The Lure of the Monster - Dying for what You Believe In

I am haunted by my English Channel experience

There is not a day goes by that I do not think about returning, seeing if I could cheat death, even by just little bit. After spending most of my life swimming, years training she is a cruel mistress and maybe, just maybe, may take me yet. 

One recent such account is Gino Deflorian, as recounted by EC legend Kevin Murphy, 34 time EC swimmer who similarly has almost died himself. Here is the story.

Gino Deflorian has already been swimming across the English Channel for eight hours. The sun is shining, the air is clear and the water is calm and flat, but the conditions are deceptive.

He is swimming freestyle as reliably as clockwork, consistently taking 54 strokes per minute. When he lifts his head to breathe, he can vaguely make out his destination on the horizon, Cap Gris Nez, a promontory on the French coast.

Deflorian is wearing a latex swimming cap, an ordinary swimsuit and goggles. His shoulders and armpits, neck and crotch are coated with lanolin, to keep his muscles flexible and prevent chafing. According to the rules, neoprene is not allowed. If he succeeds Deflorian, 24, will be the first Swiss swimmer to swim across the Channel.

The Rowena, a blue fishing boat accompanying him on his route, is chugging along next to him at 1.6 knots. Deflorian isn't allowed to touch the boat or a person. If he does he'll be disqualified and will have to get out of the water. An inspector on board pays close attention and keeps track of times, coordinates and Deflorian's stroke rate.

The captain's son is urinating over the railing at the boat's stern, and Gerard Moerland, Deflorian's coach, is sitting on a green camping chair on the port side, observing his swimmer. He ignores the ferries, the container ships and gigantic oil tankers as he focuses on Deflorian, making sure that he doesn't start slapping the water instead of gliding through it. If that happened, it would be a sign that something is wrong.

"Am I worried? Of course. Constantly," says Moerland. He looks at his stopwatch, and then he shouts: "Captain! Food!"

Pale Lips

It's time for a boost of energy, which happens every 40 minutes. As the boat slows down, Moerland tosses Deflorian a bottle and a bag attached to a rope. The bottle is filled with Coca-Cola and the bag contains a roll with Nutella. Deflorian turns over onto his back and allows his body to drift. He can hardly get the bag open, because his fingers, wrinkled and white down to the middle joints, are shaking so badly. His lips are pale.

The English Channel is brutally cold, although on this Tuesday in late August the water temperature is 16.8 degrees Celsius (62 degrees Fahrenheit). Water conducts heat 25 times as efficiently as air. The Channel is literally sucking the life out of the swimmer.

"Gino, how do you feel?" Moerland asks.

No response.

"Gino?" 

"It's getting cold," he replies. "And my triceps hurt."

"Okay. That's what we trained for. Just keep swimming."

Deflorian forces down the last bite and starts swimming again. He's swum 25,326 strokes since 9:25 in the morning, when he began his journey on a pebble beach at the Samphire Hoe park, directly at the Eurotunnel.

Deflorian keeps swimming. Now he's up to 25,410 strokes. Standing at the helm of the Rowena is the captain, known as the pilot, who is guiding him across the Channel. "He's gradually beginning to suffer," he says. "The demons of the Channel are trying to get to him." Deflorian keeps swimming. 25,912 strokes. 

The English Channel is to long-distance swimmers what Mount Everest is to mountain climbers: the biggest legend their sport has to offer. The strait between England and France measures 33 kilometers (21 miles) at its narrowest point. It's also one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, with about 500 ships passing through it every day. Swimming across the Channel is an extreme experience, a test of will and a personal challenge.

A Purgatory

It isn't an exclusive adventure by any means. By the end of 2012, 1,341 swimmers had conquered the Channel, and more swimmers attempt the crossing each year. There are about 300 in this year's season, which lasts from June to September, but only one in five swimmers makes it. There are eight deaths on record. 

"The only thing that counts is getting there. That's the lesson the English Channel teaches you. It's a purgatory. If it were easy to make it across, it wouldn't do anything for you. When you've made it, you're a different person afterwards," says Kevin Murphy, the so-called King of the Channel, who has swum the Channel 34 times, more than any other man in history. 

Murphy, born in 1949, was a fat child who wasn't good at soccer, so he began swimming instead. A row of certificates documenting his achievements hangs in the hallway of his apartment in Dover. He has swum across Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Scotland, and he has crossed the channel between Ireland and Scotland. "But you only get to be a real hero when you've tackled the Channel. It beats everything else," says Murphy.

