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2 swim 4 life

Tuesday 16th June 2015

2 Swim 4 Life

Ok I didn't manage 24 miles, but, hang on, I SWAM 15 MILES! The training had gone well, no injuries, and just a couple of weeks out with a bad cold early in the year. I really enjoyed finding my swimming mojo again, and plan to keep on focussing on improving my times over some shorter distances. I think coach Brian is pleased with the efforts I've been putting in in the pool, and there is plenty to build on.

Me and official 'swim buddy', Pete, travelled up straight from school and put up our tent at Guildford lido before checking into the budget hotel and then eating dinner (rather later than ideal) with some other swimmers. A group of ladies (the marvellous mermaids), who were a team, let us join their table in a busy restaurant, but another soloist on our table managed to put the fear into me by announcing it made ironmans look easy (I'll now say that it depends on the ironman - I've done 6 and some were easier and some were not). Anyway, I managed to only let that wake me up in the night twice with palpitations and woke before my alarm at 5 ready to go.

We got to the lido nice and early and got a good parking space. Gradually others arrived and we went in to register. There was some milling about and my friend Clare arrived to support. I think supporting is at least a two person job, and Clare and Pete managed to establish a good early routine.

The first mile felt horrible. I was worried about being the slowest in my lane (which I was) and I was unprepared for how much chop there was out in the middle of the 10 lane, 50m pool with a breeze and all the other swimmers around. I was also dreadfully nervous and that impacted badly on my rhythm. The second mile felt much better. The routine was: get in at the top of the hour, swim 32 lengths, get out, wrap in 'dry robe', change into dry cossie, put on warm clothes, then sit down and rest before heading back to the pool to strip off the clothes, put the robe back on and wait for the top of the hour to start again.

After 5 miles the swimming was going well and I was enjoying it. I was fairly consistent in my times and wasn't too cold. Then my family and Alison from work arrived and I felt very supported but at the same time very aware of a weight of expectation. Pete and Jon were worrying that I hadn't eaten enough and were trying to get me to eat more. However, eating was making me feel nauseous and dizzy which was then making me anxious. A couple of trips to the loo seemed to stabilise my stomach as I switched to carb drink, gels and shot blocks. My kids were really helping here. I swam thorough a mile where I felt dizzy and worried whether I was in fact getting too cold but things improved and when my coach Brian, and his wife Lesley and daughter Teresa came I had a good few miles with support at both ends of the pool, although in between I didn't stray too far from the loos as my stomach was a bit upset still.

I got to 11 miles and then apparently my lips started to look a bit blue, and I was getting a shakes a bit in between swims. We were told the water was 22.5, but another swimmer reckoned he measured it at 19. It was certainly warmer than when my club mates did it two years ago but it wasn't a walk in the park, weather wise. I opted to put on a wetsuit which was nice and warming but which did affect my stroke a bit. The miles clocked up, the sun went down, the kids and my dad left, and then my friend Cat arrived, replacing Brian, Lesley and Teresa.

There was something very nice about swimming in the dark. The atmosphere changed and the lido looked very pretty under the flood lights. Although I didn't make it back to our tent, we did get some compliments on our fairy lights! A few people had ordered pizza and it was quite tempting! I swam on through the rain. Jon went to get a few hours sleep in the tent and Cat and Pete stood in the rain counting lengths. Pete was trying to encourage me by telling me my times but I'm afraid to say I was starting to focus only on the increasing pain in my shoulders and found it annoying. (Which I told him - sorry Pete!)

I got through half way which was a milestone especially considering how I'd felt at mile 6. In my head I wanted to get to 16. My shoulders were now telling me I probably wouldn't finish 24. The first few strokes of every mile were hard but I settled into it. The pain eased sometimes but was getting worse through each swim. I focussed just on the next mile.

At some point in mile 15 it just became impossible to turn my left arm over. Each turn at the end of a length pushed pain through my shoulder and I could no longer turn my hand over to look at my watch. I tried breast stroke (almost impossible in a wetsuit!) with the most puny little arm strokes! I had another couple of goes at crawl. I tried swimming one armed. Each time I tried to move my left arm I winced in pain. Lisa from work had arrived and I was so pleased to see her but I knew I was doing my last mile. I kicked the last 400m to complete mile 15. I certainly wasn't going to leave a mile dangling!

Pete and Cat tried to persuade me to carry on but when I got into the hot tub to see if warmth on my shoulder would release it, it was clear that I couldn't move enough. I toyed with the idea of kicking out the last 9 miles. I love kicking, but I would have had to do it with my arms by my side so that would have been 9 miles of banging my head at the end of each length! There were some other swimmers, including some teams, in the hot tub and they supported my decision to stop. At that point there was no telling if I had done some serous damage.

Cat took me back to the hotel and helped me change, and then took me home. Jon and Pete cleared up and packed the car. I hope they weren't too disappointed. I haven't asked because I don't want to think about it. There was absolute agony in my left shoulder the following day but the physio thinks I haven't torn anything and that I will make a full recovery. When he asked what I'd been up to and I told him, he said, 'Fifteen miles! Yes that's a long way!' But he also said that maybe with some shoulder strengthening work I might get through all 24 miles next time... That's for later discussion!
In the meantime there is the small matter of 9 'owed' miles. I plan to swim them (on the hour, every hour) at Club La Santa in August. Hopefully I can do a bit more awareness and fund raising for the charity place2be as well (https://www.justgiving.com/Hildi-Mitchell1/) as providing support for children and teens with mental health problems is so important. Although I wasn't able to complete my challenge, keeping that charitable work in my head while training really helped me get the miles in. 15 miles really is quite a long way to swim and I should be pleased with that.

(You certainly should, Hildi!)