Guest Blog: Becky Wilson
Becky at the start of her swim
Welcome to the next in our series of Guest Blogs. This time we have Becky Wilson. Becky is almost as far away from Dover as you can get within the UK, up in Scotland!
One of the upsides of all the upheaval due to COVID-19 is that we got to know some people a lot better than we otherwise would have. Becky is one of those people. She joined all our virtual training sessions and was a remote participant in our ramp-up camp. It’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know her some more.
Dovercoaster, Coronacoaster & Life.
Well we all know about the Dovercoaster, swims getting pulled forward, or swims getting cancelled the day before and pushed into September or maybe even October. It is quite a feat to be able to navigate that and still end up ‘fit for a swim’ when the pilot calls. Julian’s statistics show a lower success rate in later months, partly due to losing fitness from the expected tide and the actual tide. Coronavirus however has sent as into a different stratosphere altogether.
I attempted to swim the Channel last week and wanted to give a little insight about my training and preparation before and during the Pandemic and my state of mind. I think my story will be very similar to many of the Class of 2020.
In 2018 I booked a first slot on a neap tide at the start of August that would hopefully coincide with my children’s school holidays. I live in the North of Scotland, am a single parent but my family live in Hampshire, so if everything worked as planned, Granny could look after the kids whilst I swam to France and I had two years to prepare. At least that was the plan.
I invested quite a lot of time and energy into this swim. As well as the nearly obligatory Channel training swim camp somewhere warm in March, over the last eighteen months, I have attended a Scottish Swim camp, a Total Immersion short break, an Enduroman camp and the DCT Seminars. I also signed up with a local swim coach to do some work on my stroke.
For a bit of background, I am not your standard club swimmer, I started swimming distance swimming after my husband died and only actually learnt front crawl in 2017. Before that I was a competent swimmer, had done all my survival badges whilst at primary school, swam a lot, mainly underwater, but my default stroke was breaststroke. So in the last 12 months I managed to get my 40 minute mile down to 35 minutes and although I’m still hoping to reduce it more, this felt enough to get me across the Channel. I had swum with swimmers of a similar speed that had made it, and I was looking at a crossing time of 16-18 hours.
Then the Coronavirus hit. Coming back from Lanzarote in January, where I had managed, two six hour swims, we were already hearing about issues with China and travel, but it really seemed a very long way away and I had signed up to the Endurance Race (450m) at the Scottish Winter Swimming Championships on the 7th March, where we happily mingled with contestants from all over Europe.
On the 11th March the WHO declared the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) a Pandemic, on the 12th March the UK had its first Coronavirus briefing, on the 14th March I had a cough, was tired, had aching shoulders and got breathless whilst walking the dog. I wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
There was no way to know if I had Covid, but rules are rules. A persistent cough or fever and I needed to self-isolate. That cough lasted three weeks. Lockdown started on the 23rd and I hadn’t even been given a chance to fill the cupboards with pasta and loo paper. Anyway all that stuff at the back of the cupboards and the bottom of the freezer finally got used up…and I do live in rural Scotland, where we still talk to our neighbours, so people brought me food.
Unlike many people who read this, I am lucky enough to have an endless pool, so I had no excuse not to train. I had even heard of someone who had done all his training in an endless pool, however I am an open water/cold water/wild swimmer. The Sea is what keeps me sane. I was living on the Coronacoaster. My business was going to pot, I was going down, my insurance will cover it, I was going up, my insurance refuses to pay, down, government are going to help everyone, up, self-catering properties not included, down, etc, etc, etc. I had a little melt down. I stayed at home – as required, binged on Scottish briefings, UK briefings, WHO briefings, Imperial College papers, anything on the BBC World Service about the Coronavirus, JHU statistics, all new government papers and even had my own graphs and tables set up in a folder on my laptop entitled Corona facts.
Very little swimming was getting done. One of my swim buddies had her Birthday during Lockdown. She lives by the sea, so she can swim without restriction. Her and a buddy were still swimming every day. I stretched the lockdown rules to meet them for a swim. She lives across from the fishmongers, so I justified it by parking the car at the fishmongers, buying fish (an essential supply), then walking to the beach to surprise her and go for a swim. This was the 22nd April and was my first open water swim for six weeks. The water was freezing but it was such an exhilrating swim. I stayed in for as long as I could as I wasn’t sure when I would next get to the sea. However when I got back I dropped even lower than before, I think it was the fact I didn’t know when we would be allowed to drive for exercise.