He has had to be rescued from the water when he lost consciousness, he has had surgery on both shoulders and he suffered a heart attack. Murphy is a wreck. He hasn't swum in seven years. "Mentally, I can't handle the loneliness in the water anymore," he says. The Channel got to him in the end. 

Those hoping to swim across the Channel must register with one of two organizations. Murphy is the honorary secretary of one of them, the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation. To receive permission from Murphy to embark on the swim, swimmers must provide proof of having swum for six hours nonstop in water at a temperature of no more than 16 degrees Celsius. The rule was established five years ago. "We're thinking of increasing it to eight hours," says Murphy. "Because of Susan."

'Possibly a Heart Attack'

He's referring to Susan Taylor, a British woman who died in mid-July, less than two kilometers from the French mainland and after 16 hours in the Channel. Murphy was her mentor when she was at a training camp on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca in April.

"I never would have thought that she would have problems." Taylor had to vomit because she was exhausted and had swallowed too much salt water, Taylor's brother, who was on the support boat, told Murphy. She wasn't far away from the French coast and didn't want to give up. She stopped swimming freestyle and switched to breaststroke, but after 10 or 12 strokes she said that she could no longer feel her legs. "She only took two more strokes after that," says Murphy. "I suspect it was hypothermia or dehydration, possibly a heart attack."

It's been nine hours and 20 minutes, and Deflorian is still swimming, 29,538 strokes so far. It's time to eat again. Eating is the only respite for the swimmer, whose body becomes a crisis zone. The cold is like a small rodent eating its way inside. There have been swimmers whose core body temperature was a life-threatening 31 degrees Celsius when they reached their destination.

This time the crew tosses Deflorian a honey-flavored energy bar and a sports drink, which consists of 90 percent carbohydrates. He burns about 800 kilocalories an hour, the equivalent of one-and-a-half bars of milk chocolate or eight-and-a-half slices of whole grain bread. "You can't eat enough to compensate," says trainer Moerland. "You need reserves."

Body fat is a swimmer's lifesaver in the English Channel, because it insulates the body, provides buoyancy and supplies energy. For weeks, most swimmers fatten up with an agonizing diet consisting of large quantities of bacon, pasta and nuts. Women are more successful at crossing the Channel, because they typically have more body fat than men.

Deflorian is 1.85 meters (6'1") tall and weighs 92 kilograms (203 lbs.). He has only 14 percent body fat. He isn't obese, just stocky and barrel-chested. "He's shaped like a whale," says Moerland, "but he could certainly use a little more fat around his ribs. The movement should keep him warm."

Painful Stings

"Everything okay, Gino?" Moerland asks. "Can you pee?"

"Yes, but it's hard to get it out."

When the undercooled lower abdomen becomes too cramped, the swimmer has trouble urinating. Swimmers are often forced to give up because their bladders feel like they're bursting and they can no longer endure the pain. Some become seasick while swimming in waves up to one-and-a-half meters high, while others contend with painful stings from the lion's mane jellyfish.

Moerland came prepared. He has brought along acetaminophen for pain, an antihistamine, caffeine to combat fatigue and cinnarizine for dizziness and nausea.

"Come on Gino, let's go!" Moerland shouts. Deflorian keeps swimming. 29,545 strokes.

In the one minute it took him to eat, he has drifted 120 to 150 meters away from the boat. The tidal current in the English Channel can range up to six knots and can flush away a swimmer like an empty bottle.

That's the reason why no one is able to make it France in a straight line, instead following a curved route. First the high tide pushes the swimmer in a northeasterly direction, and then the ebb tide pushes him back to the southwest. Swimmers who make it across the Channel have in fact swum at least 44 kilometers.

Deflorian is swimming near the bow of the Rowena, where the pilot can see him. For the swimmer, the pilot acts as a guide dog of sorts. He decides when the swim will take place and which course to follow. 

Deflorian's pilot has been working as a fisherman for 40 years. He catches crabs, mussels and snails, but working with Channel swimmers is much more lucrative. He charges £2,300, or about €2,735, per crossing. In weeks when the currents are especially favorable, there are routinely three swimmers a day or more attempting to cross the Channel. The fisherman could never make that much money catching mussels.

