew

I was very fortunate to have Audra volunteer to come and support me and it was never more apparent than the Apache swim, how important your crew is to you. Make it or not, they are my lifeline; if I get cold or need food or just some encouragement, they are your go-to People. If at all possible, DO NOT LEAVE THEM. She fought hard not to leave me on Apache but sadly had too. ONLY do this if you are confident that you have a substitute or at least can tag onto another swimmers kayaker. If you choose the latter, do not expect help from them, they are there only to watch you. If you are faster than that swimmer, do not lead them. It is their swim too, they are helping you. Stay in the background. The reason I say this is, they could be in a very comfortable stroke FOR THEM. If you lead them, they may use you as a pacemaker pushing them over and above their speed. All kayakers will be happy to help out but be mindful of the extra burden they have taken on.

5 – Never Assume ANYTHING

ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME. This was where Audra and I fell down big time. Arizona? Desert? Hot! who possibly needs cold/wet weather gear? We are From Britain, we deal with the cold all the time. Also our wet weather gear takes up space and much needed weight allowance. BAD DECISION. Mother nature is a powerful, unpredictable thing and not to be taken lightly. When that wind blows and you get wet, She is taking you down, unless you have the right kit to deal with it. Do not get me wrong, Audra had a change of clothes to get into but a T-shirt and spare shorts is no match for 25 MPH winds barreling down a canyon when you are wet and cold already. Prepare for every eventuality. Some people can get away with it but for most PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN and PLAN some more. Audra I hope you are reading  and taking notes so you can plan our next trip.

6 – Enjoy the moments.

When travelling around the world to stunning places to swim, you have two choices as a swimmer.

1 – give it your all.

2 – enjoy the experience.

On the first 2 swims, it was the latter. Scenery stunning, location stunning, people great, water nice and warm. This moment was there to be soaked up and enjoyed. I did, and loved it. Day 3 was a bit of a weird one, tough to give it my all and the expereince was hard. This is where I learnt a lot about myself as a swimmer, and a person. It was not all about me, it became more about my team. This was hard for someone who can be very selfish when in the zone. I labelled this swim as a kayak with swimmer support for many people.  On the last swim, I thought about the first choice but changed half way through the swim. There will be other swims for me to hammer out but this one was very special so I enjoyed the experience. On that note, I think the next one is

7 – Adapt

Planning helps but be prepared to change that plan at the drop of a hat. Take Apache. I was all prepared to get to the staging beach, to chill, sit under a tree, and mentally prepare for an 8 hour swim, but next thing you know, you are having to pacify irate campers followed by offloading kayaks off the U- haul, followed by setting up your kayaker, and pre-swim preparations. This is all followed by a very hasty send off then your feeding plan goes out the window as you are forced to only feed when the weather abates a little. After that, helping your support kayaker, keeping them driven and inspired whilst getting cold, not feeding when you want, sometimes swimming without a support kayaker… The whole affair is very fluid and you as an individual have to be prepared to ADAPT and think on your feet. Once an event like this is in motion, there is very little you can do to stop it going ahead but things CAN AND WILL CHANGE all the time. Your ability as a swimmer to adapt will get you to the end. Even when the end is in sight, the ability to adapt is huge; try driving an unfamiliar boat with a whole bunch of swimmers, whilst dodging other swimmers in the water in unfamiliar surroundings to the dock, not knowing where the dock is in the pitch black. Take responsibility for your actions and don’t blame anyone but yourself. The buck stops with me. Audra and I are only here because I wanted to be here. The Buck stops with me. Playing the blame game is going to help noone.

8 – Leave your negative attitude at home

Since I got into this sport may moons ago, I whole-heartedly advocate – “what the mind concieves, the body will achieve” and “Any gremlins in your mind will very soon manifest themselves in your physical being”. Let me explain. I have never approached, or talked about any of my swims with the words Attempt, Try, Have a go. It has always been I AM GOING TO SWIM……..  At no point in my mutterings about this has my mind ever been able to latch onto a “get out” clause. If there is any doubt in your mind that you MIGHT not get to the end, you might as well not even bother starting. Yes I had doubts but they were NEVER verbalised in my mind. It only ever heard the positive ending to all my swims. Also when you approach things from a positive perspective then the enjoyment factor is going to be much stronger.

I have come across some very accomplished swimmers who have some sort of mental block when it comes to endurance swims. It is by no means that they do not have the ability to do them but something – I have yet to find out what it is – prevents them from finishing. There is always the possibility of failure in any situation, how you go about minimising that failure starts very early on in the process. If Failure does occur then DO NOT BEAT yourself up over it. I could do well from reading that last statement as I have been known to be VERY hard on myself.

