It’s official: I’m now allowed to swim the English Channel.

At 7:45am on Sunday morning, I set off on a 6 hour training swim that would also serve to officially qualify me for the Channel swim (the CS&PF requires all hopefuls to complete a 6 hour swim in 58-62 degree water prior to their attempt). It was a perfect day, with the sun already shining, clear skies, and little wind. I had a totally amazing support team out with me: my friend and mentor Reuben, my sweetheart Neal, my sister Karri, my father Larry, my mother Connie, and my friend Dave. Though things started out a little rough around Alcatraz (think Spin Cycle of Death), I soon got into a groove and felt absolutely awesome.

I remember thinking to myself, “Remember this. You’re young, you’re strong, you’re fast, you’re doing something you love on a beautiful day, and you are surrounded by people you love who are only here for YOU and who want you to succeed. Drink it in.” And I did.

Powered by GU, the hours melted away as we saw parts of the Bay I’d never before seen. Even when my arms started to hurt around hour 5, I was having too much fun to care, battling my way through rising winds as we worked our way back toward the Dolphin Club. This time, I didn’t get stuck anywhere, and finishing on the DC beach felt really good. My shoulders held up, my ankles and hip flexors made it through, and my mental state stayed high with the cheering and smiles from my family and friends.

I feel confident. I still have a month to improve, to get stronger and even faster. I can’t wait to tackle the greatest challenge of my 25 years.

A HUGE thank you to Reuben, Neal, Dave, Karri, Dad, and Mom for being so selfless and so supportive. I love you all!

This Sunday will be my longest training swim so far, 6 hours out in the San Francisco Bay.  Dolphin Club Rowing Commissioner and Pilot Extraordinaire Reuben Hechanova designed the course you see above.  We aim to start from the Dolphin Club at 7:30am, head around Alcatraz and Treasure Islands, under the Bay Bridge toward Candlestick park, and return to the Dolphin Club along the waterfront to wrap things up at 1:30pm.  At which point we will grab some yummy Ahi Tuna sandwiches at the conveniently located Blue Mermaid Restaurant.

I’m really excited because my family will be up again for the swim!  My dad, mom, and sister will be out on the water cheering me on, along with usual suspects Reuben and Neal, and with Dave Hollembaek captaining the Arias.  Here’s the breakdown:

Reuben, Neal, and Dad in one of the gorgeous DC rowboats.

Dave, Mom, and Karri in the Arias (zodiac).

I’m aiming to treat this swim exactly as I would the real Channel swim, from the feeding schedule, to the food, to the boat position, etc…maybe we’ll even throw in a few twists or two, like changing out goggles or something.  It will also be a chance for Mom and Karri to learn how to “feed me” in case they are called upon to perform this task in England.

I”ve been training really well all week.  This morning, I did 9k in the pool, then headed to the Bay for a 4 mile swim right after.  The water has been very warm (59-60 this morning) and I’ve been feeling strong.  My shoulder is still hanging in there, and my foot, I am happy to report, is still attached despite the pain in my ankle.  I’ll get in a good long training session on Friday, take Saturday completely off and cheer on in the Dolphin Club/South End Club Golden Gate Bridge swim, and be ready to bring it on Sunday morning!

I made it 2 weeks swimming every other day in the pool without pain, getting up to 6000m a practice. It seemed time to start easing back into open water training – gradually, of course. I held things together pretty well on last weekend’s Fort Point swim, which took just under an hour. I decided to try next for a 3 hour, and go from there.

Saturday morning found me back in the old routine, driving up to the Dolphin Club at 6:30 in the morning. Reuben was drowning under piles of work, so Neal was left with his first solo piloting experience. Needless to say, he rocked it!

We set off at 8:30, a 30 minute delayed start because I was being chatty in the locker room (typical). Unfortunately, that 30 minutes would come back to bite me later, but no matter. The water, at 60 degrees, felt wonderful! I can’t express enough how lovely it is to swim without feeling that bone-chilling cold, and how grateful I am for having forced myself to endure it over the winter/spring. We turned right out of the Cove, heading for the Bay Bridge against the ebbing tide.

