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4 April 2017 - first two hour open water swim.

5 April 2017 - first 6 hour open water swim (qualifier).

May 26 - placed 77 out of 200 in The Battle of Carlingford 7km race.

May 28: 10 hours and 27 minutes swim in and around Carlingford.

I should start by saying that I am not a swimmer, I love swimming, I really do, it is my sport of choice, I find it relaxing but, I have never competed except for a few races with my school. I have always been slightly intimidated by open water and I hate being cold - and therein lies the challenge.

I did a 4 hour sponsored swim to raise funds for a friend needing money for cancer treatment a few years ago. My son wasn't even 1, I worked evenings starting at 6pm and I was definitely out of shape, it was a spur of the moment type thing so I ended up doing zero training (this is not a policy I advocate). Nonetheless, Swan Leisure (which has now become my home from home) allowed me to use one of their lanes, my cousin Clare Ryan (more about her in a minute) came with me, timed me and motivated me, I did it, 4 hours non-stop swimming and I raised approximately €1500 for a dear friend. My goal had been achieved.

Whilst planning my 40th birthday I started to think back on a bucket list I had written many moons ago (some people call it a mid-life crisis I think):

Do a parachute jump – done.

Write a book – not yet.

Become a millionaire – money isn't everything.

Don't EVER get married – oops.

Swim the English Channel – hmmmmm.

Run a marathon – nah!

I have always wanted to swim the English Channel, it is an immense challenge and a serious achievement, I have thought about it a lot over the last couple of years but never felt I had the time or the money to train, I didn't have a driving licence so popping off to the coast was public transport dependent, I finally learnt to drive and the kids were in school in the mornings so I started to run out of excuses. I was getting older so if I was going to do this the sooner the better. The 4 hour charity swim had made me think about my swimming ability, I had often wondered what I could achieve if I actually trained for something and I had swam nearly 7km in that 4 hour swim without any training and definitely without any fitness to speak of.

Over the years Clare and I often talked about my ambition to swim the channel, I vowed one day I would do it, so in the spring of 2017, facing turning 40 that autumn and with the kids both being in school/Montessori in the mornings I found myself with a small window of time to train. I started to look into it properly. I made enquiries with pilot boats about their availability - was I actually going to sign myself up for this!? Yes, I was. I booked my slot - 6th of July 2018 fourth on the neap tide, I had a good year and a bit to train - that would be enough right?

I got Clare Ryan on board pretty quickly, she is an accomplished marathon runner, triathlete, ultrathon badass, personal trainer and Pilates instructor, someone who I would listen to. We decided I would cross train using swimming and running, Clare and I took ourselves off to The Forty Foot and I (eventually) plunged myself into the water, it was June, not particularly cold by Irish Sea standards - it completely took my breath away, I swam around a bit (breaststroke, didn't put my face in the water) and mostly thought "this is proper cold, what on earth were you thinking". I have had a lot of help along the way but Clare actually was instrumental in setting me off on the right track, explaining the difference between training for endurance rather than speed, the importance of warming up and also the importance of working on my core and strength through yoga and Pilates. Clare showed me specific stretches and taught me proper running technique, I can credit my lack of injury throughout this whole intense process to Clare.

So there I was, newly acquired running shoes, the words of my boat pilot "learn to breath bilaterally" and "make your feeds no more than 30 seconds!" ringing in my ears and I took myself off, I swam when I could and got myself breathing to both sides which took a lot of practice. I ran a lot at first while the kids were on their summer hols because I could do that late at night after work (I work evenings in a law firm until 10pm). I built up my running from 3km to 5km and was soon able to run 10km without too much bother, once the kids were back at school in September I could focus more on my swimming.

