Dave was due to start swimming as the number 1 swimmer on the neap tide starting 13th August 2009. So if the weather behaved itself, he would swim on the 14th. Although the water temperature in August is ideal for channel swimming, the wind conditions are always unsettled and the chances of a swim being postponed by a few days are very high. 2 days before Dave was due to start running it was apparent that the unseasonal good weather over the channel would not last and it was unlikely that Dave would get to swim during his neap tide. We decided to bring his challenge forward by 2 days. After a mad flap by Dave re-arranging his support crew, we met at Marble Arch in the early hours of Monday 10th August in the McDonalds opposite Marble Arch. Even at this time of night, it was very humid and the city was still bustling with tourists and clubbers.
We started the challenge at exactly 2am. We had 3 support vehicles in tow. I always run the first 6 or 7 miles with the athlete as there are many underground subways and roundabouts to navigate in the city centre. Dave knew what pace to run at, as he had practiced this during many training sessions in the months prior to this challenge. With that said, it is still very easy to carried away during those first 10 miles and I had to slow Dave down a few times during this period (not because I couldn't keep up.... honest!)
Dave had carried a few injuries into this challenge, and I must admit that I was a little worried when I overheard one of his support crew say that he had been limping all morning before the start due to pain in his foot. Dave was is great spirits, and it wasn't long until he settled down into the 'ultra shuffle' and the miles began to fly by.
Dave's support crew were amazing. His wife Tracey, his children Madlin and George and his friend and Osteopath Dave all worked flat out, to help Dave along the 87 mile run route to Dover. Although starting at 2am had its advantages of less traffic, it did mean that all of us had gone without a full nights sleep before the race began. As we started to go into the second night without sleep, things started to get a little messy. There was a moment when Dave asked me why somebody had placed garden gnomes along the pavement. 'Gnomes?? They are weeds Dave coming out of the pavement'. Dave disagreed with me and then proceeded to bend down and pick a gnome up to show me. But the weeds were firmly rooted to the ground!! The Red Bull kept me going, but that didn't stop me seeing a Bride and Groom stood in the hedge bank. The bride's dress flowed about 15m behind her into the dirt gutter. I was just about to tell her to pick it up when I realized that the bride and groom was just a rubbish skip! I'm blaming that on old age!
With about 30 miles to go, Dave's quads began to break down and we knew at this stage that it was going to be a TAB all the way to Dover from here. Dave was in great spirits. We laughed and joked most of the way down. About 14 miles from home, Dave hit a real low patch. His core temperate dropped and he became disorientated. I have seen this many times before and I knew that he had to replaced the sodium he had lost. The Nuun tablets worked like magic tablets and within 30mins or so Dave was back on his feet making good progress.
After 27 hours, 51 minutes and 15 seconds, Dave completed his 87 mile run. Dave expressed how much he had enjoyed the run down to Dover, although the severe pain in his knee made things very difficult for him.
All we had to do now was wait for the boat pilot's nod that would allow us to swim at 2.40am on the Wednesday morning some 20 hours later. Chris (boat pilot) had to take another swimmer out before Dave. This Australian swimmer was due to swim on Tuesday morning, so we did not start running from London until we heard from Chris that he was definitely going to swim. I heard the bad news as we got close to Dover that the bad weather had come in early. This meant that the Australian would swim on the Wednesday and Dave would now swim on the Thursday. Although this gave Dave an extra 24 hours recovery between the run and the swim, it also meant that the chances of Dave breaking the world record had now gone. Another day passed by in the hotel and then we heard more bad news that the weather was still too windy to take the Aussie out on the Wednesday. Dave swim was now due Friday morning. Tension was high in the hotel as there is a 7-day cut-off for the event (to prevent the athlete from having too long a recovery between the run and swim, thus keeping the integrity of the event). Dave's last chance for a swim would be Saturday. So we could only afford from this point for the challenge to be delayed by one more day.
Good news finally came when we heard from another boat pilot that Chris had finally taken the Aussie out early on Thursday morning (although he only lasted a few hours in the huge swells that were created by the previous day's strong winds). Even better news came when we heard that the weather was now good until at least midnight on Saturday, giving us 40-hour weather window. I then confirmed times the boat pilot and arranged for Dave and his support crew to meet at the boat at 1am early on Friday morning (14th August).
The wait in Dover was eventful to say the least. I had brought my nephew Alex King with me to act as additional Enduroman support. Alex aged 14 is wanting to swim the channel when he is 16, so I was hoping that experiencing an attempt at the channel would give him a great deal of valuable knowledge to take away with him. Dave also had his teenage kids with him so as well as keeping an eye on the weather, we also had to keep them out of mischief!
Just when we had made all the plans and timings of the swim, we heard at 12.15pm on the Thursday from Chris that the Aussie had only lasted 3 hours in the water and that if we wanted to swim at 3.00pm the same afternoon, we would have better weather than our previous planned swim time. After Dave picked his jaw up from the ground in shock, the next 2 hours were spent packing bags, buying food and drink, loading up the support vehicles and making our way down to Dover marina for 2pm.