I’d been concerned before starting: would my shoulder hurt? Would I feel cold? Would I get too tired from being a little out of shape? With these concerns, we set our destination somewhere around Pier 27. But after the first feeding, I got into a groove. Pier 27 flashed past. Then the Ferry Building.  was about to turn me around, but I wanted to get to the Bay Bridge again. We went under the bridge at 1 hour and 28 minutes, around a span, and started back for the Dolphin Club.

I was certain that, given my speed, I’d make it back before the tide changed. Unfortunately, our late start, combined with a virtually non-existent slack period, added to me growing fatigued earlier than I expected due to the near month away from this sort of training, resulted in a similar scene to my 5 hour in June: at Pier 39, heading straight into a roaring flood amplified by the wind, I pretty much stopped moving. It took literally 15 minutes for me to cross the opening from the pier to the sea wall! At 3 hours even, I figured I’d accomplished what I’d set out to do, and I didn’t see any point in testing my shoulders further. So, with a serious lack of grace, I hauled myself over the side of the Kupuna and flopped like a fish to the bottom of the boat to have Neal spirit me back to the Club.

Well, my shoulder made it through all right! My 6 hour is now set for August 15, with a 3 or 4 hour swim every weekend leading up to it (with the exception of next weekend – it’s Trans-Tahoe Time!). I’m swimming surprisingly fast in the pool, I’m doing my shoulder exercises religiously, and I’m confident that, as long as I keep building up and don’t do anything stupid, I”ll be fit and fast come September 24.

My 5 hour swim on Saturday was incredible!  I had a blast, and I realized that I’m the luckiest girl ever.  I had so many wonderful people out supporting me – check out the support team breakdown:

In the Farrell – Reuben (Senior Pilot and navigator), Neal (Co-pilot and chef), and Daddy (photographer and videographer)

In the Arias – Dave (Captain and boat deflector), Mom (head cheerleader and occasional commando), and Old Grand Dad (champion open water swimmer and Laurin Fan).

We started at the Dolphin Club at 8:05am and headed toward the Bay Bridge.  Neal and my parents prepared a wonderful surprise for me in the form of large poster boards with uplifting or funny messages written on them.  Neal or my dad flashed them at me often during the swim.  So freakin’ cool!

30 minutes into the swim, I found my stride, and started flying.  The water was warm!  57-58 degrees, warm enough such that my hands did not splay for the entire swim!  After months of swimming with claws for hands, that alone was super exciting.

We passed under the Bay Bridge and continued on toward AT&T Park.  The sun came out from behind the clouds as we rounded the bend, and the stadium loomed above us, breathtakingly beautiful from the water.

Everything just went perfectly.  Neal warmed up my GU before putting it into the GU Gel Bot (an awesome contraption that allows you to have GU and a drink of your choice in the same vessel), so for the first time I was able to actually able to get the GU out of the Gel Bot and decreased my feeding time to about 25 seconds.  My friends and family cheered me on for the entire 5 hours, clapping, waving signs, laughing, making me feel strong and happy.  Dave made sure no boats ran me over.  The sun came out 2 hours in, warming my back as I swam.  I felt fast, I felt strong, I felt warm, and I felt loved.  I couldn’t help but smile as I swam.

Our only mishap was misjudging the currents – I ended up swimming into a very strong flood current.  But hey, fighting a crazy current is good training, too.

I’m humbled to know that so many people care about me and want to see me reach my goals.  It’s amazing how fun training can be when you have such a plethora of love and support.  A huge thank you to all of my supporters on Saturday!!

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It’s 8:30 on a gray, cold, misty Sunday morning.  I’ve only been swimming for an hour, and things are not going well.  I feel colder than I did at the end of my 3 hour swim 2 weeks ago, and  I’m starting to freak out a little – I’m supposed to do 4 hours today.  How on earth am I going to make it if I’m already this cold?

I try not to think about it, but 30 minutes later, my teeth start chattering.  I’ve never, never been so cold that my teeth chatter while swimming.

Neal waves me over to the boat and tosses me a bottle of hot jasmine tea laced with sugar.  It tastes and feels delicious.

“You’re doing great!  Your stroke rate is holding steady at 35 cycles per minute.”  I nod.

