Exciting news: Swimmers are out - and more hope!

Arrived in Dover last night by train and ferry - with an amazingly positive inner feeling, no matter the outer circumstances which only seem to be improving. Moved into a nice little attic twin bed room at Victoria Guest House WITH A VIEW TO THE HARBOUR AND THE CHANNEL! And with great breakfast and wireless laptop (if it works), with extremely supportive landlords and more Channel swimming company.

Swimmers are out today!

The yacht harbour at Dover Marina, where the pilot boats are moored, looks quite empty today.
A number of boats with their swimmers including Alison with Roco went out early this morning. We are all very excited about it. On the ferry yesterday it didn't look too bad - wavy yes, but not unswimmable, with north-westerly winds. More swimmers are getting ready to go tomorrow morning, if they get the confirmation tonight, but right now Tuesday looks windier again. Wednesday and Thursday are looking quite good right now, then it is getting windier again on Friday. Alison took a swimmer or a relay out today - so there is only one person or team before me now!

Good omen

When I came to the harbour around 9:30 this morning for a two hour training swim - after a huge Channel swimmer breakfast of porridge, eggs, beans, potatoes and toast at the Victoria Guest House with another swimmer from California and his crew (and pizza last night) - who was there, as if waiting for me? Rashmi, the 18 year old Indian girl and her family, still training and waiting for a chance to do her 2-way attempt! Great hello and lots of chatting and picture taking, until Kiran, her mother chased us off into the water. But first we still had to admire the sun partly covered by a tiny cloud, creating a rainbow halo-effect for just a minute! Very unusual! Rashmi is taking it as a good omen. "You came and are bringing the sun!" she told me. I wish I could bring about her swim! She is still 4th place with her pilot ("left-over" swimmers from earlier tides have to get to the end of the line behind the official swimmers of each tide). On Monday they will be going back to India, no matter what.

Two hour swim and international company

I totally enjoyed the two hours of swimming, it felt smooth, easy, powerful, plus I enjoyed swimming side by side with nice company, including another Indian girl we met in the middle of the harbour. After taking off our googles, we realised we know each other from the Zurich lake swim last year. She may go out tomorrow!

The water felt "crisp", and it did bite my face at first. The lake and pool had definitey been warmer, uncomfortably warm for me. But luckily my body felt fine, in the beginning I was even wondering for a second if I was still dressed. More rest and food plus the long swim weekend in the lake seem to have some positive effects! Fingers started fluttering again after an hour from the cold, but after two hours they were fine. Better than last time in Dover! The water on the left side of the harbour was quite choppy again, but that makes it only more interesting and better training. Two or three more days of acclimatisation and I am definitely ready to go!

Cosmic Game

The only constant thing is change - also in regard to Channel weather forecasts. Right now it looks much gloomier again for the tide starting today, but of course that could change again. And reality need not abide by the forecasts. Now there is only a relay and a solo swimmer before me. And there are new enthusiastic and experienced helpers confirmed: Marie-Therese, who helped Bea in 2006, will come to Dover on Tuesday - and Angela, a physiotherapist who was on the World Harmony Run in Australia, would join the van-crew and be a support-biker, if we get to swim and make it.

I bought my train ticket to Calais for the 7th and I feel it is the right thing to go. It feels nicer to celebrate my Channel anniversary on the 9th in Dover, it will be good to swim again in cold water, although tapering, and if it doesn't happen this tide I will do another long swim in Dover and only come back for the 2nd tide of September, if the weather looks good. But I am still hopeful for this tide - miracles do happen. (In 1985 my helpers had to come three times and then the day of the swim was great - so I am used to the game, it is just a matter of time, and also money, of course.)

This time, with only one helper and coming late, we will be staying at Victoria Guest House, closer to the harbour and very supportive of Channel swimmers.

Back to Dover on Sept. 7th

With a little help from my friends I will be back in Dover for the next neap tides (Sept 6-11) soon. Just checked the pressure charts: a high pressure zone is pushing its way up! High pressure usually means less wind, i.e. good swimming conditions. The first days of the tide still look not so good, but its getting better from Monday on and the 10th and 11th are looking quite promising right now also on windfnderfor example. The only thing, apart from the fact that the weather forecasts can change within a few hours: there are still swimmers before me! But one or two days after the neap tides (12 and 13th) might still be swimmable, too, if the weather is right. So I am quite excited and hopeful now!



Met office pressure forecast for Sunday 7th: the high is pushing up towards the British Isles

There are so many swimmers waiting - and quite a few left over from last tides. I really hope we are getting a chance this time. Good luck to all!

(I am aware how tiny our weather problems are compared to some much more serious weather issues on other continents!)

Karteek did it again! Congratulations!

