First 24 hour swim in Ireland

The day I became a Zombie

A friend John Gilbert from Pulse Triathlon suggested he was going to swim 6h in Waterford. I asked him to send me the email and I discovered there was a 24h swim, which consisted of 24 times 1 mile swim. I emailed the race organiser, Colm and asked him if I could attempt to swim a full marathon. I am preparing to swim the channel for Croi in August 2011 and needed a preparation race. Well this is my story swimming the first Irish 24h ultra swim.

Preparation and Race Strategy

I found interesting while preparing my bag that you only need a swim tog, goggles, towel and hats to make such an event. The hydration and nutrition part was very heavy compared to the equipment required.

We all had a different challenge, the guys planned to do a steady 1 mile 24 times with 30min recovery which obviously reduced with the fatigue and see if they can do it over 24h. A few of us wanted to beat ourselves up to get the title of the most mileage for the first 24h swim held in the country. I thought I could do it and from 14 ironman and 26 marathons experience I knew my enemy would be resting for some reasons. I remember doing long events over a few days and once my sleep pattern is disturbed and take a rest my body finds it difficult to stop and then start again. I could hear my body screaming “decide what you want!!! you want to rest or you want me to work?”.

The First Thirteen Hours

The first few hours went well, I planned to swim 1.8k per hour, and felt quite comfortable and was thinking about how the body can break down by not managing the race properly. I have seen it many times. I gradually decided to build up from 1.9k for the first 2 hours, then 2k up to 2.5k. I was experiencing what pace was comfortable giving me enough rest to get my drinks, go to the bathroom, and have a shower to remove the chlorine from my skin. After 5 hours I compromised and thought 2.1k per hour would be a nice comfortable pace allowing me some margin of recovering if needed.

After 13 hours, I was clearly in the lead of the most mileage with 5k ahead of the boys doing their 1 mile repeats. They managed it very well and their pace was faster than mine.

2 of the guys pulled out due to some serious cough problem. We all suffered from it, and it’s just the way pools work, and was nobody’s fault. We are all grown up (well we think anyway) and are responsible for taking part.

The great feature was Vanessa Daws doing some underwater video, pictures and supporting the swim. She was just brilliant and her smile when we felt like zombies hour after hour kept our brain alive.

Chlorine and a Near Withdrawal

At this stage the race was going to be played not by who is the fittest or the best at managing their nutrition or hydration but at who can deal the best with chlorine poisoning. At this stage it was 4am and too late for me to do anything but stop swimming for a while. I ended up being sick in the bathroom with difficulty in breathing. I then decided to go for a sleep knowing the guys will certainly catch up on my mileage, and even if my ego found it hard, I was happy enough to get rid of this cough.

I fell asleep for about 2 hours, and when I woke up I got a cup of tea and at this stage my cough was a bit better but not exceptional. I went outside and got dressed to get some fresh air. At this stage I thought I was going to give up, and decided to just help the guys out and cheer them up. But before this happened a friend was visiting his brother in Waterford Sean Bailey, came to take a few pictures. I told him that it was over for me, I used to coach his son and he told me “what would you say to my son if he was going to give up?”. It actually hurt my coaching feelings and told him I would go back in and do a few lengths for the pictures!

Back in the Pool

I went back in, and actually started to feel ok and from 10am to 11am the next day I swam a straight 3km and was about 2/3 miles behind the 2 boys left in the race. They were still doing their 1 mile per hour pace and I could not see myself catching up to them.

Sean was gone now and John Gilbert who supported and crewed me the previous 18h was now swimming his 6 h swims but still was there to help me. He was a great inspiration during this event. Always calm and nice to everybody helping all the time without asking anything in return. I abused his kindness too many times and hope the day will come for me to return the favor.

At this moment I felt that with the support I have, and my friends at home or running the London marathon, I could not deceive myself and tell them “I tried but could not”. Before I left Ray O’Connor tried to motivate me and give me some wise advice and it went so many times through my little head during. Psychologically many things went in and out of my mind, I had many thoughts for a fellow athlete in ICU in Galway and was thinking of him. I also spent some time thinking about Caroline Kearney who still inspires me at tough times for some reasons.

Interesting enough John calculated I might be able to catch the distance I lost and started to work an action plan. I had no muscular pain, no general fatigue and my head was functioning normally or as usual for the people who know me. My only trouble was my burning lungs in which I could not take any deep breath but short and slow half breath. If the two boys ahead of me were going to pick up more mileage I was going to be third. I don’t think they really cared about what place they would finish to be honest, they just wanted to do the 24 X 1 mile and I can see they were getting tired at only 5h left in the event. I tried to take their pace up and did the mile at the same pace and even tried to get Colm on the last 25m. I felt good and Strepsil helped me clear my airways.

At 22h in the water I took it easy with another mile and John was a great motivator, he swam and then crewed me each time, he was doing the maths and then swam 3.1k at hour 23.

My body was fine but my brain was switching off.

The last hour I only had to swim 1.4k which seems nothing, but when you get tired it sounds like running a marathon. My body was fine but my brain was switching off. I was just swimming for the last few hours, standing up to go to the rest room and back to the pool, with my head down and my arms in the front of me to follow the walls in case I fell. My head was even not lifting up anymore, my body just knew the way in and out without using my brain, and while swimming it was simply a mechanical stroke, without any human emotions left in that body.

Again John Gilbert was a superb improvised crew without whom I would not have finished this event. In the last 800 meters I knew I was going to reach the highest mileage, I stopped and asked Colm if he wanted to round up the number to 39k with me and he declined as he had enough done. I then stormed the last 800m as fast as I could as my own personal celebration, finishing by a 25m butterfly to close the show!

Thanks to Colm, Vanessa, John and all the swimmers, I will be back next year, and I know there are much faster swimmers next year and more endurant swimmers. But this year I was there and even if I did not get my 42.195k I will certainly be happy to try it again.

Fuel and Logbook

1564 lanes later, 34408 strokes, 12 Power Bar gels, 6l of water, 2 litres of electrolytes, 6 packets of fruit pastilles, 2 meals of rice, 1 can of beans, 1/5 litre of cranberry juice, 4 strepsil for my cough, 1 tube of vaseline, 3 shower gels, 2 towels, 1 sleeping bag, spare goggles / hat / tog, diary, a few sets of dry clothes.

Big thank you to Brendan Doyle from fuel4sports (fuel4sport@gmail.com) who sponsored the Power Bar Gels and the electrolytes “Zym”. I had no stomach issues, or nutritional break down.

Picture Gallery
Below is my logbook of the event: