Sweet press in Bangor

Well, back to reality here in Massachusetts, but have a little more boasting to do about our great weekend in Rockland for the Rockland Breakwater swim. As promised, here is a short synopsis of the race in Rockland.

When we got up early on Saturday, the rain had already been falling for some time, but the forecasted wind had not yet arrived. That was good news, but I called Greg to see if he knew anything about whether the race was still on or not. He was enroute from Natick and somewhere near Bath when I called at about 7:30, but had no additional information. I then called the number for Doug that was listed on the entry form and got his voice mail which said that the race was still on as planned. Good news! So Mark and I got our things together, sprinted through the enormous, tasty breakfast at the Berry Manor and hit the road for the Breakwater. As we got closer, the rain and wind were picking up.

The race check-in was soggy beyond all recognition. The path to the breakwater was all muddy puddles and the swimmers and organizers who did turn up were huddled under umbrellas and bundled up in heavy coats and ponchos. The air temp couldn't have been much over 55 and it was pouring. I checked in and got my cap. Then we had the race briefing.

The only concession made to the dreary weather was to shorten the race just a bit. Instead of rounding the end of the breakwater and doing a tiny loop on the other side of the rock jetty, we were told to touch the ramp at the lighthouse and make the turn there. It lopped off about .2 miles from each loop, so the shorter race would be roughly 1.4 miles while the longer race would clock in at roughly 2.8 miles (instead of the planned 3.2 miles). While I personally love the far side of the breakwater because it's colder and rougher, in the conditions we had on Saturday, I think it was a very wise decision to keep us on the lee side of the breakwater, which did its job beautifully. (We have a photo of the contrast in conditions between the two sides which I will post soon.)

By the time we got down to the water to begin the race, the wind had really picked up. The only place where it was tolerable was on the beach right next to the breakwater, as that totally shielded the wind. Stripping down in the rain and wind to my bathing suit was chilly, but getting into the 60 degree water was a relief- it was warmer than being on land!

The race went well. I think I did it in about 1:18:40 (at least by my watch) but because of the terrible weather, we didn't have an awards session afterwards. (All awards will be mailed and final results posted on the Maine Masters web site.) I came in just about 30 seconds or so behind Greg, which is good- he's fast, so if I'm hanging with him, all's right with the world. I felt good and strong the whole way, and dodging the lobster pot buoys was fun- a bit like a slalom course!

As soon as we finished, Mark met Greg and me at the water's edge with towels and we trudged back up to the car. The wind had increased dramatically in the hour-plus that we were swimming, so much so that it had begun to shred Mark's poncho, and little bits of bright yellow plastic ripped off and were floating in the surf.

At the car, Greg and I attempted to dry off, and were moving to get into the car when a reporter from the Bangor Daily News approached and asked if I would meet her downtown later (once we had all dried off!) to do an interview. Wow, a face-to-face interview! That's a first for me. We went back to the inn, got showered and dried off and headed to the pub, where Abby met us for the interview. It was neat- she conduced a very thorough interview and put together a great article. I'm incredibly flattered, and this is just one of those little things that make me like this race even more. I mean seriously, how cool is this? The story is the leading one on the sports web page on the Bangor Daily News web site.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/118327.html

So after lunch, Mark and I said goodbye to Greg who was driving right back down to Massachusetts. We poked around in some shops and tried, unsuccessfully, to stay dry. We got soaked by a car driving though a puddle on the way back to the inn. Thankfully, they had turned on the fireplace in the room, so we were able to dry our clothes and snuggle up next to the fire. We had another great dinner at In Good Company on Main Street, (http://www.yelp.com/biz/in-good-company-rockland) and then, sadly, it was Sunday and time to make our way home. But the weather was great on Sunday morning and we did a little more wandering around Rockland and went out to Owls Head Light to check out the lighthouse there. Beautiful! http://www.lighthouse.cc/owls/

Another great Rockland weekend in the rearview mirror...

Rockland Breakwater a Success

Despite high winds and slashing rain this morning (not to mention the 60 degree water), the Rockland Breakwater 3.2 mile and 1.6 mile swims were a smashing success. Even Hurricane Danny couldn't keep us out of the water! More to follow soon, but I wanted to quickly post a cool story that I found when looking for the official results of the swim online. This is from a local paper and appeared on Thursday in anticipation of the event. With the weather this morning, I think it's safe to say that no one who wasn't involved with the swim was strolling along the breakwater at all, so I doubt that anyone other than the swim organizers, safety crews, and supportive onlookers saw us dodging the lobster pot buoys in the rain. All the same, another great event and wonderful, safe race hosted by the PenBay Masters swimmers. Thanks for another fabulous swim and many more fun memories. See you next summer!
http://knox.villagesoup.com/Sports/story.cfm?storyID=173408

Onward to Rockland

We are getting ready to hit the road to Rockland this afternoon for my third trip to the annual Rockland Breakwater 3.2 mile swim tomorrow morning, and hoping that Hurricane Danny stays south and east of us so that the race isn't impacted. All the same, the forecast is for rain and wind in the morning, increasing throughout the day. I guess that's just all the more reason to swim fast so we can get out and get dried off with a beer in hand! Looking forward to swimming it with Greg this year, and hoping that I can keep my streak of being the top non-wetsuit entrant in the 3.2 mile swim alive again this year. (That water is probably going to be very cold this year, what with the rain and the storm coming in.) According to the NOAA buoy just south of Rockland in West Penobscot Bay, we're looking at a water temperature of 59-62, so actually, not that bad, and it could be downright comfy! http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44033

Rockland is more than just a swim destination to us- it's where Mark and I went on our honeymoon, so we are very much looking forward to escaping for the weekend, and even if the weather doesn't cooperate, I'm sure we'll be quite comfortable snuggled up in the Berry Manor Inn and at In Good Company.

More Channel Swim Photos

Photos from Swim

Back in the USA

We have been back home for a little over a week now and it's been a whirlwind, hence the scant postings since returning. It has been so wonderful seeing everyone and receiving all your congratulations. It has also been a little overwhelming, all the media attention I've gotten and telling the story to everyone and trying not to forget any of the really interesting parts. Awesome, but overwhelming all the same!

I will attempt to post some photos from the swim here in a separate post in a few moments (but this blog is not terribly conducive to posting photos, so I may not put that many up here). If you want to see all of them, I can email you the link to my online Kodak gallery.

In the meanwhile, here are a few links of interest from local media and a very useful site that lists all the channel swims. According to this site maintained by the city of Dover, as of today, only 1,056 swimmers have completed 1,471 solo swims. With roughly 20% of those swimmer being American, that makes me one of probably a little over 200 Americans to make the journey. My swim, according to the statistics, was average in every sense, except to me, my family, and everyone who was supporting me during this adventure.
http://www.dover.uk.com/channelswimming/stats.php

Here are the links to some articles from the Waltham Daily News Tribune and Boston.com. (The Boston.com article- the first one below- was featured on the home page and definitely made the rounds among my friends on Facebook. Too cool- I felt like a real celebrity for the day.)

Enjoy!

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/waltham/2009/08/waltham_woman_conquers_the_mt.html

http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/x772305259/Waltham-swimmer-conquers-English-Channel

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/08/09/walthams_elaine_kornbau_howley_swims_english_channel/

Clarification on the attire

Another quick posting from the Charlotte airport (I love free wi-fi!) We are almost home after a long journey in many senses of the word.

Just wanted to clarify one point. I've had a couple of people ask about the comment I made in my posting immediately following the swim about how Mark and Khrista "helped me out of my wet suit." I think I confused many of you with that statement. I don't wear a wetsuit. English Channel swims, to be officially recognized and entered into the record books, must be done wearing only one standard bathing suit (or swim costume for the Brits reading this), one bathing cap, and a pair of goggles. That's it. Much of the challenge comes from not being protected from the cold water over such a long time swimming. So, I did not have a wetsuit on when I swam the English Channel last week. Rather, I wore a regular old lycra bathing suit that was wet and sticky with zinc and was therefore rather difficult to wriggle out of in a swaying and rolling boat. So, I hope that clarifies that. I don't wear a wetsuit. I can't stand the things!

Back to the States tomorrow

Ah, well, all good things must come to an end, or so they tell me. We are currently sitting in a tiny hotel room (the Dover Hotel, not by accident) in London, after several pints with a dear old friend from Haddonfield who has figured large into this Channel crossing, Carolyn Nelson. (It has been so good to catch up with you, Carolyn!)

We had an awesome time out west with Mark's parents and exploring the West Midlands. We visited Abergavenny, a lovely Welsh town with the best chips of the whole trip, and Hay-on-Wye, the city of books, with a lovely, quiet pint at the Old Black Lion tavern.

It's going to be hard to get on that plane tomorrow, different people as we are. But it's time to come home and see everyone and tell you all the stories in person. We haven't had much email or internet access, so this is, sadly, a necessarily a short posting when there are so many things I'd like to share and tell. I guess they will just have to wait until we get stateside. Until then, we will all have to just have to swim strong, travel smart, and keep the pints cold until we get there.

London and Beyond

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to put up a fast posting. We had a lovely time in Dover and are now en route to visit Mark's family. (We highly recommend the Sandown for anyone traveling to Dover- the Sandhams made our stay easy, memorable, and so much fun.)

Just wanted to say thank you all so much for the lovely notes and messages of congratulations and support. The day after the swim, I was overwhelmed by emails-- there were over 200 messages waiting for me when I logged in. So please know that even if I have not responded, I do appreciate them all, and am digesting them as I can. We will probably be offline for a couple days here as we head out to Hereford, but will check in as we can.

Thanks everyone!

Success!

Horray! We did it! It was a long, sometimes brutal, but very worthwhile experience and I am thrilled to be able to say I am now an official member of the elite club of English Channel swimmers!

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the water. Warm and sunny the whole way, with just a few scattered clouds crossing over head. We arrived at Folkestone harbor just before 8am to board the boat-- which was an interesting process. The pilot, Fred, and his crew, Harry, helped us load our supplies into a little dinghy, which they then rowed out to the fishing boat. Then they came back for us and the observer, Andy. We all climbed aboard and set to slathering me with sunblock and zinc oxide.

We motored around the coastline on the English side a few miles to Samphire Hoe, the launch point. Martin and Sonia from the guest house where we are staying where waiting on the beach to see us off. With some trepidation, I jumped off the Samallen and swam to shore, enjoyed a very quick chat with Martin and Sonia, posed for some pictures, found a great rock to bring home, and set out.

The water was bumpy at the start. Not terrible, just bumpy, like we would sometimes get on the Jersey Shore, especially if there were a hurricane sitting well off in the swell window somewhere. That bumpiness continued for some time, but I just kept swimming.

By the third hour, my right shoulder was getting a little achy, since I was taking the impact of the waves on that side. I also starting having some tummy trouble, but a few Advil helped relieve all those aches.

Somewhere during the fifth hour, the sea flattened out and I started making good headway. I felt great for the next few hours, and we saw several large tankers and ferries as we crossed into the shipping lanes. Thankfully, we didn't have any run-ins or trouble navigating around and between all the traffic.

Somewhere around that time, I noticed a couple of jellyfish drifting along a few feet below me. They didn't sting me, but I did catch another that I didn't see in the armpit on my right side. It tingled and itched for a few minutes, and then went away. I had one other run-in, also on the right side, with another stinger an hour or two later, and that was the extent of my sea life interactions.

Somewhere around the 8th hour, the seas kicked up again, and that's when I started to feel seasick. Not a pleasant feeling. It was just enough to make me not want to eat or drink, but not so severe as to make me just vomit and get past it. It was not a pleasant state of affairs. I was refusing solids and my Ultima, but my electrolytes were out of wack, so then I got a little moody, but finally, the seas calmed down a little and I was able to get some Ultima down and keep it there, and then I was back on track. The tinned peaches were my saviour through this all, though, and I was really glad we had picked up two cans.

I could see the French shoreline beginning somewhere in the 9th hour, and it was frustratingly close, but seemingly not getting closer. When I finally got mad, I got moving, and that's what got me through. That and knowing that there were so many people who would be disappointed for me if I didn't make it and all the questions I'd have to answer if I didn't finish this thing. So, it was just head down, ass up, and let's get there.

Around the 11th hour, the sun started to set, and I was a little nervous whether I would get cold as night fell, but thankfully, I didn't notice any real change in the temperature after the sun went down. But then it was harder to see. I still had on my tinted goggles and the light faded fast. I could no longer see my watch, which may have been a good thing. I truly began swimming from feed to feed, with no knowledge of where I was, how long it had been since I last spoke to my crew, or how much closer France was getting, and even though I was frustrated, I knew I was getting closer with every stroke. The dark mass of land grew larger every time we stopped.

Finally, they told me it was the last feed, and I was so excited. I had all but made it. I would be on shore in less than 45 minutes, and the sea had turned to glass. A nice smooth landing... just what the doctor ordered. Not long after that last feed, the pilot and my husband got into the little dinghy and they rowed along with me. The big fishing boat moored out a bit where it was deep enough. Then it was just a matter of plugging away to the finish line. They shined a weak spotlight ahead, and I just swam towards the light. I heard Mark shout that I was about 50 feet from shore, then took a few more strokes and my hands grazed sand. I stood up, ran on shore, and scrambled up on to some white rocks beyond the edge of the water line, and with that, magically, it was done. I was a Channel swimmer in 13 hours, 55 minutes.

No sooner had I stood up on the rocks and waved to the boat to check that I had gone far enough ashore than I went ass over teakettle into the stones. Not my most graceful moment, but a small bruise on my right butt is a nice little souvenir, I guess!

