GARY'S BIG ADVENTURE!

GARY'S BIG ADVENTURE

Hi there, I’m Gary. In May this year I embarked on a little swimming challenge down the river Trent which took me from Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire to Dunham, Lincolnshire, 100 miles downstream. This was all in aid of the mental health charity, MIND. I wanted to raise both money and awareness for this great charity having suffered for several years with stress, anxiety and depression.

Having broken free from the shackles of my illness, I was determined to make the most of my second chance at living a full life and looked to take on a big challenge.

I only took up open water swimming in June of last year and took to it like err… well… a duck to water!

Up to then I’d spent a bit of time in the pool learning how to swim more than two lengths front crawl without tiring myself out.

Although I was swimming, I wasn’t sure at this point if my challenge was going to be a swimming one or not. It was the exploits of Sean Conway who become the first person to swim the length of Brittan, 1000 miles that inspired me to search for my own swimming adventure.

Two or three ideas later, I settled on the river Trent back in October last year. 6 months of training, planning and panicking followed and although the original route was shortened from 141 miles to 100 miles due to the lack of access during low tide towards the end. I was happy that I had set myself a big enough of a challenge.

On to the start at Essex Bridge on the Shugborough Hall estate. It’s fair to say that I had more than my fair share of nerves as I got into the water for the first time. I wouldn’t go as far to say s**ting myself as that will come into this blog in a little while!

I set off just after 8am with the aim of covering 20 miles. The biggest problem I encountered on the first day was submerged boulders in the shallow water. I took several hits to the ribs and shoulders but still managed to cover the first 3 miles in just over 40 minutes with a fast current. I felt relaxed, confident and strong by this stage and headed off again with my brother, Paul in the support kayak beside me. It was a good job I was in good shape as my parents and the rest of my support crew couldn’t gain access to the river where my next rest point should have been. This resulted in a 7 mile, 2 hour stint that knocked the stuffing out of me.

At around half 5, I reached the finishing point for the first day. I was exhausted but elated to have my first 20 mile day under my belt but I was unsure how I was going to be able to keep this up.

Day two was very much like the first apart from the missed rest point came much later in the day, the final rest point as it happened. This time it wasn’t due to lack of access, it was because I beat the support car there! So I blissfully carried on regardless while several frantic phone calls went back and forth from car to kayak while they both tried to find out where each other were.

By the time I eventually reached the days finishing point at the John Thompson Inn at Ingleby, I was an exhausted, shivering wreck. Heavy rain the night before had took a couple of degrees off the water, coupled the double stint I’d just done and the lack of any fuel all took its toll. I sat in the car with the heaters on full for quite some time before I was ready to peel myself out of my wetsuit.

Day three was nothing short of awesome! Due to a clerical error on my part, the day 2 swim was only 17 miles long. I really wanted to reach the centre of Nottingham by the end of the day as I knew there were quite a few people going to be there to see me in.

So I decided to put the missing three miles on to the beginning of the day. I can’t put into words how good I felt on this day. Both the previous days I’d struggled at various points along the day, particularly towards the end. I felt as though my mind had beaten my body into submission and I could just focus on each 3/4 mile stint without distraction. I felt that good at the end of the 23 mile day that I even put a bit of a sprint on spurred on by the crowd waiting for me on the river bank as I approached the City Ground.

It went from elation to deflation very quickly however. I woke up for day four with what I’ve come to call ‘Tent belly’. Illness had set in big time, I struggled to eat a thing for breakfast and my stomach was solid. Undeterred, I jumped back into the river to set off but by the time I got to the first rest point I knew I was in trouble. Nothing would go down and if I forced it down, it was straight back up again.

By the time I reached the third rest point I was in a very bad way. Unable to get warm, unable to eat or drink and with rapid, shallow breathing I reluctantly decided to call it a day for the day. Although I had all my support crew telling me that I’ve just swam 10 miles on 700 calories feeling like death. I still felt that the day was a failure as I didn’t cover the distance I set out to do.

I know this is stupid but when you’re 100% focused on the task ahead, anything less just won’t do.

After an afternoon, evening and night in bed, I woke up feeling better and determined to make up on some lost ground (stupid I know), I jumped in again. And again by the time I got to the first rest point, I knew I was in trouble. Both ends had opened like taps. The Imodium was taking care of one end but everything I tried to eat was coming straight back up.

As like the day before, I jumped back in and carried on. Every stroke was a battle and every time I stopped for a breather in the water anything left in my stomach would end up in the river (sorry fish).

By the 2pm I had made it to Farndon just outside of Newark. I was determined to get this far as it was the first place I jumped into the Trent in preparation for the swim. Having reached my goal, I had to make another very difficult decision to have a rest day to try and regain some kind of level of health as I was quite literally on my knees at this point.

The river may well have won the battle but I wasn’t going to lose the war!

After a day of eating and sleeping, I once again jumped into the river with only 20 miles separating me with triple figure mileage under my belt. This would turn out to be one of the longest days of my life. The rain from the early part of the swim had long gone and the water temperature was on the up but the flow of the river was slowing to an almost complete halt. That’s what it felt like anyway!

Although I still felt weak, I could keep food a drink down to fuel me through the day so I got my head down and went for it, and went for it, and went for it…. 12 long hours I spent in the water on the final day to get to the magic 100 mile marker near the village of Dunham, Lincolnshire.

Getting as far as I did was amazing but what made it for me was the unbelievable support I had throughout. My parents took a week off work to support me. Feeding me, ferrying me along the route etc. Friends, family and people I’ve never met coming along to help me in whatever way they could. Plus the countless good luck messages on facebook, twitter, text and email willing me on.

At the beginning of this very long blog (sorry) I said the goal of the swim was to raise awareness and money for MIND. Money is still coming in, please donate here. So far I’ve raised over £1,800 which I’m over the moon about!

On the back of my little adventure, I’ve been shortlisted for the Discovery Channels ‘My World Bigger’ competition. I’m in the running to win one of 3 adventure holidays of a life time and would really appreciate it if you could take the time to vote for me here.

My thoughts have already turned to next year’s adventure. Planning is in the early stages still but I’m looking at a 150+ mile sea swim next July/August time. Thank for reading about my adventure.

Gary