Throughout the summer I read up on ways to help yourself acclimatise to cold water, I made plans on how to build my fitness levels up over the coming months up until Christmas and from January onwards I would be swimming or running all the time – approximately 15-20 hours per week. Most of my plans consisted of staying as cold as possible, I was very focused on the possibility of hypothermia stopping my channel crossing – still a concern. I read something that helped me put it into perspective:

"The starting point is to know that one cannot will away hypothermia (damn!) – when in water colder than your core body temperature, there can be only two outcomes – either your body will warm the entire ocean / dam / river up to match its core temperature, or the water will bring your core temperature down to its level (s**t!). The former scenario is of course highly unlikely, so prepare to get cold. The trick is to know how to prolong your time in this environment and how to perform at your best in cold conditions."

I decided all winter I would not wear a coat, hat gloves or a scarf – definitely sensible as part of my training! I did afford myself a light raincoat if it was lashing rain so I didn't get drenched and catch a cold, mostly because Clare had told me "you cannot afford to get ill at all over the winter". I would keep up my running but not wear anything warmer than what I had been wearing on runs throughout the summer no matter what the weather was like. I would not wear any long-sleeved tops until November was another one of my acclimatising rules that I set myself! Most of the parents who saw me throughout the winter on the school runs will testify to my completely inappropriate attire, standing in parks while the kids all wrapped up played, me, shivering under a tree. It was moderately helpful that we were/are carrying out extensive renovations on our house and didn't have central heating all winter as well.

I kept running and swimming, I kept a rough idea of distances covered in both activities, maintained my flexibility through Pilates and having a very quick icy dip in the Irish Sea once a week/fortnight. The open water swimming aspect was not going particularly well at this stage, I was not finding it any easier to get myself into the water and I found putting my face in the freezing cold water really alien, my body just did not like it.

In October I met Kevin Williamson, he started doing masters sessions at Swan Leisure that started very early, early enough for me to go there, do the session, get dressed etc and get home again in time for the school run. Kevin has been a constant support to me, he has encouraged me, he has told me when I am not doing enough and he has sought advice and information on my behalf - having an Olympian shake your hand after slogging up and down the lanes for sometimes 4 or 5 hours while the kids are at school and after having worked until 2am definitely helps. As soon as Kevin knew what I was training for he instructed me not to touch the sides of the pool "no walls to push off from in the English Channel Sophie", so that was it, I would swim for hours and hours on end for months and months doing loops with a strange turn at each end without touching the sides to help build my endurance and stamina.

By the end of November I thought I was doing really well swimming around 17km a week and running around 10-12km a week, but I got some sound advice from someone who knows a lot more than me and with their boot firmly up my backside I ramped up the training A LOT. They also advised me to go on a swimming camp, the thought of leaving the kids for a week filled me with horror - way too indulgent surely, but they sent me the details of a camp with The Kings Swimmers (www.thekingsswimmers.co.uk) that would be an opportunity also to do my 6 hour qualifier swim (a pre-requisite for anyone wishing to attempt to swim the channel, it must be 6 hours in open water below 16 degrees). I got a bonus from work and booked my place on the camp for the beginning of April.

I spent January, February and March swimming 30km a week, running approximately 15km a week and fitting in Pilates sessions when I could. I did all my training in the mornings when the children were at school or after I finished work at 10pm. Spousal support kicked in here as Tim would do a few school drop offs a week so I could get to the pool for 6am or 7am and keep swimming 4-5 hours, then I still had time to walk the dogs before I had to collect the kids. I was still teetering around Seapoint inching myself into the Irish Sea but still finding it really difficult to actually swim in the cold water - undeterred by the fact that this could be quite a significant problem I carried on with my training, throughout the entire winter I ran home in shorts and a t-shirt after work, some evenings I arrived indoors to Tim and was covered in snow, I would turn around and go back out into the weather to take the dogs for their evening walks, a lot of my neighbours can testify to me walking around in shorts and t-shirt most evenings around 11pm with the dogs in tow. I got a lot of strange looks running through the City Centre at night in the bitter cold, I lost the feelings in my hands every single night but I got used to that feeling and I got used to knowing when I would start to get some sensation back, usually around Harcourt Street. It wasn't lost on me that packing warm clothes into a backpack and running home in less warm clothes had a touch of madness about it, it took my breath away opening the doors from our offices every single night - I had reached a new level of determination. If I could just keep going through the winter then I would just have to concentrate on being in cold water for long periods of time but my evening runs would start to feel less painful. Simple, right?