“I’m very cold,” I say softly.

“There are dolphins swimming with you!”  Reuben calls, his huge grin infectious.  “Just over there!”

I turn and see a flash of something dark and sleek a couple of yards away.   I can’t help but smile – I love dolphins.  Okay, suck it up, I tell myself.  The Bay Bridge looks so close.  You can at least make it there.

As I swim, the ebb hitting me full in the face and reducing my speed to a mere fraction of what it could be, I continue to deteriorate.  A war begins to rage in my head.  One voice tells me to be tough, to not give up, to keep going as long as possible.  The other voice tells me that I’m not tough enough, that this is the most miserable experience ever, that I hate being cold and am therefore clinically nuts to intentionally put myself in the path of hypothermia.

My arms keep turning over, and I keep moving forward.  I don’t want to let Rueben and Neal down – they didn’t get up at 6am on a Sunday to have me wimp out after 2 hours!  But that second voice keeps getting louder.  Reuben looks a little worried.  I don’t know it, but my lips look ashen.

I look up, and realize that we’ve made it to the Bay Bridge!  With relief, I ask if we can go home now.

“Almost – let’s just make it past the middle of the bridge,” Reuben coaxes me.

Inside, I’m raging at him.  Hello, I still have to get BACK to the Dolphin Club!  But okay, fine – I keep my mouth shut, put my head down, and keep swimming away from home.  I have to admit – now that I’m under it, the Bay Bridge looks really cool soaring above me.  The anger in my head abates.  The panicky feeling does not.

“Okay, Laurin, this is the fun part!” Neal calls.  He doesn’t need to elaborate – I now get to ride the ebb home!   I do a flip in the water to ease my hips and legs for a moment – they feel so stiff – and pop up swimming in the direction of the Club.  My teeth are chattering harder now, and shivers are running down my body, aching.  It’s hard to breathe through my clenched teeth.  Without waiting for the boat to turn around, I take off, sprinting in desperation for home.

In a few strokes, the boat pulls alongside me again.  Neal and Reuben smile encouragingly,  and I can see them clapping when I turn my head to breathe.  The cold feels like rivers of ice in my core.  I really, really want to climb into the boat and huddle on the floor under wool blankets while they power me back to the Club.

“I will not get in the boat.  I will not get in the boat.  I will get back to the Dolphin Club under my own power.  I will not get in the boat.”  I chant the mantra in my head like a broken record.  I don’t care now whether I make it to 4 hours or not.  My goal now is to maintain my pride: I don’t care about anything except not getting out of the water until I walk up the Dolphin Club beach.

We fly past the landmarks that seemed to go by so slowly the way out.  Alcatraz has never looked so beautiful.

3 hours and 5 minutes after my start, I stumbled gratefully out of the water and shivered up the Dolphin Club stairs to the sauna.  I tried not to be too upset with myself:  it wasn’t as though I’d just wimped out, letting my mind defeat me.  My body physically shut down in the cold, and I knew there was no way I could have stayed in another hour today.  I was proud of myself for not asking to be rowed home.  However, I also hadn’t made my 4 hour swim.  It was hard not to beat myself up over that.

Talking to Reuben over breakfast, I finally began to see today as a success, and not a failure.  I’d pushed myself farther than ever before, and I knew now that I could tolerate swimming while shivering with my teeth chattering for over an hour.  It’s good to know that about myself.  It’s good to feel out the edge of my limits and discover new physical landmarks.  Next time, I won’t be so scared.

I may have only barely surpassed my last swim, but I did it in much more difficult conditions:

• Water: 54 degrees (56 last time)
• Air:  52 degrees (66 last time)
• Sky:  dark and misty (bright and sunny last time) <– (okay, so that’s mostly mental, but it makes a difference!)

My conversation with Reuben reminded me that this is why we use “practice” as a synonym for “training.”  When you train, you push yourself into new territories, and you practice what the real event will be like.  Yes, I didn’t meet my goal this time.  But I pushed myself, I learned new things about myself, I learned that I could keep going when I feel miserable, and I didn’t give up.

I could not have done this well today without Reuben and Neal – thank you both so much!!