Sometimes there are Big Moments in an open water swim where the athlete meets the moment. It can flash by in an instant or it can take place over a much longer period of time.
But those Big Moments are memorable.
This was Nicholas Caine‘s Big Moment at the 10-hour mark of his English Channel swim of 13 hours 11 minutes as he describes it first-hand:
“I started at 4:20 am so it was still dark, but not pitch black. I had a light on my goggle strap and a spot light from the boat. The sun came up towards the end of my first hour.
At 10 hours I had been talking to my dad and Chris Pountney who were both helping with feeds. They could tell I was frustrated and told me I was almost there. I got noticeably madder the last two hours as they kept telling me that I was almost there and I knew I wasn’t making forward progress.
Eddie Spelling, my pilot, and I had figured the swim would take 8-10 hours at most and that is all I had mentally prepared myself for during training. Ned Dennison always told me to not expect a time because there was no way to predict the outcome of my swim and if I had a ‘goal’ time it would make it much harder on myself mentally. I had kept track of time based off my feeding schedule and when I got to 10 hours and wasn’t making forward progress I became very worried and doubted myself.
Physically, I knew my training was enough to swim until I made it to France but mentally I was very worried and began doubting myself. I wanted to stop swimming because I didn’t think I could make it. But I knew how many people were cheering for me and wanted me to finish. I didn’t want to let anyone down, especially myself, so I kept swimming despite the shoulder pain and being mentally rundown.”
Then the Big Moment came.
“Eddie could also tell I was run down and frustrated so he put the small boat in 5-10 minutes early to lift my spirits and guide me into shore. Having the small boat in a little early helped and I picked the tempo and stroke rate back up and made it into shore.
I ended up making in 13 hours and 11 minutes which was a lot longer then I had expected. [But] I completely surprised myself by being able to swim for 13 hours.”
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source