I was a bit lost, but then DCT Virtual training and the community calls began, suddenly there were other people in a much worse position than me, and were they complaining? Well a bit. But it made me realise this could still work. The biggest thing was not knowing if we were going to swim at all this year, my pilot was giving an update once a month and he was being very positive, personally, I thought, a bit too positive, but actually he was right and I was wrong. Swimmers do have a chance to swim this year.
In Scotland we were allowed to drive 5 miles to swim on the 29th May. I was in the sea at 5.30 on the 29th and again in the evening and practically every day up to my channel attempt. The first few swims were brutal. Sea was 9 degrees, but the lack of cold water acclimatisation for 11 weeks gave me the first ice cream head I had for quite a while. However I quickly built up my time and was back to two hours in the cold by the end of the first week.
I was ramping up as quickly as I could and just so pleased to be back in the sea. I still didn’t know if I would be swimming this year, but decided that training for it would do me no harm and give me some purpose to my week. I found that I was feeling the cold more than normal. This could be due to losing some of my acclimatisation, or more probably due to the loss of weight during Lockdown. I think I lost about 5 kilos. I was on a plant based diet practically till my swim, but I was finding I was cold in the water, was getting head aches and was irritable and was just not putting on any weight, so added eggs, fish and Cadbury Wholenut to my diet at the start of July as well as taking a daily dose of Menopause vitamins. I was doing whatever I could to get my body comfortable with swimming for a long time in cold water.
In July DCT offered their ramp up camps in Dover, I thought it might be a good idea to try and replicate their swims over the two weeks and maybe even swap their 7 hour/6 hour back to back with a ten hour on the second week. We are a couple of degrees colder in the north of Scotland and weather conditions were pretty appalling for a couple of days with Force 7 gusting to force 9 on one day, but I had now fully engaged with getting ready for this swim, which meant swim the hours in whatever the conditions, just stay in the cold water for the time allocated, and I was starting to feel confident. On the Thursday morning of the first week however, the day of the 7 hour swim, my pilot phoned to ask if I wanted to bring my swim forward to the next Monday as conditions were looking perfect. After my previous failed attempt, were I got weathered out in June and ended up swimming in September, I agreed pretty much immediately, so only swam for an hour that day, my shoulders were already tired after 35k, in the last 7 days, then I cleared my desk and got ready for the 650 mile trip down to Dover.
DOVER
A small overnight stop off to pick up my sister in Hampshire and drop off the kids and we were down in Dover for the Sunday morning swim and it was so good to see the Channel Swimmers in person training in the harbour. I had one circuit of the harbour, and then caught up with swimmers on the beach. I was so excited to be swimming the next day. I went off to lunch and got a text from my pilot – weather not looking so good tomorrow, maybe go on Tuesday, will check weather at 6pm and phone you. That was a very long afternoon. I spoke to my pilot that evening and he said weather not good for Monday or Tuesday and he was now looking at Wednesday.
My sister (my crew) and I decided to check out of the hotel and go back to her house for the day, so she could catch up on some work, but first we would hit the beach for a swim. Again I just swam one lap, but my sister managed two hours as she doesn’t often get the chance to swim in the sea. We left the beach and headed out of Dover when yet another text came through from the pilot, Tuesday now looking better than Wednesday. I stopped at the first service station, spoke to my pilot and turned back towards Dover.
I was now missing a crew member, as my second crew member had left early in the morning not expecting to be needed till the Wednesday. Fortunately, another channel hopeful, Dan, who was training that week in the harbour, but more importantly had his passport, offered to come along. So we were all set for an early start the next day.
I don’t need to say much about the swim. I attach the Tracker. I’d already swam 15 hours, but I hit the tide and was told it would take another 8-10 hours. I may be quite gung-ho, but I was not physically ready for that distance in the cold. It was evening, going into night and raining, and I know my capabilities. Maybe a different year I would have pushed myself to see where my limit was, but this year is not the year to take a risk. So I got out. I was obviously a little disappointed not to have got my pebble, but still immensely pleased with my swim. It is the furthest and longest swim I have ever swum. I had no chaffing, no injuries, just felt tired for the next week. I think this means I did the best I could and that is all you can do. I also really enjoyed the swim. There were a few jellies, it was cold and the sun didn’t come out, but this was the swim I had trained for and I loved every minute of it and I will be back.
