Zimhippo Challenged the Channel and Won 11 Hrs 45 min

Hi all

Finally, after many months of training in Dover and the pool and Heron lake my date arrived on the 28th September 2008. I went down to Dover on the Saturday for my last training swim with the General in the Harbour, there were about 5 of us on the beach and I went in for a 2 hour swim. After that we met up with some friends and I went off to get some sleep as I was to meet my Pilot at her boat at 0900Hrs on Sunday. This was a futile attempt as I could not sleep.

Some friends Started to arrive to see me off on Sunday so went to Dinner with them and then early bed

Woke at 5.30 Sunday morning after a very restless night, went onto the promenade to gaze over my goal for the day and watch the sun Rise. During the next couple of Hours some more friends arrived to see me off. I boarded the boat with my parents, Mama and Papa Hippo, Pygmy hippo and A friend, Greg Woods who swam the channel 2 weeks earlier and has been a training partner for me whilst in Dover. We waved goodbye to all my supporters and they made their way to Samphire Hoe beach where I was to start my swim from.

We arrived there, I jumped off the boat and went to shore to where my friends were and then off I went followed shortly by A friend, who stripped down to his smalls follwed me for a few metres shouting don't worry Graeme I will save you but gave up when he realised that it was actually quite cold and he couldn't keep up with me.

Well the swim went well, weather was good and my pace was blinding for the first two hours with my stroke rate up at about 75 strokes per minute.this slowed to about 66 after two hours and stayed like this all the way across

11 hours and 45 minutes later, in the dark I approached Cap Gris Nez and ended up having to clamber over some rocks at the base of the cliff under the lighthouse in the pitch Dark.

All in all very satifying, my body now aches all over and I am sure it will be like this for a couple of days but I will keep the pain to remind me not to do something so silly again----------at least for a while.

There will soon be photos galore and a more in detail write up.

For now I would like to Thanks all my Friends, Family, colleagues and channel swimmers who helped with this attempt without them none of what I am feeling now would be possible, I didn't swim the Channel, We all did in our own seperate ways.

Till I get my life sorted out

Zimhippo signing off

All happening this Sunday

Hi all

Thank you for all your support over this venture but the Zimhippo has now had a conversation with his pilot and it now looks as if I will be swimming to France this Sunday 27th of September starting at about 8 am.

Foar anyone who would like to come and see me off on the day, we will most likely be leaving from Shakespeare beach, you can get to this by heading out of dover towards London on the A20 and then at the last roundabout before you get onto the motorway, leaving dover, turn Right and then travel alosn that road and you will come to a busstop where you can park and then there will be a walkway under the highway to the beach.

PLEASE IF YOU ARE COMING DOWN PHONE ME OR ONE OF MY TEAM TO CONFIRM THIS ON 07957 107 153

Thank you once again

Regards
Zimhippo

Still Waiting

Hi there all

Just a quick update to let you know ow things are going. Well the week of my scheduled swim has arrived and I am now sitting around the house driving my parents crazy waiting for the weather to be good enough to head out for a swim. I spoke to my pilot yesterday and she was saying there was not much hope befroe about midweek and that there was still a relay team to get out before me so it looks like I will be on Friday or Saturday or Sunday.

I am quite glad actually as I went training in the lakes 2 weeks ago and ended up getting a cold which I am glad to say I am now over but still holding on to a erksome cough so hopefully that will go before I swim.

I am still doing some light training and will be up until I swim across.

For all those who wanted to be part of this swim, there may be an chance as I may end up going on the weekend.

Stay well and I will try and update this as soon as I know more. I sadly do not have internet at home as my router died so I have to make use of anyones wireless that I can get hold of.

For now, Zimhippo signing off

Fnal Dover Training and A Big Shock

Hello again from the Zimhippo

Well time is closing in to when I finally get to swim across to France. I would lke to thank all of you for your continued support in this mad adventure of mine.

This last weekend I was down in Dover for what will possibly be my last big training session of the summer before I swim. My parents arrive tomorros and i will be sending some time with them. I am off to Italy for a few days with the family, Got to start the carbo loading and where better to do it than in the Pasta country of the world. Sadly my wife will be unable to join me, someone has to work to pay for this insane challenge and I love her for all her support that she has given me over the last couple of months. The bank manager might think otherwise but hey, you only live once.

