031: Beth French swims the English Channel

Beth French and I chat about her swim across the English Channel in July 2012.

Growing up in England she says she's known about swimmers crossing the English Channel.

Swimming across large bodies of water isn't a foregone conclusion for Beth - as a child she had glandular fever. In the states we call this Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Beth calls the English Channel the Everest of Open Water Swims.

We talk a lot about the logistics of how you even schedule an English Channel Swim.

We talk about swimming in cold water. (brrr).

We talk about the challenge of dealing with the tidal pattern and the fickle English weather.

You can find general information and tips at http://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/

We talk about training for this long swim. She calls her training "random sporadic torture."

Beth explains to me how the route for the swim is arranged and how the tides affect the route.

I learned that Channel swims sometimes start in the middle of the night. She shares a good tip of the Varne Ridge Holiday park which is a great place for Channel swimmers to stay. http://www.varne-ridge.co.uk/

We talk about swimming at night and how you navigate the swim in the dark?

Beth swam for 15 hours and 6 minutes. We talk about nutrition for a swim that long. We also talk about weight gain before the swim.

Beth explains how her emotions affect how she feels about time during the race.

We talk about landing in France and how you get back to England when you're done.

The distance is 22 miles if you swim it in a straight line but Beth says the average swimmer will add about 1/3 of the distance to that.

I asked Beth what were some good resources for swimmers who want to swim the English Channel. She recommended the Channel Swimming Pilot Federation www.cspf.co.uk and also the Channel Swimmers Facebook Group.

Lastly we chat about her next challenge which is called the Oceans 7 Challenge. She wants to complete all 7 of these in one year.

You can follow at www.bethfrench.co.uk  She is on Facebook as Beth French on twitter @bethsbigswim crowdfunder.co.uk/oceans7

Thank you to Lucy for introducing me to Beth French.

Be sure to follow my adventures at www.amysaysso.com