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

Last split Channel swim before the next tide (7 + 7 hours)

Last weekend of August, after almost 2 weeks of just pool swimming, including a few "fast" 400 m lap-sessions under 8 min. and quite a few days off, plus a long bike ride (previous post), I felt the need for another, hopefully last LSD-swim (long slow distance) this year and did a 7 + 7 hour split swim in the lake. A bit crazy maybe so close to the next tide which is Sept. 6-11th, but I may only swim towards the end anyway - IF (!!!) the weather allows. I was really happy to have done it, my muscles had already started to shrink, but the hunger had come back. And with the high pressure zone still around and lots of people out at and on the lake, it felt easier and safer than had I done it earlier on cloudier and colder days during the week.

Some hours, especially in the middle, felt like hard work again, but overall I really enjoyed it and knew I could have continued. I pictured my self out in the Channel, first shipping lane after 3 to 4 hours, halfway geographically after 6 hours (which is nowhere near halfway in my case timewise), in the middle of the seperation zone I went home, and the next day, as usual not starting from hour 1 but from the seperation zone with hour 8 I made it almost to France (actually I DID make it to France, I just skipped a few hours in between). After 11 or 12 hours is when the really serious part of the swim will start for me. So to have done 14 hours felt good, a little room for self-transcendence left once I will be out there.
(To be sure, I am fully aware that conditions out in the Channel will be by far more difficult: waves, currents, cold water and wind, no rest, short feedings, possible seasickness etc.)



Saturday morning - 10:50 a.m. at the lake in Roxheim. The water was refreshing and clear, but lots of fluffy greenish organic matter floating around to swim through - good pratice for the Channel. In the beginning it used to scare me out of my swimming trance...



Sunday evening - ducks racing to get some cookie morsels from the photographer



Mission "Silbersee" completed - happy and sunburnt after a 14 hour swim weekend

Alison still has 2 swimmers and a relay for the next tide, but I am going back to Dover on the 7th anyway. If it is meant to be it will happen. She might even recommend another pilot if there is one available. A new helper for the boat has emerged out of the blue, let's see what the universe still has in store!

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200 km bike ride to my mom's birthday party

Aug. 24-26
After coming back from Dover on the 18th, my energy and training went down. I planned another long swim in the lake but never made it that week. My parents live about 200 km away near Nürnberg and my mother's birthday is on the 25th, so I decided to go for a long overdue 12-13 hour bike ride on Sunday, stay for a day and take the train back home.



On the way to my mom's birthday - Neckar valley near Hirschhorn on a peaceful Sunday morning

It was a great weekend, chillier than the Channel in the morning, but with the sun coming out warming up during the day, quite autumn-like already.






Some parts of the hilly route through beautiful countryside even forced me to get down and push the bike briefly (the triathlon route will only be ondulating in the first parts but not hilly, so I haven't been doing much hill-training), but endurance was not a problem. I felt better at the end than at the beginning, except for some limping around at the birthday party due to muscle ache. Tuesday on the train back I still had this deep inner feeling of peace and love which often comes after a long distance event.



With my mother - after 12 hours on the bike

The ride also made my family understand a little better what this triathlon project was about. My father had been reading my blog regularly (brushing up his English), it was great to feel their support and encouragement, and conversations started to turn to mountaineering, Mount Everest, and of course swimming and sports in general and its tradition in the family. My mom told me I would just jump into the big pool at the age of 3 and doggy paddle back, and I remembered that my father took me on my first ultra - a 12 hour mountain hiking tour in Austria - at age 16! Even my nieces got excited when they checked out the photos on the blog.




Jojo and Maria

Thanks to the kids, things were quite light-hearted with lots of laughing and fooling around, and after watching "Silly Walks" with John Cleese on the internet we ended up having to do "silly faces" for the camera. It was the nicest family birthday party for a long time, with a special spirit due to challenge ahead!







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Believe in Your Dreams!

(Photos by Prabhakar)

Dreams may take time to manifest, but never stop keeping them alive in your heart! And never stop preparing! The time will come....

One gigantic dream come true is a project of friends in Australia: running around the whole Australian continent with a flaming torch for world harmony with two international teams: 15,000 km in 111 days. Had I not had my own Dover-Heidelberg project this year, I might have become part of it! My stay in Canberra where I did my first ultra-triathlon in 1998 was one of my best experiences!



World Harmony Run Video


The World Harmony Run is one of my favorite "children" - projects can be like children - in which I have been involved in Germany and internationally since its beginnings in 1987. It is amazing to see how this project has grown and developed over two decades and how many people of all ages and backgrounds and especially children it has touched all over the world.



A magical journey with a torch, spreading joy and the spirit of friendship and harmony, and experiencing the beauty of this world through running.

Experiences by a participant - what it is about to be part of this project.