Carlos (Team Captain) had first leg and was threading his way nicely out of the city of London.  Change over one to Chris went smoothly as expected. It was obvious to me (Enduroman No 1 Ette Ette) from the outset that these guys knew their stuff which would mean a very enjoyable experience for us all.  Kev the team’s driver had massive experience.  An ex Marine with a calming, jovial way.   I was at ease and keen to see them achieve.  

The run progressed very well with all team members running between 7 and 9 miles an hour. The banter soon started, these guys were enjoying themselves.  Every member of the team supported each other on every change over and each doing their bit kept the change overs quick and smooth. The weather remained good (very hot) until late afternoon then as the air cooled the runners pace got even quicker as we approached Dover. The run stage took 10 hours 07minutes in total. It was a little before 11pm and we had arrived at Dover Sea front. Team BMF were about an hour quicker than anticipated and being unable to start the swim earlier because of the tide, they used the time to shower and prepare the swim/boat kit prior to loading/embarking the Channel swim support boat (Pace Arrow).

At approx 01.00 on 1/7/10 team and kit on board, Pace Arrow left Dover Marina to motor to the swim start. The swim started below Abbots Cliff next to Sanfire Hoe (a nature reserve made from the spoil of Channel tunnel diggings). Nigel was the first swimmer which meant he would have to jump off the back of the boat (in darkness) swim approximately 100mts from the boat to the shore before turning around to enter the English Channel for the start the official swim.

The swim started at 01.36 on 1^st July 2010.  Nigel swam into the English Channel in complete darkness. No Moon visible, only the small lights on the boat to guide the way. The team were as ever supportive but I could feel some nerves. These men have army history and on land I believe unstoppable but the water and tide in the English Channel is a great leveler and to add to that the first 3 one hour swims were in the dark.  Some of the team had to overcome seasickness which came on almost immediately after their first swim. Being sick on a wet deck with not much space, the others had to watch them suffer. Some of the team suffered more than others but team spirit and support for each other held fast. No one complained, even though I could see the thought of going back into the sea was not great.  After the first few hours it looked as if the swim could take as long as 18 to 20 hours, they were not liking the swim section, but as expected the team and individual strength of character that each member showed as every single team member  improved and did a better during the second swim than first. The team achieved the very respectable time of 15 hours 04 minutes seeing Andy landing on the sand and pebbles at Sangatte. He even bought a present back to the boat as keep sake for each team member “six pebbles”.  As soon as Andy was on the boat, we motored directly to Calais Port to meet the support vehicles and start the bike leg.  40 minutes later the team were disembarking and giving thanks for being on dry land and saying goodbye to Paul the skipper.  Once on dry land the team went into action and produced a 13 minute transition (incredible). The kit was in vans, bikes in order of change over and we were on the road to Paris after a few hours. All in the van knew the record belonged to BMF. Was that enough  for Carlos? No! Carlos (team Captain) had just finished talking with me and he made it clear he would like to see the team at the Arc de Triomphe in less than 40 hours.  That meant maintaining an average pace of around 17mph until arrival and bearing in mind the pace into Paris can be painfully slow this was quite a big ask.  The BMF team had not slept more than the odd power nap in the last 24hrs and had pushed the previous two disciplines as hard as they could but when asked about the 40hr goal we were well up for keeping momentum and were happy to oblige.  

The traffic and the wind were kind to the team and after some fantastic cycle stages the team arrived at Arc de Triomphe at 04.25 BST to become the Enduroman World Arch to Arc World Record holders.