Whilst training over the weekend, I did a pretty intense 4 hour session on the Saturday and it was by far the worst weather I have ever swum in, a great learning experience but ploughing through pretty big swell, trying not to swallow half the harbour is not the best way I can think of to spend a wet windy Saturday. Sunday I went in for another 4 hours and when i came out after about 2 hours for a feed there was my pilot with my shoes saying -
"okay, get out now, you up for swimming the channel tomorrow?"
I was temporarily rendered speechless as I now had to make acritical decision of whether to swim now or wait until my scheduled slot. After a quick reality check, I decided to wait for my Slot, the reasons for my decision are below:-

1 - I will have to drive back to London to fetch a whole load of stuff that I needed
2 - I would have to make phone calls and send emails to get my crew together and let you all
know that I was off.
3 - My Shoulders were in agony thanks to the heavy session the day before, as it was only 4
hours I had really pushed it in pretty horrendous weather.
4 - Having trained so hard and spent so much time and money on this venture, I did not want
to swim knowing that I was not 100% mentally, physically and emotionally prepared.
5 - I wanted to swim on my terms, giving myself the best chance of success.

The outcome - Another 2 hours of training with my mind in Limbo asking, HAVE I MADE THE RIGHT DECISION? it was 2 hours of mental torture.

I will now be swimming sometime in the week of the 21st of September, probably early in the week as Alison (my pilot) will try and push people through. All my family will be with me, My parents, brother and wife will be ready to support me on the boat along wth one of My swimming coaches and some others. Well they will be on the boat at least, whether they are supporting me or throwing up over the side is yet to be seen, if they are throwing up they better make sure it is on the other side of the boat to where I am swimming. I should be alright as I will be in the water.

there is a link on this website where you can follow my progress via GPS, click on the link on this page and then select Roco (Alison) this will take you to another website where you can see where the boat is in the channel. If all is going according to plan, I hopefully will be not to far away from the boat.

All that remains now is for all of us to PRAY that there is no wind on that day and the tides are not too strong and the sun is out. I probably have more chance of winning the euromillions but hey miracles do happen!!

Till next time, Zimhippo signing off

Racing Triathletes

Back again. Apologies for not posting for the last two weeks but life has been a bit hectic this last couple of weeks.

First I would like to clear up a few queries. I have not yet swum the Channel yet as some of you might have thought. This is due to my event on facebook that I was unable to extend for more than a month so it ran out recently. Some thought I had already Swum. I wish I had though

My training is going well, over the bank holidy weekend I was down in Dover and I did a 6 hour swim on Saturday and then a 4 hour on Sunday before the weather turned horrible and the heavens opened. The PygmyHippo joined me for the last hour or so on Sunday.I was very pleased to see some of my mates that had decided that it would be a good idea to come camping in the area and spend some time with me, Thanks to all who came down, it was great to see you and spend some time with you all.

The week was spent doing a few 1 -2 hour swims in the pool and, Saturday I was up at 5 o'clock in the morning to head off for Heron lake where they were having a 3.8 km race in the lake, I thought it might be good to go and pit my swimming skills against all these triathletes who need flotation aids to swim. Well I only managed to get a third place out of about 30 people who started but I could have pushed it a lot harder as I did not really want to kill myself at the beginning and my time was pretty slow, 3.8 km in 1 hour and 8 minutes, I would expect to do that distance in less than an hour in those sort of conditions. The PygmyHippo (Spencer) did it in a time of 1 hour and 24 minutes.All in all a good swim.

Saturday I was fundraising again and managed to get some money but was lucky enough to get my cause out to loads of poeple so hopefully it will have been a worthwhile weekend.

With regards to my swim date I am assuming that I will be swimming in my booked slot which is somewhere between the 21st and the 27th of September. I am however on standby in the meantime so if the weather is good and a slot becomes available I will swim earlier. Thank you to all the peole who have expressed an interest in coming down and seeing me off and also driving over to france to be there when I hopefully set foot on France, I will endeavor to let everyone know when I swim as soon as I know a more definite date.