I didn't linger on shore for long. After swimming hard in the 62-63 degree water for nearly 14 hours, I knew my body temperature would drop fast once I'd stopped swimming. I waded out to where Fred and Mark had all but beached the dinghy and hoisted myself into it. Again, not the most graceful or elegant of moves, but then, no one ever said Channel swimming was a pretty sport.

Mark got me bundled up in towels while Fred rowed us back to the boat. We boarded and Khrista and Mark got my wet suit off (with some difficulty) while the observer called in the swim to make it official. I was all sticky and still covered with zinc-- that's why it's so useful as a sunblock. I shivered a little, but it subsided quickly after a nice, hot cup of proper English tea. I was still feeling a bit queasy, so I laid down under towels and sweatshirts and jackets on a mat on the deck and we motored back to Folkestone harbor.

Mark and I had, for some unknown reason, assumed that the trip back would take about 3 hours. But, it actually took about 5 and a half. The trip that started at 8am, was finally over at 5:30 the next morning.

When we got to Folkestone, the tide was out, so Fred moored the boat out beyond the harbor walls and rowed us into the harbor, where we jumped out in a foot of water and waded to shore. The observer gave us a lift back to the guest house, where Sonia met us with smiles and congratulations. I jumped in the shower (but am still mostly coated in zinc-- it will take a while to come off completely) and then fell into bed, still feeling the rocking motions of the waves and the boat as I drifted off to sleep.

We slept for about 6 hours, and now we're working on updating everyone as to how it went. I'm sorry that we couldn't keep you better informed during the event. I gather that the AIS tracking didn't really work, but then, that is the nature of an English Channel swim-- you just go and do it and everyone has to have a little faith that you'll get there and be back to tell the story the next day.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us on this journey. A special thanks to Mark and Khrista for crewing me and boosting my spirits when I began to think it was hopeless. Thanks to Fred and Harry for being the best pilots ever and to Andy for being a great observer and for the ride home. Thanks also to my family and friends back home-- I could feel your positive vibes, and it was a little bit of peer pressure that helped get me through the rough parts-- I couldn't bear to come home and tell you all I hadn't made it, so I just did it. Special thanks are in order for Pam O'Neill for letting me use her wonderful home as a training playground, and to all the lakers for the great swims over the past several years. That was where the idea was first forged, and I'm pleased to say that after 2+ years of hard work, we got there. There are so many other people along the way who have been a huge help-- too many to name here, but I trust that you know who you are and that I deeply appreciate your guidance and support throughout this journey. I am looking forward to telling all the stories and seeing you all soon when we get back to the States, where we can raise a few triumphant pints. For now, though, I think I'll go take a nap.
XOXO
E

Manic Monday

Just spoke to the pilot, and things look good for a 9am launch tomorrow at about 9am from Samphire Hoe. How exciting! Finally, it looks like I've got my chance to swim and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate. The Met Office is now forecasting wind speeds of about 8-12 mph throughout the day blowing in a North-North-Easterly direction, which will be at my back, great to have a little tail wind! Fingers crossed that forecast holds and we actually get the nice conditions they've predicted. Should be mostly sunny, too, so it may be a very pleasant day on the water. We will send updates as we can, but we may not have the capability to update the blog and our email list from there, but we will post messages as soon as we can.

Thanks again to everyone for all the well-wishes and positive vibes- it is most appreciated and means a lot to me.

No Swim Sunday... possible for Monday

Spoke to the pilot this evening- the weather is going to be very iffy tomorrow, and he feels we should wait for Monday to take advantage of better weather conditions, so no swim tomorrow. That's how this stuff goes, and I trust my pilot, so it's all good.

Instead of swimming to France tomorrow, we are planning to go to Dover Castle with a friend of mine from high school who now lives in London and is going to come down to hang with us after I get in a training swim in the harbor in the morning. It should be a great day and it gives us a little more time to double check all our supplies and be sure we're ready to go as soon as we get the call (not that we weren't already, but it never hurts to double check everything...again!)

Here's another article that turned up in the Boston Globe this weekend:
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/articles/2009/08/02/waltham_swimmer_aims_to_cross_english_channel/

Still waiting

No definite word yet about whether we are swimming tomorrow or not. Will probably hear from the pilot this evening. The weather forecast is calling now for stronger than previously predicted winds, so I don't know whether we will be going out, but anxiously awaiting more info.

In the meanwhile, we took a nice hike up in the Western Heights back behind the guest house. It was beautiful and steep. We got to the top and could see out to France and just the edge of Dover harbor. Windy up there!

Here is a web site where you can see boats going to and fro in the channel. My boat should show up at some point. It's called the Samallen. Many of the boats, though, lose their signal somewhere mid channel, so if when I'm swimming the boat seems to stall somewhere, it's probably just that the signal's been lost, not that I'm swimming in place.

http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?map=folkstone