Too Risky

There are 13 officially approved pilots. Some are booked four years in advance.

Deflorian has now been in the water for 10 hours and 25 minutes, still swimming at 54 strokes a minute. The sun is setting behind him, and in front of him there is a full moon above Cap Gris Nez. Seven other swimmers are in the water today. Because of restrictions imposed by the French coast guard, no more than 12 support boats are allowed to cross the Channel each day. Because the French coast guard believes that swimming across the Channel is too risky, it barred swimmers from starting the crossing on its coast 20 years ago, but it still tolerates swimmers coming from England.

Moerland is standing at the railing, waving his arms and shouting: "Come on, Gino, come on!" The pilot, glancing at the radar screen and the map on his monitor, says: "If all goes well, he'll be there in less than an hour. But if it doesn't and he hits a wall, the current will push him past the cape."

But Deflorian doesn't hit a wall, lifting one arm after the other, meter by meter. 32,940 strokes. He's as stoical in the water as he is on land.

A year ago, Moerland asked Deflorian if he was interested in swimming across the Channel. The two men know each other from their club in Uster, a town near Zürich. Moerland is from the Netherlands, a country with a long tradition of long-distance swimming. He has coached swimmers in four Olympic Games. Deflorian has been a competitive swimmer since his youth, and he's talented, "but he would never make it to the World Championships or the Olympics," says Moerland. "The English Channel is just the right thing for him."

'I'm Hungry'

"It's not about anything for me," says Deflorian. "I just want to swim from England to France."

They arrived two weeks before the planned date of the crossing. Deflorian practiced in the Dover harbor basin every day, along with a group of other swimmers: two female students from Chicago, a heart surgeon from Cape Town and a 70-year-old Japanese man from Hiroshima.

Then it became windy, with gusts of up to 6 on the Beaufort scale, and Deflorian had to wait. Besides, the Japanese man was still ahead of him. Two camera teams, one on board the Rowena and one in a helicopter, filmed his progress. He gave up after 12 hours, five kilometers from his destination, because the strong current prevented him from reaching land.

The Rowena stops 1,160 meters (3,805 feet) off Cap Gris Nez, because the water is getting too shallow. A rowboat accompanies Deflorian for the last kilometer, because he still isn't quite there. Some swimmers were so exhausted that they couldn't complete this last, short stretch of water.

It's getting dark, and Deflorian keeps swimming. "Yippie!" Moerland bellows, jumping up and down on the deck. Then Deflorian drags himself out of the water and onto the beach. When he pulls off his goggles, his eyes are set deep in their sockets. Finally, he stands on the beach and raises his fists to the sky. His mouth forms a thin line, as if paralyzed, but then he manages a smile. He's made it. After 11 hours and 6 minutes in the English Channel. And after swimming 35,100 strokes of freestyle.

Reprinted from der Spiegel

2010 USMS 10K Championships Start & my race experience

Start of the Race, those that know my stroke will notice where I am, Ha, Ha!

Swimming with the Big Dogs, what an experience! U.S. Masters National Championship for the 10k marathon race was a solid success for me and a wonderful experience participating with 200 plus total marathon swimmers from 22 states some of them former world record holders, a number that have already done the English Channel and other large marathon events. 

I placed 5th in my age group (45 - 49, they break down every 5 years) and 51st overall. It took me just over 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete the 6.2 mile course (2:52.26 to be exact). This is a personal best for me and I dropped 14 minutes from my previous 10k just 3 weeks prior.

Here is the sun rising just before warm-ups! what a beautiful view:

The event was held at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Indiana in very warm (hot by my definition these days) of 84f. The water was so warm that dehydration and heat stroke was as reality. The water being so warm of course had algae blooming very thick (...think very diluted split pea soup, I could barely see my hands as they entered the water and pulled beneath my chest). The air temperature was also in the high 80's when the gun went off at 7:00am. So the total thermal heat load was some 160 degrees which is huge almost comparable to the Hawaii Iron man. In the end, everyone was safe but seriously dehydrated. I have probably drank the better part of 1-2 gallons of various fluids since then Saturday after the race until Sunday evening.