9 – Feeding

Now this is VERY individual. I have a plan, a plan that has worked for me in the past and this is what I stick to bar some minor adaptation. I am not going to say much about it as it is something you have to play with and get what works for you. Should you want my feeding plan then please comment and I will be happy to share it with you. What I can say though, is, it is very important for both you and your crew. Without good feeding, a swim can very quickly turn into a nightmare.

10 – Overall synopsis

Be proud of what you do achieve. I have loved this swim from many aspects but some worth mentioning are as follows.

– My recovery after each swim has been phenomenal. Within hours of getting out the water after each day I was ready for the next onslaught

– I was lucky enough not to have to resort to using drugs for pain relief. I see a lot of swimmers who live on these. My personal thoughts on it are that it is a bad thing, in that it can mask your pain and you may not be aware you are making it worse. I am aware that I am very fortunate though.

– My ability to adapt my stroke constantly I think helped enormously. If anyone ever analysed me over this event, they would see about 6 very distinct adaptations that I tried out and they all did exactly what I wanted them to do at the time they were needed.

– Keep smiling. People will wonder what you have been up too.

– Be approachable. In an international swim, there are plenty of other people that you will not know who want to find out about you and who you are. Mingle, be part of the event and it will make it so much more enjoyable.

– Learn to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit and miles to KM. The Americans have no clue about Celcius as I had none about Fahrenheit.

And finally a quick word from my kayaker/planner/worrier/all time star, Audra (ok, Audra wrote that) I do agree on most of it

Hey all.

What have I learned from this event?! Mmmm. Firstly being from a background in which sport was a definite second, it has been an awesome challenge for me both physicaly and mentally to take on an event like SCAR. When Graeme asked me to do this, I laughed. A lot. After years with my nose in books, having had various injuries and physical issues, I thought my sporting days were a distant memory. But I came round to the idea, mainly because a) I didn’t want to miss going to Arizona (Grand Canyon, great weather), b) I wanted to see what all the fuss was and why these crazy swimming folk do this and c) it would be a physical challenge beyond which I had never gone. Why not, right?

Just jump in.

Secondly, when I started the training I muttered and splashed my way through it in grim February temperatures. For support and encouragement I could not fault Graeme – he was my number 1 advocate, but I couldn’t help but think he was pretty darn relaxed about it all! (Worry, worry) He and Sue (the wonderful lady who provided us with sit-on-tops to practice on) taught me how to kayak having never sat in one before, but it wasn’t until I went on an actual course that I felt more confident. Being true to who I was (the worrier, the planner) was extremely important for me mentally and helped me prepare properly ahead of time. Physically, pilates was a God-send and after years of a bad back, it made me a lot stronger – the preparation even though it wasn’t comprehensive was essential. I could have done more though and had I been fitter, I would have made it to the end of Apache with my swimmer, but in those conditions I had nothing left in the tank after 5-6 hours, complicated by the cold.  Which also brings me to;

Hypothermia. OH BOY. That was fun, not. I had experienced it once before, but honestly, I had forgotten just how disabling it was. As Graeme said, we didn’t prepare for the cold, so lesson learned. In addition to that though, I learned how supportive and understanding this community of swimmers is; not only because they’ve experienced hypothermia before, but because they understand the deep disappointment you feel when you can’t finish. Suzie and Walter, and fellow kayakers, thank you again, but thank you especially to Graeme for being so understanding when I had to finish early. I’m so glad he was able to go on and finish despite me keeping him back.

Finally, I hoped to learn what all the fuss was about as regards these big swimming events. Now I know!

It has been an unforgettable trip, in beautiful part of the world, surrounded by alot of really good and frankly inspiring people, doing something they love. Mystery solved – its a no brainer! And something I would so gladly be a part of again. Having organised a small sporting event before I thought I understood what it was like to pull one off, but I clearly don’t – Kent and his army of volunteers had their work cut out for them and I can only say I have a profound respect for them all and we are grateful to them for giving up so much of their time to host such an amazing event. It must have been a real headache.

Finally, I’ve learned that no matter what limits you have assigned for yourself in your head, you can overcome them by believing in yourself. We all know this in theory – but until you try pushing yourself beyond your limits, you will never know what you can accomplish. Without Graeme I would never have tried, but I really surprised myself – he has been such an inspiration. Although perhaps not in fashion.. I won’t be putting in an order for crochet shorts any time soon!

Thank you to all – its been such a pleasure meeting you and sharing SCAR with you.

Thank you too to all our supporters back home; family, friends, colleagues, sponsors, you know who you are!

Back to reality very soon. See you all then..