Race Report by Steve Haywood:



Jay contacted me in early 2009 and expressed his wishes to attempt the Enduroman Arch to Arc. Once I found out that he was an ex Royal Marine officer, the banter commenced and it was clear that we were going to get on just fine. Jay started his swim training with Enduroman at the Enduroboat in Weymouth in March 2010. I always like to get the swimmers in the water whilst it is still below 8 degrees. Although most A2A athletes wear wetsuits, their body core temperature is significantly lowered by the 87 mile run that precedes the swim. When Jay jumps into the cold water on his big day I wanted him to remember the days when his balls shot up into his throat and to provide the reassurance that his race conditions were like a bath in comparison. Our first outing was in 6 degree water , and Jay swam with his throat full for about 20 minutes. We continued to build through the spring and by June he had swam his 6-hour qualification swim. Our training was complete and Jay smashed his 10 hour swim with 4 weeks remaining before his attempt.



In the 3 weeks before his attempt, the weather over the channel had been awful. Predictions had become impossible and even the most experienced boat pilots in the land said that he had never witnessed these conditions in the 40 years they had been taking swimmers across the blue stuff. No pilot had taken a swimmer out in the 2 weeks before his due date.

We had all been waiting for the high pressure that had been sitting in the Atlantic to move over the UK, but 'Hurricane Danielle; was causing havoc across our shores. Suddenly it looked like it was going to happen. Jay was due to start his swim at 01.30 on Monday 30th August 2010. There was a good chance that the high pressure would arrive by this time and an even better chance that it would happen by Tuesday.

We do not have the same luxury as 'normal' channel swimmers who can sit on the beach and be at an hours notice to move as the news of good weather arrives. We had the small matter of an 87 mile run to contend with, so we need to plan 72 hours in advance. No easy task when weather predictions over the channel can change in a matter of hours.

So we were faced with the option of setting off on the run, with the possibility that the weather would turn for the worse whilst running, or delay the run by 24 hours and risk missing the only swimmable day if the weather turned for the better. No brainer!

I met Jay and his support crew (Faye - partner, Anne - mother, Benjie - Brother), at Marble Arch at 7.30am on Saturday 28th August. Athletes can start their run a maximum of 48 hours before their allocated swim time. Jay chose to start 40 hours before, so we planned a 9.30am run start.



Jay was very nervous, but that was good. It was clear that his support crew was committed to the job and Benjie had the campervan equipment set out in a meticulous order (slight OCD issues), and Anne made the last minute adjustments to the vehicle's safety signs.

At exactly 9.30am, Jay began his journey from Arch to Arc. Game on! Saturday morning in London was busy, but the sun was out and Jay was looking good. Although he set off a little fast which is very common in this challenge, he soon settled down to pace of around 11 min / mile.  Jay stuck to his planned routine of 1 hour 50mins run, 10 mins rest to feed / change socks etc.  We hit the half way mark in just over 8 hours and everything was looking good.  I had briefed the team about the need for Jay to eat fat and salt throughout the challenge, and as the night approached, Jay showed his first signs of fatigue and nutrition issues.  After several stops at the chip shop for chips, battered cod and battered sausage, Jay picked up the pace and he was flying once again.  Benjie, who is connected with sports nutrition giants Lucozade, agreed that the best product they could design for the Ultra athlete would be a Lucozade fish in Carb laced batter!



With around 24 miles to go, Jay broke into a walk, which he sustained for the remainder of the run arriving in Dover after 22:12:43 hours.  Off to bed Jay went, while his support crew started sorting out his kit for the swim in about 18 hours time and started looking at the weather charts to see if the weather had improved or not.

Unfortunately, once I had spoken with the boat pilot around 7.00pm that evening, it was clear that the swim would not take place on time, nor would it happen on the split tide around 12 hours after that.  Although the possibility of breaking the world record was gone, Jay took advantage of eating as much food as he could and sleeping more than I had done over the last month!  At 7.00pm the following evening, I had made the decision that although the forecast was variable force 3 and 4 N/NE winds, it was the best that was going to be on offer that week.

We met the boat pilot around 00:30, and shortly later we were sailing around to Samphire Ho to start the swim.  Jay had swam during the night at the Enduroboat in Weymouth so there was never going to be an issue starting at this time of night.  The forecast was that the air temperature would drop to as little as 3 degrees during the night, but again, Jay and I had been out training several times during the winter in conditions far worse than that.  He was more than prepared. 



We fed Jay as we had done in training all year.  The first feed after 1 hour, then every 45 minutes after this.  Sports drinks on every feed sometimes topped up with some warm water to take the chill off it, and solids every other feed using a combination of bananas, tinned fruit and jelly babies. 

During training, we teach the swimmer not to ask any questions.  They do not need to know where they are going, or how far they have swam, or how many miles they have left to swim.  They just have to swim and stay with the safety boat.  We do this because so many things can change out at sea.  The swimmer may only be half a mile away from the French coast, but due to the tides and wind they can not swim in a direct line and may have to swim 5 miles to make it into shore. 

Jay had been swimming for about 9 hours.  He had kept his cadence at around 52-56, and his work effort had been the best I had ever seen him swim.   Jay kept looking ahead towards France and could see Cap Gris Nez getting closer and closer.  We were getting pulled to the East by the Ebb tide and the longer Jay swam for, the further away the Cap was getting away from us.  This is totally normal during a channel swim, and we needed to wait for the tide to change in around 3 hours time.  Sometimes unpredictably, after the tide changes it makes little difference to the swim because the opposing tide had been very strong.  This is the reason the swimmer just has to swim with the boat.  If we explain what we hope to happen, and due to mother nature it doesn't happen, this often breaks the swimmer and the challenge is over.



Jay was becoming frustrated and asked why were not making any progress.  All the team were encouraging Jay just to keep pushing on but after a few dummies were thrown out of his wetsuit, I explained what was happening with the tides.  I was hoping that I would not regret this but when the the time came for the tide to change, and nothing happened, it was clear that we were not going to get pushed back onto the Cap.  (This was due to the fact that too much water had been forced by the winds from the Atlantic to the North Sea over the last few days, so when the Atlantic tide was due to happen, there wasn't enough water in the Atlantic to push Jay i the direction that we wanted).

For the next 2 hours, Jay had a constant mental battle going on but we kept telling him to forget where the land was and just swim with the boat (Even the boat pilot joined in at one point!).  We were taking a more direct route towards the coast and with about 400m to go, I dived in the warm waters and swam with Jay.  After 14:09:12 hours, I helped Jay back down from the sharp edged rocks that he needed to climb up to clear the water, and swam back out to the boat.

It took around 90mins to sail into Calais port where we met the rest of the support crew that had caught the ferry across.  Now that chasing the record was not an option, Jay decided to take the full 12-hour recover before starting the bike the following morning at 03:39:39am.

Jay rode the bike course with a different attitude to those that I have seen before.  Usually, if the record is not an option, the cyclist takes every opportunity to take breaks in cafes etc in an attempt to enjoy the 'finishing straight' of the challenge.  Jay just got his head down, keeping to this routine 2-hour efforts with short breaks.  This is a testament of Jay's character and drive and I admired him greatly for it.  After 16:32:33 hours of cycling, Jay arrived at the Arc de Triomphe completing the challenge in 102:42:12 hours.



Enduroman No 7....  we salute you!  Welcome to the club.

Steve
Enduroman No 4