Last Friday (Aug. 29) Karteek Clarke from Edinburgh, one of the members of the international Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, has conquered the Channel for the 9th time since he got kind of hooked on the Channel in 1997! His intention was to never again go on a spring tide, but since Friday was one of the very few good days this summer, he took his chance and succeeded under the able guidance of Dave Whyte (good thing he hasn't retired yet) in just under 15 hours! Congratulations!
For Karteek, the swims most of the time have not been easy. He knows how it feels to want to stop swimming after only a couple of hours out there, no matter what the financial implications, the year-long efforts put in or how many much longer swims you might have done in training. His experience is that you can learn to not give in to this feeling and just take it as an experience, if necessary for a few hours. At some point it will lift like a veil or disappear like a fiever. The only thing is not to surrender to it, but to know it is only temporary, even if it may seem like an eternity. Cliff Golding used the nice expression: to work to the point where the "secret inner doors" open - and you swim in a sea of peace, if you are lucky!
Karteek shared a few tips in regard to feeding: he prepared all his feed bottles in advance (just bought water bottles, the caps are easy to take off) and his helper would warm them in some hot water on the boat, and he brought his handmixer to mix bananas into rice milk (I would go for soy) with some protein powder, which can be a nice change for the sweet carbo stuff, especially after 5 or 6 hours. He did get a bit seasick on this swim, too, but was able to feed properly again after the 5th hour.
Hope to read a longer account of your swim soon!
An amusing helper's report about Karteek's and Mate's very serious Channel swims in 2003
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