The Beginning

On July 5th, 2002 at the age of thirty years, six months, I stepped into the ocean for the first time in my life. A day trip to Jones Beach while visiting my sister Julie and her family. I cannot adequately describe the feeling of swimming in the ocean for the first time. The sense of freedom and awe as I looked out over the horizon, wondering what lay beyond my sight. I began to swim out farther and farther, my husband, Tom, yelling at me from the beach, "Emily.....come back!". I reluctantly turned around and headed back to the beach to save Tom from a massive anxiety attack. Upon my return to our shared beach blanket I made this declaration, "Someday I'll swim the English Channel.". To this day, I'm not sure where the notion came from. Had I read something about this as a child or seen a movie whose random scene was locked away in my subconscious? My family, of course, told me I was crazy for even thinking that.....typical reaction.

I entertained this thought for a few days then let it pass as nothing more than a delusional notion.

Flash forward to 2008, my birthday. Tom and I went to dinner and a movie to celebrate. Our movie choice was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I thoroughly enjoyed the show and connected with the thought that if you're unhappy with your life, change it, if you want to do something, do it. The moment the clip was shown of his old love interest having crossed the English Channel.....that particular notion was rekindled in my addled brain.

Over the next few months, I would casually mention this life goal in conversation, more as a "someday I'll do this" comment than a true committment. I had no idea how far it was, what the typical conditions were and the training required to tackle this feat. I began to do some light research on the internet. I gathered a few facts, enough to be dangerous, and convinced myself that I could do it.....no problem..... with the proper training by the time I turn 50 years-old. I added this to my "bucket list" along with several crazy goals and tucked it away again.

Spring 2009, I was having a business lunch with our corporate tax accountant, my boss, and a co-worker. We were discussing individual vacation plans for the summer and my family happened to be scheduled for a return trip to "our" rustic cabin in the Porcupine Mountains in the upper peninsula of Michigan. This sparked interest in my lunch companions and they began to wonder just what I consider fun. If I think hiking 3.5 miles to a cabin with all my supplies strapped to my back where I'll be rewarded with a stiff cot, no electricity, no running water, and the only "modern" facility being an outhouse, is a fun thing to do.....then what else do I consider a good time? So, I proceeded to share some of my "to do before I die" list. Among them, skydiving, BASE jumping, backpacking through Europe, and swimming the English Channel. My co-worker, Randy, piped in and offered to be my "coach" for the English Channel swim. I thought to myself, what can this 50-year-old, pudgy, smoker teach me about swimming? Come to find out, Randy was an all-state swimmer in high school and coached swim team for 9 years!! A coincidence? I don't think so!

I agreed to let Randy be my coach and started to look forward to my goal. I started to do some more extensive research on swimming the English Channel, gathered a few more facts, and tucked the thought away again.

Over the course of the next few months, I began to enter into a funk......I stopped feeling joy in ANYTHING in my life. I wasn't unhappy per-se but I wasn't happy either. Work was work, chores were chores, cooking was necessary, life was life... I decided I needed to make a change, have a new focus, a new purpose to spur me through this time. Enter the English Channel.....again.

On August 28th, 2009 I came home from work and posted my goal on Facebook with training to officially begin January 2010 and the feat to be accomplished by 2015. Pathetic? Maybe, but I knew in order to make a true committment and really stick to it I needed to know that I had told anyone who cared about me that this is what I'm planning to do. Goals and dreams, unvoiced, are easy to forget and allow to slip past without a second thought. After posting, I proceeded to hunt the world wide web for help.... tips on training, what to realistically expect, cost, rules, dangers, successes and failures.

I made contact with a woman, Karen Burton Reeder, whose resume blew me away. Gold medalist, successful channel crossing in 9 hours, 4 minutes on her first attempt, record holder for fastest time crossing the Catalina Channel, the list goes on. She was gracious enough to take time to talk with me over e-mail and offer some advice and background. I proceeded to order two books written by women who have crossed the English Channel, a competition swimsuit, goggles, and a swim cap. On my way.....right?

While I waited for these items to arrive, I found the site for the local YMCA and checked out the lap schedule for the pool. I had initially wanted to start my training in January, but the excitement began to build so that I couldn't wait any longer. I decided that, since I had the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics coming up, why wait to begin? I thought that if I started training right away, I could probably not only "plunge" for Special Olympics but swim for Special Olympics, as long as the water's not TOO cold. Knowing that I couldn't just jump in the lake and cross without having done any recent swimming, I decided that a few workouts a week would be enough to get me ready.

Step one - quit smoking.....something I haven't mentioned yet. I have been a casual, closet smoker for about 20 years, on and off, with up to a 5 year break in-between times. I typically smoked 3-4 cigarettes a day.....not much, right? I knew that this habit would have to be given up if I was to succeed. I quit on Wednesday, September 2nd.

Step two - head to the YMCA the first Saturday I could to test the waters and see what I can do. My swimming history consists of swimming lessons followed by lifeguard training from age 4 to age 14, member of a diving team from age 12-13, lots of time spent in area lakes and town pools from the teen years through early 20's. No competitive swimming history......at all.

My gear arrived on September 4th, yipee! Up early Saturday morning for a trial run.

Predictions -
1. I'll get in the pool, run out of breath halfway through the first lap, ask myself "what the hell am I thinking?", and get out.....dejected and depressed.
2. I'll get in the pool, swim a couple of laps, realize how out of shape I am but reset my determination to follow through.
3. I'll get in the pool, swim like a fish, complete 40 laps and exit feeling refreshed and resetting my goal for 2013 instead of 2015.