Till next time

Zimhippo off training

A English Tea Party

This weekend the training was put on hold on Sunday to recover from Saturdays Garden Party that was hosted in my honour. I did 2 hours on Saturday morning I woke at 5 am packed a few things, went by my brothers place to pick him up then off to Heron lake, 2 hours chewing up the triathletes and spitting them out in my wake. I averaged a good time, as I was not doing a long swim, I decided to sprint for two hours. I felt great afterwards and my shoulders were not too bad. I find that cold water numbs the pain but it was only two hours so I didn't expect much problems as it is usually only after about 4 - 5 hours that my shoulders start to show signs of damage.

After that I headed for The Jacaranda and goat, - a pub in a mates house to help with preparations for the aforementioned garden party (www.thejacarandaandgoat.com) We spent a fair time wrestling with a 14m x 9m tarpaulin to keep the rain off before we tore that and moved to plan B- lots of Gazebos. the party started to kick off at about 2 pm,watching the Boks get their butts kicked by New Zealand.

The theme was English garden party, the dress code was, for men, Smart with a tie and jacket above the waist, anything you want below the waist. For Ladies it was smart dress and a hat.

After the rugby The jazz pianist and soloist kicked the party off, they were brilliant. The guests entertained themselves with croquet, boules and general chit chat , accompanied by loads of pimms cocktail.

The fundraising was in the form of a raffle where you got my skills as a labourer for the day, the bidding went off very well and the person who won me, a good friend, was not convinced that I would make a great labourer so offered me up for raffle again. it all went off very well and we raised a fair sum of money. After the raffle the afrodizzyaxe band kicked off for the night. I finally stumbled home at about 2 o'clock in the morning feeling a bit weary.

All in all a great day was had by all and the Lovely british weather held off for us, no costs were incurred as, the venue, the band, the jazz pianist and soloist were all offered up by close friends of mine or friends of friends. all food and drinks were donated and brought by the guests. I am so privileged to have such great mates.

Well this week I need to get back into training as I am still on standby but I hear the Weather in the Channel is not playing nicely for us and there were a few swimmers pulled out last week as they started in very fine weather but it turned very ugly after a couple of hours. Well done to all who attempted their swims last week, my admiration for you is immense.

Till Next time Zimhippo signing off

The joys of Open water swimming in the Channel

Hi all

It has been a while since I updated this blog but I felt the need to fill you in on how it is all going.
I label this blog "the joys of open water swimming in the channel" as recently I have come against a few hick ups. You may remember that after my two weekends of mammoth swims that there may be a chance for my swim to be brought forward to end of August, a full 4 weeks ahead of schedule. This might still happen as I am now on standby, that means, IF AND WHEN the weather in the Channel decides to play ball and my pilot manages a few other swimmers across then I will move up. Alas, the weather is not playing ball and this last tide, which we are currently in is a bit of a blow out and I believe that on one of the longest tides of the year, very few swimmers if any have got across due to uncertain weather. What! In this country, who would have believed it!!!

This now leaves me in a dilemma as to what to do, keep my training distances long as it could be a while before I swim or alternatively start winding them down as I really don't want to be swimming really long swims 2 or 3 days before I do my final swim across the channel. Decisions decisions. This is really playing havoc with my mental preparedness. The best I can hope for is that I am ready anyway no matter what.

Another inconvenience that I have come across is the dreaded tendonitis in both shoulders so I have had to curb my training anyway, I am still not taking any smarties (ibuprofen for the uninitiated) but fear that this may not last all that much longer, I was hoping to get through this without any sort of painkillers or anti-inflamatories.

I did a 4 hour swim in the harbour last weekend and I might as well just have jumped into my washing machine at home and swum as it was so rough, I don't know how there was any water left in the harbour, I thought I had swallowed it all or rather my mouth and stomach believed I had.

Well the training continues albeit slowly and not doing the long distances, I will try a long swim in the lakes this weekend as I find the cold water helps numb the pain in my shoulders, swimming in heated pools is a real pain and I get lethargic very quickly and my shoulders feel like they are on fire after relatively short distances.

Well stay well and look after yourselves.

Remember,
"A dream is all you need, your body and mind will work towards achieving it"