April came around, the beginning of my camp with The Kings Swimmers, I was absolutely petrified, I knew I could swim, I knew I could swim for long periods of time but my open water experience was pretty much nil. My goal for the camp was to come away with my 6 hour qualifier, I had done some really long sessions in the pool so I knew I could swim for that long, that long in cold water though – none of us could really tell what was going to happen. I was meeting bona fide experts Kevin Murphy - a man who has swam pretty much every swim there is but also swam the English Channel more times than any other man, Kathy Batts multiple Channel relays plus a solo crossing, a triple crown and much much more and Phil Yorke who has also swam the English Channel but did it breaststroke, he is also the President of The British Long Distance Swimming Association. The help and reassurance I received on their camp was incredible, the other swimmers were so kind to me, they could have made me feel really uncomfortable and inadequate but they didn't, they helped me, I really didn't know what I was doing. The first day I did my first ever 1 hour open water swim, I lost the ability to keep my fingers together, my hands were kind of like large claws, I swam past Phil who was in a kayak keeping a close eye on us all, he asked if I was okay and I said 'yes I am but something weird is happening with my hands', my speech was okay and I felt okay but he sent me to shore – I was really worried, maybe my body can't stand up to this? I stayed in but very close to the water's edge, I kept swimming, I completed the hour, I was fine albeit cold. The second day I did two two-hour swims, on the third day I did my 6-hour qualifier, there were jellyfish everywhere, I got stung in the face at one point, at least I knew what it felt like to be stung now. The relief of having that qualifier swim under my belt almost made up for the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I thought of Amber and Liam, I missed them tremendously but at least I was getting what I was there for done. The first few days' swims were followed by other swims, another 6 hour swim, a night swim, our stroke was filmed, analysed and we had one to one sessions with the coaches, they also gave us seminars on feeding, the course across the Channel itself and other marathon swims that we could work towards. The second six hour swim was really hard, I really thought I was going to have to stop but the coaches were excellent, they didn't let me give up. I headed home at the end of the camp with an award and my 6 hour qualifier swim as well as some lovely friends, it was a life changing week for me. I was feeling good. Spring was pretty much here, the Irish Sea was warming up and I needed to get out in the open water as much as possible.

Kevin Murphy put me in touch with Ger Kennedy in Dublin and both of them persuaded me that on top of my 6 hour qualifier that I need to do a 10 hour open water swim as part of my training. I was pretty reluctant, I felt like I could maintain my training in the pool and in the coastal waters of Dublin. I was wrong, I am glad they made me see that.

At the end of May I attended Hit The Wall a weekend training camp for channel swimmers put on by Padraig Mallon and his team at www.infinitychannelswimming.com. I rang Padraig asking an array of nervy questions and then booked myself to do a 7km race on the Saturday, a swim on the Sunday and the 10 hour swim on the Monday. I got really nervous again, if I couldn't complete this 10 hour swim there was no way I was going to be able to complete the channel crossing, this was going to really test my metal, I would find out on this swim if I really had trained enough of not. I took myself off to Carlingford, I did pretty well in the race considering I nearly missed it. On Sunday evening I nervously registered for the 10 hour swim which was due to start at 4am on Monday morning. I had found my 6 hour qualifier tough and I was genuinely curious as to how my body would respond to 10 hours immersed in cold water – I got in and I kept going. Alongside Cat Pendleton I swam for a total of 10 hour and 27 minutes, the water was 13 degrees, it was a huge achievement and it has made me much more confident about my channel crossing.

So now, I am maintaining my fitness and I am looking towards 6^th July 2018 when I swim from England to France, I have worked hard enough, I have tried my absolute best, I will not give up on the day so now what I really need is decent weather, we can only set off if the conditions are safe enough, some kind of magic jellyfish repellent wouldn't go amiss either.

If you have sponsored me thank you so much, if you have read this all the way to the end I hope I haven't bored you to tears.

Wish me luck, I am going to need it!

Soph

xxx