Rosanna- English Channel

Read Rosanna’s epic blog she wrote

for Swim People.

"On Monday 12th July 2021, at 00:19 I set out, as part of the Aspire Wolfhounds team, to swim the Channel. 14 hours and 55 minutes later we made it to France, and I have to say it is one of the most intense and emotional things I have ever done.

“It’s dirty, there are ships, there are jellyfish, there are strong currents – why would you want to swim in that? That’s a very good question and one that I have been asked many times. For me, it has been a long personal journey to improve in swimming, having never excelled at sport as a child (do read my first blog for the full story).

“Swimming the Channel is an iconic swim, one that I would never have dreamt I would be capable of doing, and yet something which I thought would be amazing to do. Over the past few years, as I have swum longer open water distances and improved, the pipe dream felt like it might be something I could consider and last year, when most of my work was cancelled my diary was strangely empty and I thought if not now, then when.

“Having signed up, I had to do my assessment swim in October before the threat of further lockdowns. The reason swimming has been such an enjoyment over the last 10 years is because it has been on my own terms with my own goals and no sense of competition, therefore the thought of going to a pool and being timed against others filled me with absolute dread. But I did it and swam a good time for me.

“On December 17th, I got the call and found out I had been accepted. I felt very excited and slightly petrified too. I gave myself a pep talk – I am more resilient than I have ever been, fitter than I have ever been and pushed myself to do something that I really wanted to do, despite my fears around it. I felt very proud of myself and knew I would need to keep reminding myself of this over the coming months.

“One thing I do know about myself is that I am all or nothing. Once I commit to something, I am all in. I knew I wanted to train hard so that I was the best I could be. As part of a relay team, I’d be one of six and I wanted to go in and not feel like I had let anyone down. I realised this was one of my biggest fears – the fear of letting people down. Of course, there were lots of things I couldn’t control about what would happen on the day, but I knew I could control how much time mentally and physically I committed, to be in best possible shape.

“It wasn’t an easy six months – at the beginning of January all pools and open water venues shut in the UK until the end of March. As a Londoner, I was nowhere near the coast, so it meant three months of land-based training. And to add to the challenges, my work went crazy, having barely worked for the previous 11 months which brought with it constraints on my time.

“It taught me that barriers can help you be creative. I incorporated land-based strengthening exercises into my morning stretch – something I continue to do every day. In some ways, I think I may have neglected land-based exercises if I had swum throughout, so I feel that I am stronger for having done both.

“For the past 10 years, I have managed to swim three times a week through all my busy work periods as I know it allows me to do my job better. From April to July, I managed to up this to six times a week, around a punishing work schedule. Admittedly it meant I didn’t have room for much else other than work and swimming, but I was pleased with myself that however tired I felt, I pushed myself to do it.

“We were told to incorporate swimming drills into our training. I am sure, for lots of you reading this, that doesn’t sound scary but for someone who has never done drills, I found it very intimidating. I looked them up and they might as well have been written in a foreign language! It took time to interpret them or find ones that were written in plain English. Once I got over this hurdle, I incorporated drills into my pool swims and saw a huge improvement in my speed and strength.

“I was also very self-aware and any time I felt nervous or worried about the swim, I wrote about it, did some breathing, or ironically went for a swim to help me prepare mentally.

“From May, we had training weekends in Dover. It was great to meet the whole team and our boat leader in person, and train in the sea. I was shocked to discover the huge difference in temperature between my local reservoir and the sea in Dover! May was about getting used to the temperature, June was about our assessment and a taster boat experience and July was about putting it all together and pushing ourselves so that we felt like we had done it all before the actual day. The one thing I take away from those weekends was the supportive environment – I was really touched when my fellow teammate allowed me to swim before her on our taster boat, as she sensed how nervous I was feeling. Of course, as is often the case, the nerves and anticipation are far worse than the actual thing – once I was swimming, I was as happy as anything!

“I learnt that I should keep doing what I was doing, improving in my own way and that I should not compare myself to others. I am still haunted by my sporting fears, but I am very aware of them and try and channel them into excitement. I knew I wanted to do this, and I also knew I had worked hard to do it. I often gave myself a reality check as lots of my fears were based on a version of me from 10 years ago and I wasn’t giving myself enough credit for the 2021 version of me. I also needed to realise the context of my situation - I was now swimming with some very fast swimmers so despite sometimes still feeling slow, it was more a case of the fact that I was swimming in faster circles! When I went back to the pool, it was easy to see my marked improvement and I needed to credit myself for what I had become.

“On the day, we were all nervous, it was dark, and I don’t think any of us knew what we had let ourselves in for. It is a long time to be on a small boat and the howling rain meant that we spent several hours couped up inside the cabin. I’m not sure I realised how tough the conditions would be. I thought I swam well on my first swim but afterwards realised we hadn’t made enough ground which was disappointing, but the challenge was set for my next swim. It is a very intense situation and there are a lot of factors out of your control, so I needed to give it my best shot. My second swim was much better, and I was exhausted afterwards – a new phenomenon for me this year, as swimming has always been about relaxing and chilling out! The last 4 hours was punishing when we could see France, but it didn’t feel like we were moving any closer. When we touched France after 14 hours and 55 minutes, there were tears in my eyes. It was such an amazing feeling.

“Why put yourself through it? For me, it was something I never imagined I could do and to have done it feels incredible. It’s improved my swimming and I have made some friends for life. I also raised £4,750 for Aspire, which is a spinal injuries charity very close to my heart.

“Over the past five years, I have embraced discomfort in my life as I believe that it is the path to personal growth. I certainly feel that this experience has helped me grow as a person and will encourage me to take on more challenges.

“I have been overwhelmed by the support that I received on this journey. Of course, the donations were amazing but also the emotional support, words of encouragement, encouraging me not to doubt myself and believing in me. On the day knowing that people were thinking of me and tracking me (a lot of them obsessively!!) was such a lovely feeling. It was truly unbelievable, and I feel very lucky to have such an amazing community around me.

“Back in February when I met the team on Zoom and I was feeling anxious about it all, I wrote something which I still believe to be true today “Every swim I have ever done has made me happier, stronger, braver and better equipped to conquer the world.”

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