What I learned from swimming the English Channel
Published in
3 min readAug 5, 2018
I swam the English Channel in 11:01 hours! Below are my lessons for anyone attempting a future marathon swim. Train diligently, experiment with feeds, and have fun.
- Bring your passport!
- Wear new goggles for long training swims. They never fogged. I use Speedo Vanquisher.
- Mack’s silicone earplugs (use 1.5 per ear).
- Badger sport ZINC sunblock SPF 35. It’s safe for the ocean and lasted my entire EC swim. I never got sunburnt.
- Using latex gloves, apply a generous coat of Bag Balm around the suit lines, neck, and anywhere that rubs to prevent chafing.
- Pre-test all feeds ahead of time and bring extra of everything. I used primarily Hammer Perpetuem, CarboPro mixed with a splash of Gatorade, baby food pouches (apple sauce, banana, strawberry flavors), Stinger gels, Stinger waffle, Hammer gels, and croissants filled with jam!
- Rinse with diluted mouthwash every 2 hours to cleanse salinity. The English Channel is very salty.
- There are jellyfish — be prepared to get stung.
- Wear a long-hair silicone swim cap. It covers more of your head and you don’t have to adjust it often.
- Duct tape to secure bottles, feeds to rope. Bring extra.
- 50 feet of rope for feeds. Needs to stay slack for entire feed or you can get disqualified for the assistance.
- Keep feeds to 15–20 seconds. The strong tide will push you further away every time you stop. Longer feeds = longer swim.
- Have hot feeds if you’re cold. Bring extra powder to have your crew mix it on the boat.
- Arrive at least 4 nights before your window starts to acclimate to the time zone, sleep, and relax before swim. You may be asked to go before your window if conditions are favorable.
- Crew should take anti-nausea medication BEFORE they get on the boat. Stugeron (cinnarizine) — only available in the UK, was the most effective.
- Train in all type of conditions. The swims that were extremely choppy or windy ended up being my best workouts.
- Don’t look up! France will always appear closer than it actually is.
- Choose your crew wisely. Make sure they’ve had practice piloting and throwing feeds, have at least one person with a swimming background and/or able to identify signs of hypothermia, and are motivating/positive people.
- When you think you can’t swim anymore, you can.
- Enjoy it!