The race for me was my first ever national level event so the nerves were a bit rough, didn't sleep very well the night before waking up at 3am two whole hours before I was supposed to wake up. Tried to go back to sleep but found myself, dreaming about big lochness water monsters. So perhaps someone out there can tell me what that meant? Jennifer, my wife was so gracious to follow me on this trip and get up early as well braving the non-Starbucks start of the day. We arrived at the event and lots of folks were already in swim suits chomping at the bit. You could cut the excitement with a knife as folks mulled around preparing themselves with swim caps, Vaseline (we use this where needed to prevent chaffing), goggles, etc. As start time neared, folks were in doing there warm up swims of a couple hundred yards. You could already smell the safety boats engine oil and gas wafting in the air and taste in my mouth. We did the usual national anthem which was really something with the sun coming up and 200 folks standing in their swim gear. I found myself thinking about the movie "Apocalypse Now" and the part where where the Colonel says something along the lines of "I love the smell of Napalm early in the morning...Its, Its, the smell of victory"! 

The first wave started at 7am and the second wave, which I was in, at 7:05am. So about 60-80 people per wave went tearing off in a wild frenzy of arms and legs, climbing over each other, bumping, etc. I was pleased to not feel much of this as I usually like to stay away from the fray so as not to expend extra energy but also to mentally allow myself to get into a rhythm. For me it takes somewhere up to a mile or so to begin to settle down into what feels good. But in this hot water, it was very different this time, the heat load came on quick and I could tell by my breathing my body warmed up and it was going to be really important to "listen to my body" and work through the different feelings of stress, pain and aches.

The course is a two lap circuit each three miles (5k) around. The course was very comfortable for me to navigate, I prefer long open stretches rather than circling around buoys. Each way up or down is about 1.5 miles. We started at the bottom of the picture. At each end I stopped for a very quick (10-20 seconds) gulp of water and a GU pack. At the half way point, I gulped down an 8 oz. bottle of my usual Maxim energy drink. 

My first laps were pretty consistent time wise ranging anywhere from 40 odd minutes and seconds to 46 on the third lap and then negative splitting back down to 40 minutes on the last lap (this was really tough however).  I began to feel either cramping or the cumulative affects of the dehydration in my arms half way down the third lap or it could have been the slug of carbohydrates I had just consumed 20 minutes before at the half way point? (I need to learn from this as it was a challenging period). My stroke shortened and I had to really focus on staying calm and to relax during this segment but as the next several hundred yards passed so did this feeling. After hitting the last turn I knew I was doing well, I felt better and as I pulled away from the turn buoy I felt my longer relaxed stroke come back. As the yards ticked away, I got stronger, I could see people in front me and slowly worked to pass as many as I could. I was a mental rush seeing someone splashing away 100 or 200 yards up and then a few moments later passing them. The last turn buoy before the finish I was in all out sprint, it hurt like hell but I was in the zone. I drove to the finish and popped up just across the line with a cheery Hi, that was fun comment to the race officials as I backstroked over to the beach. Of course moments later the endorphins came crashing down and it was then I realized I was hot and tired. I didn't stay in the water to warm down like usual because it was so hot. Everyone was happily talking and sharing there experiences, young and old. 

Everyone finished up and we proceeded to have a lunch and awards. I was astonished to see the age groupings, there was a small group of just out of college kids then very few later 20's to early thirty year old's. The bulk of these talented swimmers really started in the late 30's, then my age grouping but the biggest group was the 50's. there were a number of 60 year old's as well. This was truly remarkable to see.

About the time we finished up with awards for the top eight in each age group, one older guy came in and finished 4 hours and something seconds. Everyone stopped what they were doing and began to cheer with thunderous applause. In that moment I discovered why I love swimming, but more to the point the people that swim with you. This is a very small fraternity of very, very talented and in some cases world class athletes that are caring and engaged with their competitors and their families. 

My training partner, Doug McConnell and Coach Marcia cleveland were there as well. Marcia won her age group and yes, she stomped my butt again swimming something like a 2:40 race. Doug had a great swim, he has been coming back from spine surgery earlier in the year and had missed three months of practice. He finished 6th in his age group 50-55 in with some real fast guys around 2:50 minutes. 

One fun note for the Goshen, Indiana folks! I Dave Oplinger (swam in the late 1970's with the Gibsons, Neff and company) was there in a relay. I hadn't seen Dave since high school and it was really allot of fun to see him again and share great memories and laughs. He did well in his relay and also swims Masters in Indy, still cranking out the butterfly.

In the end it was a great experience and very different from my larger goal of swimming across a large open water distance like the English Channel. Hey this was the US Nationals!