Wavey and George joined Alex and I on the boat whilst the remainder of the crew made their away across to Calais to meet us at Fort Risban.
After 57hrs 8mins 55secs of waiting in Dover, Dave finally started his swim from Shakespear Beach at 3pm. Conditions were near perfect. There was very little wind, however there was still a swell that was caused by the previous week's strong winds. Head down and with a turnover of 64rpm Dave headed towards the French coast. After Dave's first feed at 60mins, it was apparent that the flood tide coming in from the Atlantic Ocean was pushing Dave too far east. Although he had covered some good distance, most of it was not towards France, but east along the channel. After 2hrs, the boat pilot told me that he wasn't making enough ground and that there was no way Dave was going to be successful. From day 1 after I watched Dave swim, I told him that he was going to swim the English Channel, as long as he did exactly what I asked him to do in training. I knew his capabilities and we had run through every eventuality in training. After some polite
and direct
advice from myself, the boat pilot kept to pilotting and left me to look after Dave. After 3 hours of feeding every hour, we changed to feed him every 45mins. We had done this many times in training, and we knew exactly what solids Dave could stomach without chucking up. After 8 hours, we were about 1 mile from the half way mark. Conditions were still favourable, but now were were in darkness and Dave now had to swim through the night.
The last training training swim we did, was a 4 hour night swim, swimming head on into a Force 5 wind. I am a big fan of training harder and tougher than race conditions. As expected, Dave just got his head down and powered through the seas. Problems came when we reached the 10 hour point. We had passed half way using the slack water as an aid but when the flood tide came in we just head east at right angles to the Fench coast. I figured out that Dave needed to put some hard work in and cut into the tide instead of being carried by it in the wrong direction. I brought Dave in and said, 'I need you to sprint for 3 hours. If you do, we may be in position to make it though the tides some time later'.
After shoving half a packet of Jaffa cakes down his grid, Dave got his head down once again, picked his cadence up to 72rpm and started to cut through the tide. Dave managed to make up some lost ground, but not as much as I would have liked. After 3 hours I brought Dave back into the boat. 'Dave, you can steady the pace down now but listen carefully to what I'm about to say... if you continue to work hard now for 6 to 8 hours we will make it to France... if you don't you will not make it'. I saw the look on Dave's face drop. He had been swimming already for 14 hours. His longest training swim had been only 10 hours, and I was telling him to swim hard for another 8 hours. After some colourful language, Dave downed 4 jaffa cakes, 6 jelly babies, 500ml of sports drink and a cup of tea, and looked at the French coast, muffled something else under his breathe, and swam... and swam.... and swam.
For me, the last 6 hours of the swim were Dave's best. After 87 miles of running, 14 hours of swimming, there is only one type of athlete that will be able swim for another 6 hours, through some of the strongest tides in the world... an Enduroman! When we were around 400m from Calais beach, I joined Dave in the water and swam with him to the coast. I did this with Tom Beaver, and I can honestly say that these were my 2 favourite sporting moments of my life, including my own A2A. After Dave cleared the water, he collapsed. This is the mian reason someone needs to swim in with him as he was unable to stand on his own. After about 20mins of walking down the beach, and threatening to get customs to arrest Dave if he didn't swim back out to the boat, I finally pusuaded Dave to get back in the dirty blue stuff. Dave's swim time was 20hrs 2mins 29secs.
Dave's support crew were cheering Dave as he boarded the boat. I have watched the video footage of Dave climbing back into the boat. The first words that anybody said were from Wavey.... 'Well done Chunky Monkey'. Something you can show your Grandkids Dave! Wavey... you are a true mate 
. The 30mins boat jouney to the port was full of celebrations. An epic swim, completed by an outstanding athlete. The boat pilot showed me a map with Dave's route plotted on it. 'You don't see many like this Steve.... not succesful swims anyway'. No I thought, but it can be done. And it was done. With the right size gonads, anything can be done.
After a few hours sleep, Dave was on his bike enroute to Paris. The weather was really kind to us for most of the journey. At first, Dave had his mind set on braking Andy's bike split record. But as the fatigue from the past few days started to set it, Dave decided to enjoy the rest of the challange. As usual his support crew were dealing with Dave's needs. After a long stop at a McDonalds on the outskirts of Paris, Dave got back on his Bike 2 stone heavier, and began the 'glory phase' into the city centre. With one mile to go, his support dropped Dave and I off at the bottom of the Champs-Elysees so that they could all be at the finish before Dave. We sat down for 10mins and talked through what had been achieved. I then ran the last mle with Dave on his Bike until he reached the Arc de Triomphe.
And there we have it..... I bring you..... Enduroman no 6... Dave Farrell!!