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
Instructions from the general
I'm the confused one scratching my chin
The Channel Swim "WHY?"
The 1st reason
Last year in September my brother must have been bored at work and got hold of me at the office and asked,
“Hey Graeme, how about doing something interesting next year?”
I said
“okay what is it”
Spencer
“How about we swim the channel!!”
Me
“Are you nuts, what drugs have you been on?”
That was the beginning of a conversation that was to change the way my summer for 2008 panned out, much to the disgust of a few friends and much to the detriment of my socialising but hey looking at the summer so far, I suppose it is not a bad thing.
After this conversation, I started to think about where I was in life and that I was a bit overweight: clinically obese according to my doctors. At that time I was training about 10 km a week and the nurse didn’t quite know how to break the news to me about the above fact.
I was also suffering from lower back trouble and it was really annoying me, thanks to the desk job!!!!!
I am the sort of person who cannot just go to the gym so I figured that if I wanted to tone up a bit and strengthen my body in general, this might be a good plan.
The 2nd reason
The other reason I am doing this is the fact that I will be able to raise some money for the desperate people of a country that has been torn apart by a dictator. With unemployment at about 90% and life expectancy in the mid-thirties, the country has gone from being one of the fastest growing economies in Africa in the 1990s, to having the highest inflation of any country in the world, currently sitting at 1 400 000%.
From breadbasket to basket case all in the space of 10 short years.
This country is
Even for the extremely wealthy, the everyday things like going to the shop to buy milk, bread, meat, eggs, butter, vegetables, fuel. Being able to have a romantic dinner with electric lights as opposed to candles, or just have electricity for more than about 2 hours a day is only a distant memory
Butterfly training
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1 comment:
Hi Graeme,
Respect!!!!!
Greetings Joost
(the dutch guy who left you after 4 hours swim)
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